NaraBara are a razor sharp quartet of Mongolian musicians who have somehow successfully and skillfully stirred ancient melodies and Tuvan throat singing into their globally inspired take on jazz-funk. West African sounding guitars, killer drums and impressive synth work are combined with the haunting sound of the ‘tovshuur’ lute and produced into a taut, imaginative and very contemporary sound. Read / Listen
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Fumio Itabashi 'Watarase' (WEWANTSOUNDS) - a review
There have been reissues before but this newly remastered version of Fumio Itabashi’s 1981 solo piano masterpiece “Watarase” on WEWANTSOUNDS really hits the spot. The title is a spiritually charged classic but the rest of the album’s mix of standards and original compositions are much more than filler. Itabashi’s inventive and unique playing style and emotional openness make this an absolute jewel in the jazz canon. Read / Listen
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Champagne Dub 'Rainbow' (On The Corner Records) - a review
The artwork on this debut album by Champagne Dub seems an appropriately disconcerting image for the kind of ‘dub’ contained. Apocalyptic at times, raw, improvised and very leftfield, the misfit band pulled together by Maxwell Hallett aka Betamax (Soccer96, The Comet Is Coming etc) have delivered a heavyweight dub patchwork that is brimming with post-punk energy and wild cosmic agitation. Ruth Goller, Clive Bell, Ed Briggs (laser bagpipes) and the masked Peruvian performance artist and vocalist, Mr Noodles, have brought flammables to the party. Read / Listen
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Merengue Típico 'Nueva Generación!' (Bongo Joe Records) - a review
There can’t be many (or any) European compilations that take a deep dive into the Dominican Republic’s musical heritage but thankfully, Belgian vinyl digger Xavier Daive has spent many years in DR searching through long forgotten record shelves and boxes to bring us this fine collection of the second wave of merengue típico released a few days ago on the excellent Bongo Joe Records. Fast and frenetic party music propelled by hyperspeed accordion and fizzing guiras, “Merengue Típico 'Nueva Generación!” is a superb overview of this wildly popular Latin Caribbean genre. We asked our friend and DR native Mauro Ferreiro for his thoughts. Read / Listen
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Brion Gysin 'Junk' (WEWANTSOUNDS) - a review
Initially released in 1985 and only one year away from his passing, this expanded and remastered version of Beat guru, inventor and pioneering multi-disciplinary artist Brion Gysin’s ‘Junk’ finally sees a vinyl reissue after 40 years. Produced by the ace French producer Ramuntcho Matta and featuring the cream of the French underground at the time, plus jazz-experimentalist Don Cherry and Senegalese drum legend Abdoulaye Prosper Niang, the record is both deadly No Wave-y funky and definitely a bit strange. The song ‘Kick (Discomix)’ is worth the price of admission alone. 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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MORRR 'Marrow Weavers' (MFZ Records) - a review
The Italian musician MORRR aka Dario Gatto released his EP ‘Marrow Weavers’ on MFZ Records back in July but its aching post-rock beauty stands up better in the cold months of winter in our opinion. Songs of grief and heartbreak shrouded in beautiful melodies and FX heavy drones make this a strangely comforting record. Read / Listen.
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Nino Gvilia - video interview
As we prepare to premiere (this Thursday!) the first song from her forthcoming double E.P. release on Brighton’s excellent Hive Mind Records, we are happy to present a short video interview with the enigmatic Georgian singer-songwriter Nino Gvilia.
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Cover art & design - Fiona Ryan)
Assiko Golden Band De Yoff 'Magg Tekki' (Sing a Song Fighter / Mississippi Records) - a review
If drums are your thing then this sensational debut album from the Senegalese band Assiko Golden Band De Yoff will blow your head off. The massed ranks of the Dakar-based outfit teamed up with Swedish producer and Sing a Song Fighter label boss Karl Jonas Winqvist after meeting in 2018, somehow pulling this record together via recordings in Senegal and Sweden. With the subtle addition of sax, accordion and kora, some of these potent songs signpost the Senegalese connections to Brazil’s bloco de rua traditions, others offer a link to the Caribbean but the source is always Senegal. In alliance with Mississippi Records, we now have this brilliant album to listen to and own and I can’t recommend it enough. If you know about Babatunde Olatunji’s ‘Drums Of Passion’, then you know I’m making a big call saying this offers that same energy. Read / Listen.
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TONN3RR3 X BIKAYE 'It's a Bomb' (Born Bad Records) - a review
It’s been forty years since the great Congolese innovator Bony Bikaye released his collaborative cult masterpiece ‘Noir et Blanc’ on Crammed Discs, an album that merged his wildly unconventional vocals with the edgiest of electronic textures. Now, after decades outside of the industry, he has returned with the Parisian production trio TONN3RR3, once again in search of the musical spaces in between. His voice is stronger and more unhinged than ever, the post-club dynamism of TONN3RR3 a perfect foil for his singular sound. Read / Listen.
