Leeds in 2007 is a vibrant place to be. For a couple of years now it’s been the musical hotbed of the North, and now Stateless emerge to push the city’s sound in a new direction. Ethereal melodies, intricate, uncompromising beats and vocals that haunt and uplift in the space of a breath combine to make the Stateless sound. Couple this with the fact that they have recently signed to very cool Berlin label !K7, and the future’s looking very bright for Stateless…Leeds’s Stateless, beats’n’piano-based architects of scratch’n’swoon electro-song-hop are proud new signings of !K7, the Berlin-based electronica label.First up comes the limited edition 7 inch of ‘Exit’ which unfurls on a velveteen cushion of string samples and loose beats all underpinning Chris’s fuzzed up languid vocals...Perfectly setting out the Stateless stall.So what are Stateless? At base level, they’re a proper gang of five buddies from school-age. Connections are tight, in other words. In more detail, Chris is the 25-year-old singer with soul to spare, who’s performed on record and live with DJ Shadow. David (drums) is a former teenage rocker who once played in a band he pitches as a “younger, better-looking version of Soundgarden” with Justin, the bassist and backing singer who harmonises just nicely with Chris.

Then, the integral trimmings. Kidkanevil can leap 13 flaming turntables and emerge with samples intact. And then there’s Rod Buchanan-Dunlop, who does – well, what? “It’s hard for people to understand what Rod does,” Dave muses.

“I’m still sometimes not sure but I know it’s important! He’s the crazy-haired genius of the band: He plays keys and does a lot of the samples and loops we have live. He’s also the main producer and mixer.”     As for how to pin Stateless down without reference points, “cine-tronic soul-hop for troubled times” is something like it. But there’s nothing pretencious about them, either, so let’s pass the microphone to Roots Manuva ‘I thought I was deep, but these fuckers are really deep.’ We’ll have that…

The album is incoming set for release in June.

TRACK LISTING EXIT 7"
a Exit
b Hurricane

TRACK LISTING EXIT CDM
1. Exit (radio edit)
2. Exit (album version)
3. Hurricane
Stateless