We caught up with Flash Atkins for a chat around his new project ‘Sanza Mibale Ya Bo Pemi’ that’s just been released on the mighty Paper Recordings.
Flash Atkins, the disco-loving alter ego of Ben Davis, has long been a driving force behind the sound and spirit of Paper Recordings. Whether crafting deep, floor-focused house, championing emerging talent, or stepping behind the camera for the acclaimed documentary Northern Disco Lights, Davis has always blurred boundaries between music, culture, and storytelling. With his latest EP Sanza Mibale Ya Bo Pemi landing on Paper Recordings, he pays tribute to the golden age of afro disco, weaving live instrumentation, vibrant vocals, and club-ready energy into a sound that feels both timeless and fresh.
Flash Atkins photo by Simon King
The original mix of ‘Samza Mibale Ya Bo Pemi’ is an all out fiery afro disco affair with a plethora of live instrumentation, enchanting, colourful vocals and grooving bass lines and wonderful starlit keyboard melodies. The Flash dub concentrates on the original groove, stripping things back to an enthused live jam that highlights extra solos that really drive home the musicality included. Bosq’s Boogie Bounce mix is a more broken beat affair with layers of afro percussion, driving a joyous ride right up to the breakdown that gives that much needed break from nodding your head. A dub version follows, bringing things to a more focuses rhythm before the EP closes with an instrumental of the Bosq Boogie Bounce mix.
We sat down with him to talk about collaborations, label life, and the creative threads that tie his journey together.
- Your new EP Sanza Mibale Ya Bo Pemi pays tribute to the golden age of afro disco. What inspired you to explore that sound?
My DJ sets these days go all over the place, and a decent chunk of that is music that is from, or tips a hat to Africa and its diaspora. I’ve been gravitating towards the sound for quite a while now, starting with Fela and Tony Allen many years ago. There are so many amazing re-issues coming out from labels like Soundway, Strut and Analogue Africa that it is hard to keep up, and they are all brilliantly curated. Add to that amazing new music from all over the continent, with Nyege Nyege Tapes getting a special mention. Their output is a huge inspiration. I now have an afro-inspired band called BOM Nation to put our own spin on it.
With regards to Sanza Mibale Ya Bo Pemi, I’ve been wanting to do a fully live release for a while and doing something afro disco was more appealing than a straight up disco track.
- Felix Ngindu sings in Lingala on the record. How did the collaboration come about and what did he bring to the project?
I was after a singer who would fit the bill and the Paper Recordings family network/ Facebook hive mind kicked in. Gary Cooke (Kooky & Damoon) taught Felix in Liverpool, put us in touch and he was up for it. It’s been the start of a great relationship as he’s also an incredible drummer and is now part BOM Nation. He’s absolute star.
- You pulled in live musicians on congas, brass, keys and guitar. What is your approach to blending live instrumentation with club-ready production?
There’s always an urge to do bits of programming to beef and tighten things up, but the only non-live thing on this is a really low kick. I wanted it to sound like a band had been recorded playing live together in a venue, so everything has a subtle small room reverb. Hopefully there’s an energy and vibe that means it fits in with most sets that are a more free flowing.
- Bosq remixed the track for the EP. Why was he the right person to reinterpret it?
He was my first choice as he’s such an amazing producer. There’s rarely a set when I don’t play one of his tracks or remixes. I wanted someone who would catch the vibe but give it their own spin, which he’s done brilliantly, giving it a Latin / tropical slant and adding his own instrumentation. He’s also an absolute gent.
- The release also includes your stripped-back Flash Dub. How important is it to you to create DJ-friendly versions of your tracks?
I nearly always end up doing a Flash Dub. My productions can be quite dense, with lots of layers, so it’s fun to strip stuff out and distil it down to basics. Having done all the work in the main version, often having spent weeks or months sweating over a track, I can normally knock the dub off in a session. The best club music is the simplest and often they are the mixes I end up playing the most, especially when the rooms or systems are a bit bigger.
- You have been central to Paper Recordings for years. How does running the label influence your own creative output?
It gives me creative freedom and I don’t have to worry about trying to shop my music around. I’m a bit of a control freak too so it means I have got my finger on every part of the release process. Having said that, I do wonder if it may work against me sometimes as releases may not reach people outside the Paper fan base. Tom Lonsborough and I have another project Flash Beats that is big main room house. Some of the tracks we’ve done are pretty tough and not very Papery, so we’re going to shop them around.
- Beyond music, you directed Northern Disco Lights: The Rise and Rise of Norwegian Dance Music. What motivated you to tell that story?
We just fell into the film making really. Myself and Paper Pete had a meeting with a Norwegian funding agency to try and get some money for one of our artists and thought we’d better have some more ideas in our back pocket just in case. Making a film on the history of Norwegian dance music was one of them. We didn’t get the band money but when we mentioned the film, they were very enthusiastic so we thought, why not? We had been doing the label for a long time and looking for a new challenge for a while, but nothing had really stuck. This fitted the bill perfectly. I went on a provisionary filming excursion in Norway and hooked up wlth a Tromsø camera person Terje Rafaelsen who was a friend of Rune Linbaek. We got on like a house on fire, agreed to do a co-production and we were all set. Pete and I had zero experience but looking back, our naivety worked in our favour as we just got on with it.
- Did your experience as a filmmaker change the way you think about storytelling in your music?
That is something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently and the two albums I’ve done have both told stories. Flash Atkins’ ‘The Life and Times’ told the fairly bonkers tale of his life. I wrote and printed a limited edition fanzine / comic that went with it and each chapter was a song title that the music loosely corresponded with. From being dumped on the doorstop of the Levenshulme Orphange For Boys, inventing house music at the Hacienda on Acid House Creator, living in Mark E Smith’s flat in Saved By The Fall and so on. It was a way to have some fun with the concept and do some other stuff creatively. I called my leftfield, downtempo Stubb album Canopy as it was themed around trees and their healing power spiritually and ecologically. There is an incredible wood at the back of my house that I was very inspired by; I did some field recordins, including the dawn chorus and made a track about it. I read an interview with someone a while ago where they said we all have a responsibility to use whatever skill set we have to do we can about the climate emergency. So whatever I do now, I try and steer towards that; my last EP was called F.B.O. that stands for Fuck Big Oil! Whether the film-making has had an impact I’m not sure..maybe!
- Looking back, what have been the biggest turning points in your career so far?
Being one of the people who started Paper was undoubtably the biggest. After that, not a turning point as such but having Giles Peterson play Drug Empire on his 6 Music show was huge on a personal basis as it gave me a big confidence boost for my music. When I heard it, I ran into the kitchen and my wife asked me if I was OK as I’d gone pale. Every track I do, at the back of my mind is ‘would Giles play it?’. Making Northern Disco Lights was huge as it threw me in to completely different direction and opened up some amazing opportunities. More recently, we’ve started playing live with BOM Nation which feels like the start of a new chapter. We’ve only done four gigs but they have been getting better and better; the last one properly went off and there were concerns the floor was going to give out due to the bouncing. It feels like there’s real potential and I’ve very excited about where it could go.
10. And finally, what do you hope people feel when they hear Sanza Mibale Ya Bo Pemi on a dance floor for the first time?
If it makes people want to bust some moves and make them smile, that’ll do for me!
You can buy ‘All Stars EP 1: Sanza Mibale Ya Bo Pemi’ via Flash Atkins Bandcamp page here.
