The debut partnership of Carol Maia and Jeremy Gustin has delivered an album of rare alchemy. With thousands of miles between Carol’s home studio in Rio de Janeiro and Jeremy’s in Brooklyn, and with the help of a few friends from their respective cities, they have created a record that is intimate, softly experimental and transcendental in its poetic beauty. Read / Listen.
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Charlie Chimi ‘Disco Chimi’ (Club Coco) - a review
What would a record by a Dominican Republic-raised Cuban artist now residing in Brooklyn sound like? Well, all of those places at once if you’re Charlie Chimi and this is the debut artist album for Coco Maria’s new label. Afro-Cuban rhythms, no-wave garage punk edge, homemade funk and a fearless middle-fingered attitude towards generic straightforwardness are all here. It’s also fun, surreal, irreverent and ace. Read / Listen.
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Rave At Your Fictional Borders ‘Analogue Nomadism’ (Meakusma Records) - a review
Since finding the final third piece of their trio last year with the inclusion of Moroccan drummer and singer Salim Akki, Rave At Your Fictional Borders have moved at quite a pace to realise (and release) their first full album ‘Analogue Nomadism’. As always, spontaneity is at the root of their improvised grooves. Their self-titled ‘Global Experimental Music’ was created and recorded over a week in the L’Bridge studio outside Kenitra in Morocco, the resulting album a sprawling collage of trippy textural strangeness and rhythmic explorations that punch and intrigue in equal measures. Read / Listen.
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Momoko Gill 'Momoko' (Strut Records) - a review
Momoko Gill’s debut album is a remarkably assured and well-rounded collection of songs that bridge jazz, soul, electronica and more. For those enamoured by her collaboration with Matthew Herbert, wait until you hear this, her unique songwriting, production and multi-instrumental skills are on full display on this dazzling record. Read / Listen.
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Dominic J Marshall 'The White Prince' (self release) - a review
Unlike anything else out there, Dominic J Marshall’s ambitious new album covers a lot of ground. The former Cinematic Orchestra prodigy draws in Thundercat style fusion, UK rap, Dilla-esque wonkiness, synth-funk and a unique hybrid of virtuosic jazz, classical, electronica and Baroque influences to create an eighteen track opus that sounds like the future. Read / Listen.
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İlhan Erşahin's Istanbul Sessions 'Karaköy' (Nublu Records) - single premiere!
We are super-pleased to premiere this deadly slice of instantly catchy jazz-not-jazz from New York’s İlhan Erşahin's Istanbul Sessions. A longtime dynamic energy source in NYC and the founder of Club Nublu and Nublu Records, İlhan Erşahin and his band have taken the various districts of the cosmopolitan Turkish capital as inspiration for their forthcoming and sixth album, ‘Mahalle’. This particular single evokes the funky heart of Karaköy, one of the city’s oldest areas that has become a place where arty hipness and traditional stores live colourfully together. Read / Listen.
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Wolfgang Pérez 'Só Ouço' (Hive Mind Records) - a review
He may not actually be Brazilian by heritage but the German-Spanish songwriter, arranger, guitarist and sound artist Wolfgang Pérez has delivered one of my favourite records to come out of Rio de Janeiro this year. His ‘outsider’s’ viewpoint and with a brilliant crew of Carioca musicians and the recording environment of the acclaimed Wolf Estúdio to create in, has enabled Wolfgang to stretch his already stunning compositional and arranging talents to new heights. Read / Listen.
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Singular Visions - a random rundown of recent single releases (Feb 2025)
Is it Spring yet? As usual, a diverse selection this month but I suppose the one thing they all have in common is their fusion of ideas and cultures, a fluidity of influences that creates something new and fresh. Music from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, ESINAM & Sibusile Xaba, Nadeem Din-Gabisi, Céline Dessberg, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly, João Leão and Joe Armon-Jones. Enjoy!
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Rave At Your Fictional Borders ‘Entanglement' (Dave De Rose Records) - Video Premiere & Interview
At a roaring pace, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Dave De Rose has already released two separate musical projects this year and has another on its way. Having finally found a permanent third vertex of their adventurous triangle, the multinational Rave At Your Fictional Borders return with two new groove explorations, recorded and beautifully filmed as they were composed on the fly in a studio in Morocco. We are delighted to video premiere ‘Entanglement’ and being greedy and needy, we also tapped them up for an interview. Read / Listen.
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‘Reflections of Pinters' - a musical journey through memories of Houghton Festival 2024
Looking warmly back to Houghton Festival 2024, this mix is a reflection, a mash of memories of the kind of sounds you might hear at Pinters, a zone of musical discovery away from the tougher electronic sonics that pepper the beautiful festival site, Pinters is where the organic, the esoteric and the hilarious (Reggie Watts being all three) converge. Obviously there were loads more DJs and live acts than just our (Truth & Lies) curated bits but the mix I’ve put together is a blend of tracks that I played, some I wished I’d played, some inspired by other DJ’s sets and a sprinkling of artists who performed live over the long weekend including Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, Sven Figee, Reggie, Harper Trio and Alabaster DePlume.
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AMAMI 'ISLANDS & ISLANDS DUB EP' (Bongo Joe Records) - a review
The Swiss trio AMAMI are back in full effect on their new EP for Bongo Joe Records. Heavyweight future dancehall with tropical and post-punk touches, this stellar package comes with four originals, four monster dub versions (including Mad Professor and Vibronics) and a separate 7” single. Read / Listen.
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Trees Speak 'TimeFold' (Soul Jazz Records) - a review
With nineteen tracks segueing into each each over two sides of vinyl, Tucson duo Trees Speak continue their earthy yet intergalactic run of albums (6 in 4 years!) for Soul Jazz Records. ‘TimeFold’ is a krautrock Blade Runner set in a doomy 1970s horror film castle (filmed on Mars) but with powerful arpeggiated Tangerine Dream synth weapons and disembodied spoken word amongst their heavyweight blend of influences. Intoxicating stuff. Read / Listen.
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Singular Visions - a random rundown of recent single releases (October 2024)
We don’t really cover single releases (apart from the occasional premiere) so we thought we would start a new section on the blog where we shout about some random new singles we have been sent or discovered ourselves in some dusty corner. All kinds of music that we may not have time to cover as albums or one time one-offs. Enjoy! Tell your friends! This episode includes Nicola Cruz, Voodoo Drummer, Romperayo, Cyril Cyril, Chizawa Q & more...
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Damian Dalla Torre - I Can Feel My Dreams (Squama Recordings) - a review
The second album by Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist Damian Dalla Torre is a sublime ambient-not-ambient jazz-not-jazz record that inhabits its own beautiful meditative space. Inspired by the environment of Santiago, Chile and awash with a painterly quality, ‘I Can Feel My Dreams’ is an experimental record that is somehow also universal in its emotional naturalness. With guests of the calibre of Miriam Adefris, Ruth Goller, Christian Balvig and Jan Soutschek along for the trip, why not tag along? Or just lie down and let it float around you. 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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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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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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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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