“North London Pace” finds Blue Lab Beats in concise, road-tested form. London partners NK-OK (Namali Kwaten) and Mr. DM (David Mrakpor) shape clipped piano figures and snare–hat syncopation into 1970s jazz-funk changes, keeping a hip-hop backbeat as the anchor. Brazilian points of reference are explicit: electric-piano voicings and short, rising synth phrases echo Banda Black Rio, Tania Maria and Azymuth.

The duo’s story is London-grown. Friends since their teenage years in community music programmes, they built a studio partnership that moved from local sessions to international stages. Their catalogue now includes Xover (2018), Motherland Journey (2022) and Blue Eclipse (2024); along the way they earned a Grammy for production on Angélique Kidjo’s Mother Nature, the Jazz FM Innovation Award, and MOBO nominations.

For “North London Pace”, NK-OK and Mr. DM are joined by Benji Appiah on drums, Isobella Burnham on bass, Amal Shaham on guitar, Camilla George on saxophone, Josie Campbell on cello, Rebekah Reid on violin and Annette Walker performing tap dance.

Arriving after a sold-out Jazz Café headline, the single marks the run-up to a fifth studio album due in 2026.