Our favourite Venezuelan polymath Alex Figueira is back with another full length album of burning hot ‘tropical’ psychedelic dancers. For once, he doesn’t do everything himself, inviting the members of the live incarnation of his Conjunto Papa Upa band to bring their instrumental magic to his ever-improving songwriting and vocal chops. With over two dozen genres mashed into this Latin music charged feast, ‘Fruta Madura’, has fire, wit and groove in its belly. Read / Listen.
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África Negra 'Antologia Vol. 2' (Bongo Joe Records) - a review
Hailing from the tiny sovereign islands of the African state of São Tomé and Príncipe, the long-running band África Negra have a second anthology on Bongo Joe Records deservedly dedicated to their exhilarating blend of Congolese rumba, soukous, highlife and the high speed local puxa style. Whether it’s high-energy dancers or sitting back into a swaying rumba, the emotional power of their sound and playing will make your soul sing. Read / Listen.
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Earthtones 'We Can Live Together' (Wonderwheel Recordings) - a review
Californian yoga teacher, DJ and ritualist Serge Bandura’s Earthtones project moves from its ambient foundations to the dancefloor with this spiritually-charged blend of deep house warmth, Latin-infused rhythms and killer vocal contributions from collaborators from Colombia, Ecuador and Ethiopia. Ceremonially funky with moments of ocean deep atmosphere, ‘We Can Live Together’ is his prayer for peace. Read / Listen.
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LILAMORS & Ana Čop & Jaka Arh 'Rahoon' (Latenite Lounging) - video premiere!
We are delighted to premiere the stunning new video for ‘Rahoon’, the new single from Basel-based LILAMORS! The video direction, editing and animation by Jovana Đukić is a blue-hued treat for the eyes, the music a perfectly poised blend of electronica, melancholic folk and art-pop. Watch here.
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Elijah Minnelli 'Perpetual Musket' (FatCat Records) - a review
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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Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly 'MESTIZX' (International Anthem / Nonesuch Records) - a review
The debut album ‘MESTIZX’ by Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly for Chicago’s influential International Anthem label and in collaboration with Nonesuch Records is an astonishingly potent record that touches on ancestral histories, post-colonial resistance and rage, ancient spells and so much more. Avant-Jazz, Post-Rock, Afro-Latin rhythms and a myriad of influences and inspirations colour this brilliant record. One of the best releases of the year. Read / Listen.
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Maddalena Ghezzi & Ruth Goller 'Dolomite' EP (DēngYuè Records) - a review
The rare talents of Maddalena Ghezzi and Ruth Goller come together for the fifth in Maddalena’s ‘Minerals’ series of releases - a remarkable multilingual odyssey about the journey of water through the Tyrolean mountain range. Reflecting on grief, climate change and shared personal histories, this is improvisational music at its most beautiful. Strange, magical and earthy, ‘Dolomite’ deserves your immersion. Read / Listen.
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Transmission Towers (É Soul Cultura) - an interview
The debut release on Luke Una’s brand new label É Soul Cultura is a quite brilliant album of electronic soul from the Liverpool based duo Transmission Towers. Interstellar atmospherics, deep emotions and bass-charged grooves are allied with post-punk invention and hooks that will attach themselves to the listener for days. On the day of the release of ‘Transmission One’, we asked production wizard Mark Kyriacou and vocalist Eleanor Anorbea Mante a few questions. Read / Listen.
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Damos Room 'Commencement // Mineral Blend' (Nudibranch) - a review
Weird broken dub for a weird broken world, Damos Room’s new E.P. on Nudibranch is both funny and dark. Eccentric in a very British way, its paranoid rambles and subsonic trembling will shake your speakers and ruin your picnic. With guest remixers such as LA’s hip hop brutalist Gonjasufi along for the ride, be ready. Read / Listen.
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Son Of Philip 'Plastic Borough' (Running Circle Records) - a review
Son Of Philip’s stunning new seven track E.P. for Running Circle Records is awash with electronic textures and synthetic loops without losing the feeling of human creation. ‘Plastic Borough’s post-club ambience and widescreen ‘Blade Runner’ edges also sees the talented Nottingham born musician, DJ and producer Tom Smith, collaborate with Swedish singer Ylva Grönlund, offering a darkly poetic noir to his beatless stories. Read / Listen.
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Arnau Obiols & KAYYAK 'Faith / San Diago EP' (Compost Records) - a review
The electronic music producers Arnau Obiols & KAYYAK have a new release on the mighty German label Compost Records and their inspired ability to blend West African inspirations, disco and psychedelia into loose dancefloor anthems continues. With outstanding remixes from Medlar & Dele Sosimi, Prins Thomas and Chicago’s Rahaan also in the package, this is seriously good party business. Read / Listen.
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Janek van Laak 'Circle of Madness' (Sonar Kollektiv) - a review
Wildly talented, the Berlin based drummer and composer, Janek van Laak, has a fascinating new album out today on Sonar Kollektiv that straddles a multitude of genres. The spirit of punk and the theatrics of cabaret in his DNA (literally), Janek has pulled in friends and players, collaboration the key to helping him express the many creative roads his mind is travelling on. Touches of future-funk, jazz in all its finery, Afro-Latin rhythms, psychedelia, soundtracks, post-punk edges. It’s all there, and more. Read / Listen
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NaraBara 'Dab Hi' (Nomad City Records) - a review
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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Empanadas Ilegales 'La Danza Del Vampiro' (We Are Time) - preview
The Canada-based psyche-cumbia outfit Empanadas Ilegales have a new live album out in April that showcases their irresistible party-starting chops but for now we have this zinger of a first single to enjoy. 'La Danza Del Vampiro' buzzes and vamps with energy and unhinged groove. 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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