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Harper Trio 'Passing By' (Little Yellow Man Records) - a review
For decades, the harp was a rare flower dotted meagerly amongst the accepted solo instruments that were afforded respect in the world of jazz. Outstanding harpists such as Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby needed new generations to recognise their genius and worth but now, on the shoulders of these giants, we live in a golden era of jazz-harpists and Greek born Maria-Christina Harper will surely find herself in the frontline with her debut album. Harper Trio’s exploratory merging of Mediterranean folkloric influences and bluesy expression alongside touches of the contemporary avant-garde offers a new way of viewing the instrument and how it can be played. Alongside the brilliant Josephine Davies on saxophone and Evan Jenkins on drums, she has created an outstanding album that vibrates with its own distinct personality. Read / Listen.
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The Belgian Soundtrack: A Musical Connection of Belgium with Cinema (1961-1979) (Sdban Ultra)
If you’re a fan of film soundtracks, sample-hunting or just a lover of evocative music, then this new compilation from the excellent Belgian label Sdban Records is for you. After the discovery of 650 soundtrack LPs in the attic of a former film journalist, the soundtrack addicts and researchers Robin Broos and Tom ‘Pélé’ Peeters waded through the entirety of the haul to bring us this brilliant collection of music that has in various ways, a Belgian connection. There are barely known composers and there are the super-famous, all of them are great. Read / Listen.
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A08 'Waiting For Zion' (Compost Records) - a review
Formerly known as Africaine 808, the German duo Dirk Leyers and DJ Nomad (AKA Hans Raabe) return under the name A08. Their name may have changed but their ability to weave the polyrhythms and melodic traits of many cultures into their club-ready productions hasn’t changed. With star guests from Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Trinidad and Germany along for the ride, ‘Waiting For Zion’ has Grime X West Africa collisions, jazzy bruk sounds, Caribbean electronica and a host of hard-to-define tracks that work just as well at home as on the dancefloor. Big recommendation. Read / Listen.
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The KBCS / Shirley Turner - I Wish You A World Of Happiness (Sonar Kollektiv) - a review
The ace German label Sonar Kollektiv have a superb double-headed 7” coming soon that includes an unheard and remastered take of Shirley Turner’s 1965 Northern Soul stomper ‘I Wish You A World Of Happiness’ and a brilliant Modern Soul / 2-Step Soul interpretation by The KBCS who have taken it into Bobby Caldwell / Roy Ayers territory. Read / Listen.
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Lagos Thugs 'Chaos' (Immensum Music) - a review
Lagos Thugs are a young 12-piece Afrobeat orchestra from Nigeria in the vein of the classic Africa 70 and Egypt 80 outfits of Fela Kuti. Led by singer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Adetunji Adeyemi, the band have come a long way since their inception in 2020. On this, their debut album, they deliver four lengthy new compositions that hark back to the golden eras but also mark out new ideas with touches of New Orleans style brass collisions and a touching and soulful vulnerability. With forthcoming projects with Ezra Collective and more coming, Lagos Thugs are bringing that home-grown authenticity back to the genre. Read / Listen
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Web Web x Max Herre 'WEB MAX II' (Compost Records) - a review
German jazz supergroup WEB WEB return for their second collaborative album with Max Herre for Compost Records and it is an exceptional dive into the more cosmic sounds of the 70s with Krautrock and Spiritual influences adding multicolours to their tight compositional chops. With guests including Carlos Gabriel Niño and Marja Burchard from Embryo adding their magic dust, ‘WEB MAX II’ is an easy album to love even if you’re only jazz-curious. 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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Rave At Your Fictional Borders 'Potion Trigger' (Dave De Rose Records) - single premiere!
We are zinged to premiere the bone-rattling title track from Rave At Your Fictional Borders forthcoming E.P. 'Potion Trigger'! Dave De Rose’s collab project sees top class musicians improvising and composing on the wire, creating a moment of cosmic motorik intensity that shakes itself silly somewhere between Hawkwind and Underground Resistance. Read / Listen.
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Nick Walters 'Marine Moods' (D.O.T. Records) - a review
Ace UK trumpeter, composer and bandleader Nick Walters reassembles his brilliant sextet (including longtime collaborator Tenderlonious) for his aquatically themed new album 'Marine Moods' which is released on Friday 6th October on his own D.O.T. Records label. Recorded in a single day, the record is a spellbinding combination of modal, spiritual and fusion flavours that gleams with positivity and is supercharged with exquisite musicianship. Read / Listen.
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Torben Westergaard 'The Gori Project II' (Torben Westergaard Musik) - a review
With 18 albums under his belt and over 40 years of musical connectivity at the heart of his practice, the Danish composer and educator Torben Westergaard is a musician striving to work in an egoless environment. On his fantastic new album 'The Gori Project II', his second immersion into the merging of influences between Nordic jazz and Korean folk music has come good, creating something that belongs entirely to the four musicians involved. Cinematic, theatrical and blissed out at times, the album really does take you away. Read / Listen.
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