Binker and Moses

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Binker and Moses is a British jazz duo of the saxophonist Binker Golding and the drummer Moses Boyd, formed in London in 2014. Boyd, born on 30 April 1991 in Catford in south London, learned to drum at school and studied jazz drums at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire. He took part in the education programme Tomorrow's Warriors, to which the London jazz scene of recent years owes a great deal. The duo made four albums: Dem Ones in 2015, Journey to the Mountain of Forever in 2017, Alive in the East? in 2018 and Feeding the Machine in 2022. With them it won, among other things, a MOBO Award, two Jazz FM Awards and a Parliamentary Jazz Award.

Music and breakthrough

Boyd also works under his own name. His debut album Dark Matter from 2020 was nominated for the Mercury Prize, and he leads the group Moses Boyd Exodus, in which Golding also plays. His music mixes jazz with grime, electronics, highlife and broken beat, and he sees it as a continuation of Black music and the diaspora, with influences from afrobeats, soca, reggae, drum and bass and jungle. He names Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and Boy in Da Corner by Dizzee Rascal as major influences.

Influence

Boyd is one of the faces of the London jazz world. The Guardian called him a founding figure of the current London jazz scene. The duo shows that a saxophone and a drum kit are enough for a full, danceable sound, and that jazz can belong in club culture.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2015Dem Ones
• 2017Journey to the Mountain of Forever
• 2018Alive in the East?
• 2022Feeding the Machine