In previous years, the Leeds four piece Fold have released two well-received EPs. Now, after four years of activity as a band, the wait for a full length album is over. ‘Fold’ is a ten track statement full of hard beats, hardships and strutting bass-lines. It is a cerebral yet playful record which is sometimes sunny (A Reflection of Us All) and at other times a little more contemplative (Be Water My Friend). Uniting the ten songs is a constant swagger, a perpetual groove. It’s a cracker.

The album features numerous vocal samples plucked from history’s more memorable speeches and monologues. These set the tone and synch beautifully with the music that surrounds them. These samples are diced and moulded and served up with funky horns and hi-hats. Figures like JFK, Malcolm X and Jimmy Carter wash through the music, like colour slowly spreading in water. Everything seems soaked in sepia, deep in thought, and yet ‘Fold’ manages to maintain an inherent funkiness. It is retro in its best form.

Mr. Gee waxes lyrical on A Victim’s Mentality about oppression, backed up by stomping bass and swirling trumpets – think Faithless – while Mr President, We’re in Trouble is a swarthy affair, both nostalgic and cerebral. Often there is a pathos to the band’s music, a yearning for change. Other times the music is so full of swagger that it is outright arrogant. Bands like Boards of Canada and Unkle come to mind, but with the wry smile of James Brown.

It often feels like Fold desire to incite change with their music, or at least they extract this desire from other figures to create a record which riles and inspires. The Black Power movement plays a huge part in the record’s lyrical content and attitude. In Detroit Red, Malcolm X speaks over a blaxploitation-type track, full of balls and vigour, while The White Man features a speech from Lena Horne. Its lyrical content suggests social change, while the music strides with a Charlie’s Angels-esque confidence. It’s almost libidinal. It is important, spacey, a little kitsch and wholly enjoyable.

There is not a weak track in the bunch. She features music with loins to it: a funky, brazen beat beneath the wry anger of poet 6 per cent. It is not a stretch to compare the feeling behind it to that of a Spike Lee movie. Twanging chords and brass notes with backbones speak of the plight of the working class. The words evoke images of a struggling mother with too many bags to carry, while the music suggests the actions of a superhero. Think Jackie Brown.

So It Goes is a wistful ditty on the transience of icons. A plinking guitar suggests butterflies on a summer day, or rather, the world going on around these major events. “Shit happens,” it states, sweetly. The music on Oil-Powered Machine has the growing momentum of the social change it incites. It’s a dose of zeitgeist-busting information with a roaring, stirring melody, the kind of stuff which swells minds and keeps college kids up at night.

‘Fold’ is a record which runs on throbbing bass-legs and uber-coolness. If you are a fan of retro, funk, classic hiphop grooves or bands such as De La Soul, then this is for you.