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Brain Damage x Emiko Ota x Mad Professor 'Oide Oide' (Jarring Effects) - a review

April 11, 2025

On his seventeenth album, the French dub pioneer Brain Damage has assembled together the Japanese experimentalist Emiko Ota and the British dub-eccentric Mad Professor and made a brilliantly strange record of what he calls ‘Post-Dub’. It is, however, so much more than that title suggests. Each track is named after one of the many mysterious spirits unique to the Japanese imagination - the yōkai - and each song takes on the unfathomable characteristics of these creatures, be they malevolent or benevolent to us mortals. Musically, the album swings from post-punk edge to cavernous digi-dub to curious theatrical vignettes, always with this sense of esoteric wonder. Read / Listen.

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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, Dub, post-punk, Poetry, Japan, folkloric, Reggae
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Earthtones 'We Can Live Together' (Wonderwheel Recordings) - a review

July 23, 2024

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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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, Latin America, Andes, house music, deep house, folkloric, Electronic Music, Colombia
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Elijah Minnelli 'Perpetual Musket' (FatCat Records) - a review

June 14, 2024

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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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, Dub, Reggae, folk, alt-folk, folkloric
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Maddalena Ghezzi & Ruth Goller 'Dolomite' EP (DēngYuè Records) - a review

June 4, 2024

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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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, Italy, improvisational, Experimental, art, Chilled, cosmic, folkloric

Daniel Ögren 'Fastingen-92' (Mr Bongo) - a review

September 21, 2023

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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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, Scandinavian, cinematic, Sweden, Psyche, Psychedelic, Pop, folk, alt-folk, folkloric
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Luzmila Carpio 'Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol' (ZZK) - a review

September 13, 2023

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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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, Bolivia, Andes, Latin America, South America, folkloric, folk, Electronic Music, Argentina
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Artwork by Issaya Mellors

Lakiko 'What To Do, How To Live' (Lakiko Records) - a review

April 14, 2023

This new album 'What To Do, How To Live' from the Bosnian cellist, singer and composer Lakiko is one of the most emotional musical experiences that I’ve experienced in some time. Sung in the ancient Balkan Sevdalinka tradition, she stares unflinchingly into the face of uncertainty and the horrors of the world, her otherworldly vocals and classical-folkloric-experimental cello playing unlike anything I have heard. Can’t recommend this enough really. Read / Listen / Watch

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Tags LATEST, leftfield, Modern Composition, classical, folkloric, alt-folk, Bosnia, Balkans
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Artwork by Lewis Heriz

Insólito UniVerso 'Ese Puerto Existe' (Olindo Records) - a review

February 8, 2023

For their second album for Olindo Records, the Venezuelan trio Insólito UniVerso have gone deep into their country’s musical heritage, exploring rhythms and musical strains whilst adding their own psychedelic, experimental vision. With guests including Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier, the trio have produced a brilliantly written and produced record that is our favourite album of the year so far and one likely to stay in our boxes for a long time. Read / Listen

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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, Latin America, Venezuela, folkloric, Experimental, Fusion, global, independent
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Hidden Waters: Strange & Sublime Sounds of Rio de Janeiro (Sounds and Colours) - an interview

June 20, 2022

Our good friend and editor of the ace Latin culture magazine Sounds and Colours, Russ Slater, has teamed up with Joe Osborne to bring us Brazilian music nerds a comprehensive look at the wonkier end of the contemporary music scene in Rio de Janeiro and it is a sprawling feast of sounds that only Brazil can offer. We asked co-curator Joe Osborne for some of his thoughts on the curatorial process and here they are! Read / Listen

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In MUSIC, INTERVIEWS Tags LATEST, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, samba, Electronic Music, Experimental, folkloric, funk, Fusion
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Ka Safar - Photo credit Eugene McLaughlin

Ka Safar 'Ancient Tribal Hearts' (2 Headed Deer) - a review

February 23, 2022

Ka Safar are a thirteen-headed world jazz outfit from the centre of the UK who appear to be trying to reach the centre of the cosmos on their brand new album ‘Ancient Tribal Hearts’. From original Arkestra style groove-freakouts to arrangements of ancient musical and religious notations, this is a remarkable record bursting with energy and ideas that needs to be in the collections of those who love Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra et al. Read / Listen

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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, UK, Jazz, free jazz, folkloric, Experimental, Fusion, global, world
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Photo: Daniel Rodríguez

Isaac Sasson 'Canciones de Isaac' (Olindo Records) - a review

February 9, 2022

Isaac Sasson has released an album of perfectly poised gentleness containing thirteen evocative folky vignettes of life and family in Venezuela and Barcelona. Field recordings of nature accompany his tender voice, exquisite songwriting and light touch multi-instrumentalism. It’s a stunning record. Read / Listen

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In MUSIC Tags LATEST, Venezuela, folkloric, Chilled, Ambient, Latin America, Caribbean
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Nilza Costa - an interview

November 3, 2021

Nilza Costa is a singer/songwriter from Salvador de Bahia living in Italy and her new album ‘Le notti di San Patrizio’ is an uncommon combination of traditional Brazilian rhythms and melodies and European jazz forms. It’s a beautiful thing so I pinged her a few questions.. Listen / Read here

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In MUSIC, INTERVIEWS Tags LATEST, Brazil, Italy, Jazz, Praise, folkloric, Bahia
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