Foraging is the new full-length from The Blassics Experiment, a studio offshoot of Finnish groove collective The Blassics, and it sounds exactly like its title suggests: a deliberate wander through undergrowth, roots and hidden clearings in search of the ripest rhythmic material. Released on Funk Night / Odd Funk Records as a limited 12-inch LP, the album collects eight instrumentals that stretch the band’s affection for raw funk, Ethiopian jazz inflections and dubwise production into a looser, more exploratory shape. Where earlier Blassics records often aimed straight at the dancefloor, Foraging drifts a little further from the main path, letting mood and texture share top billing with the breaks. Recorded in their analog-heavy Odd Funk Studio, the album plays like a single session broken into chapters, with track titles forming a mycelial narrative: “Quite Crispy Vision,” “Limit States,” “Shadows In Motion,” “Foraging Berries,” “Foraging Fungi,” “Moss Perception,” “Feeling Dawn” and “Riding With Wahid.” The palette is classic Blassics - chewy drums, thick electric bass, horns and guitars run through tape, organs and synths set just this side of overdrive - but the feel is a touch dreamier, more cinematic. “Shadows In Motion,” already teased via a video from Funk Night, rides a loping, mid‑tempo groove under foggy keys and guitar stabs, like a lost soundtrack cue for a nocturnal chase through the trees. Shorter pieces “Foraging Berries” and “Foraging Fungi” work as miniature field notes: compact, loop‑friendly vignettes that zoom in on a particular pattern or timbre before disappearing back into the forest.

The production, as ever with The Blassics, is as important as the playing. Everything is tracked live to tape, giving the drums a satisfying thud and the highs a gentle sandpaper edge; subtle dub treatments - spring reverb tails, drop‑outs, fader moves - open pockets of space inside the grooves without tipping the record into full-on echo worship. You can hear the band’s history as both musicians and beat‑makers in the way every tune seems designed for both deep listening and needle‑dropping: intros and outros are clean, rhythmic elements are clearly separated, yet there is always some small, slightly off‑kilter detail (a ghost note on the snare, a detuned organ chord, a mic’d room sound) that keeps things from feeling too tidy. Thematically, Foraging sits somewhere between a nature walk and a laboratory session. “Moss Perception” slows the tempo and turns up the reverb, letting guitar glissandi and organ chords float over a patient backbeat, while “Feeling Dawn” stretches past seven minutes, unhurriedly layering horns and keys over a deep pocket that feels like the sky gradually lightening above a forest canopy. Closer “Riding With Wahid” nudges the album back toward the street: its sharper drum sound and insistent bassline suggest a city‑bound journey after time spent off‑grid, the outside world coming back into focus one block at a time.