Barngain of the Day: a Free EP on the Tube

Black Bandit by 4 The Brotherhood EP.

On a packed Saturday morning tube carriage, around South Kensington, sits a sealed record with a Post-it on it. It takes up a whole seat, no one dares touch it, despite the inviting note on it. H asks the two passengers sitting either side of it if it’s theirs, and after head shakes, I claim it as my own. A free, sealed record on the tube! What’s not to like? Go into HMV nowadays and a record’ll set you back £30.

Actually if you did want this record (Black Bandit by 4 The Brotherhood, released in May 2025), you can get it for a mere £15.99 as it’s more of an EP than an LP. But it is yellow vinyl. As the blurb says, “4 THE BROTHERHOOD, the project of half-Filipino, half-Jamaican multi-instrumentalist and producer, JR Graham, was crowned as 2024’s winner of the coveted Record Store Day Unsigned competition. Chosen from over 500 entrants by a panel of industry experts, 4 THE BROTHERHOOD won the chance to have this EP mastered at the iconic Abbey Road Studios.”

A great bit of DIY self-promotion.

The Post-it invitingly asks if I’m bored of listening to the same music? Well, I’m not actually, but I always like listening to new music, and I did eventually play it. I can’t exactly call it “fresh” and it unfortunately does sound like the “same music”, whatever that may be. Maybe it’s in the words of one of the judges, “an interesting melting pot of influences, think Slaves (Soft Play) meets Bloc Party”. Still, can’t complain. Much.