Dub provocateur Elijah Minnelli has finally dropped a record with some guest vocalists and it is immense. Real life reggae legends Little Roy and Earl Sixteen, and the younger voices of Shumba Youth and Joe Yorke take turns interpreting old English folk standards over Elijah’s powerful and haunting dub reggae instrumentals. This is a heavyweight release that has already seen praise from folk royalty Peggy Seeger and is bound to find love from the progressive dub-heads as well as the traditionalists. Read / Listen.
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Dina Ögon 'Orion' (Playground Music) - a review
The Swedish quartet Dina Ögon seemed to appear from nowhere a few years ago with two perfectly realised albums that merged their wide influences into some kind of perfect ‘pop’ hybrid. Not chart fodder pop but the old-fashioned kind that harnesses extraordinary songwriting with amazing individual performances that deserve to crossover everywhere. Anna Ahnlund’s voice alone demands that you listen, instantly recognisable as something very special. Sung in Swedish, their perfectly constructed songs contain traces of Brazilian and West Coast soul music, Scandinavian folk, deep funk, and other influences that combine to create their wondrous sound. The new album ‘Orion’ takes another step forward without losing a drop of their magic serum. Read / Listen.
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E.R.Thorpe 'E.R.Thorpe' (Cwm Saerbren) - a review
E.R. Thorpe’s self-titled E.P. of smouldering and spectral ‘dark folk’ came out in July and has been a presence on our playlists for some time. A member of The Low Drift and a collaborator with Huw Costin and the late Mark Lanegan, Emma’s beautifully constructed songs of poetic uncertainty draw in religious visions, nature’s murmurings and the unsaid thoughts of the self. Fans of PJ Harvey etc will love this. Read / Listen.
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Daniel Ögren 'Fastingen-92' (Mr Bongo) - a review
Originally released in 2020 on Sing A Song Fighter, Daniel Ögren’s brilliantly uncategorisable 'Fastingen-92' LP is being lovingly repressed by Brighton’s Mr Bongo (sing hossana!). A founding member of cosmic soul outfit Dina Ögon and a contributor to Sven Wunder’s musical universe, Daniel is a prime example of Sweden’s new golden age of musicians, producers and labels. Hugely ambitious in scope, he slides easily from cinematic orchestral grooves into Balearic dreamscapes via pan-global dancing oddities without ever being too difficult to understand. In an alternative dimension, this would be topping the mainstream charts. Read / Listen.
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Luzmila Carpio 'Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol' (ZZK) - a review
The great Bolivian Andean singer, producer and activist Luzmila Carpio hasn’t released a new album in a decade (she has made over 25 though!) but she is now back with a beautiful collaboration with Argentinian folktronica producer Leonardo Martinelli that is both charming and deeply emotional in equal measure. Luzmila’s voice has lost none of its power or childlike wonder and her songs of ritual, communion and ceremony merge seamlessly with Martinelli’s soundscapes. A triumph. Read / Listen
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Maxine Funke 'River Said' (Disciples) - a review
Maxine Funke is a wonderful singer/songwriter from New Zealand and here on her fifth album, she has delivered two very different sides to her artistry. One side of the record is made up of intimately recorded lo-fi folk-inspired songs that are reminiscent of Vashti Bunyan or Sybylle Baier at their sparsest, side two contains organic sounding atmospheres that Eno would be proud of. Read / Listen
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Ballaké Sissoko 'A Touma' (NØ FØRMAT!) - a review
For his second album of 2021, the master kora player Ballaké Sissoko recorded eight solo compositions in one day inside a chapel in Belgium. It is a stunning journey of emotion, virtuosity and West African folk-blues and as good as any kora recordings that I have been lucky enough to discover. Read / Listen
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