Zugzwang (Peaky Beats Remix) 
Nikitch & Kuna Maze

Peaky Beats propels Nikitch & Kuna Maze’s “Zugzwang” into a dirty UKG weapon.

Leeds-based producer and self-styled record label, Peaky Beats adds his magic touches of heavy and dirty bass to France-via Brussels duo Nikitch & Kuna Maze’s broken-jazz tune “Zugzwang”, propelling the original into a UK garage / UKG weapon. Taken from Nikitch & Kuna Maze’s sophomore album ‘Back & Forth, a record bestrewn with references to Edouard aka Kuna Maze’s passion for the game of chess – “Zugzwang” is a term for where you wish you could skip your turn and let your opponent play because all the moves available to you are detrimental. “We are all Zugzwang in our life sometimes” Edouard jokes.

The Peaky Beats edit follows a remix from the pioneer producer and go-to selector of the Broken Beat movement – IG Culture, co-founder of the legendary Coop club at London’s Plastic People, who flipped Nikitch & Kuna Maze’s jazz-funk “507 Miles High” into a bruk-anthem, for a rare remix under his primary IG Culture alias.

Building on the signature sounds the duo developed on their first full-length LP ‘Débuts’ – that was praised by the likes of Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft (BBC 6Music) and Okayplayer – ‘Back & Forth’ is a deeper and more radically aesthetic approach to its predecessor. Nikitch & Kuna Maze expand on their soulful and subtle combination of jazz-flavours and the syncopated beats of broken beat and UKG; the album sees the duo working with collaborators for the first time, such as Brazilian singer-songwriter Joao Selva, while also experimenting with their own vocal material.

Influenced by the likes of John Carroll Kirby, Kaidi Tatham, Byron The Aquarius and Moodymann, the duo continues to explore the intersection between jazz and club culture, demonstrated by the sheer musical variety present on the album, spanning from house to broken beat, brit-funk, Brazilian, jazz-funk, and more.