Welcome to a new year and even though January is usually a quiet period for releases, here are a few tracks that have caught our bleary-eyed attention. From D’Angelo inspired R&B to frenetic Tanzanian mchiriku, there’s hopefully something fresh here for you. This episode includes Jamaica Mnanda. MISS C-LINE, Alabaster DePlume, El León Pardo and Raúl Monsalve y Los Forajidos.
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Photo by Nick Clague
Truth & Lies - Salsa / Latin DJ set at Africa Oyé Festival 22nd June 2024 on Africa Oyé radio
Back in June, our Ex-Friendly dropped a salsa-fied DJ set on the Freetown Stage at the always brilliant Africa Oyé Festival in Liverpool and it went off with a huge dancing crowd led by the dude in the white hat who we subsequently found out is called Damien! A bunch of his backup dancers from Winsford Salsa joined in alongside our friends and tons of Oyé attendees and it was immense! We forgot that it was recorded and it is only now being shared on the latest edition of Africa Oyé Radio. Hoping it brings you some joy!
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Artwork by www.beckyhatchett.me
Kʒːlu ‘Vol.II Cortis’ (Creeping Curtain Records) - a review
The West Cork based guitarist and composer Pat Hatchett returns under his Kʒːlu (curlew) moniker with a fantastic album of introspection, leftfield soul and cosmic Afro-disco. An amazingly eclectic musician, he was hit with a serious and debilitating ear problem that forced him to think outside of the box to fix himself physically and spiritually. Aiming for connection and optimism in a time of personal and geo-political upheavals, Pat has created a sensational record with stellar musicianship and spiritually positive vibes that is as visually rich as it is sonically electrifying. Read / Listen.
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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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Singular Visions - a random rundown of recent single releases (November 2024)
The November rundown of recent singles we have recently discovered. All kinds of music that we may not have time to cover as albums or one time one-offs. This episode includes Da Lata, Khalab feat Kasai Allstars, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, AMAMI, Leah Sinead, Black Flower, Work Money Death, Il Mario & more.
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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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Waaju feat. Majid Bekkas 'Alouane’ (BBE) - a review
A cross-cultural tour de force from London’s Waaju crew and Moroccan Gnawa master Majid Bekkas on this fantastic live album out now on the mighty BBE! A stunning fusion of Afro-Latin, jazz, psychedelia, Gnawa and heavy heavy grooves recorded in the beautiful Church of Sound in East London, Ben Brown’s new arrangements of traditional Gnawa songs are revelatory, the ensemble’s performance transcendent. 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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Phil Dawson ٤-tet with Dele Sosimi and Biola Dosunmu - Ilé (Iyesa) feat. Rowland Sutherland (Funkiwala) - PREMIERE!
We are delighted to premiere the first single from Phil Dawson ٤-tet’s forthcoming ‘Don’t Waste Your Ancestors’ Time’ album on Funkiwala. ‘Ilé (Iyesa)’ is an absorbing, funky and spiritually charged number that stands up tall next to Airto’s Afro-Brazilian experiments in the 70s and features an outrageous lineup of world class musicians from Nigeria, Brazil and the UK jazz scene. Read / Listen.
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Ali Dada 'SUM' (YNFND) - a review
The Swiss trio Ali Dada have carved themselves an album of languid cinematic tracks out of late night jam sessions and a few guiding rules: vibes and 'mistakes' as important as intent. Nineties trip hop sounds have been reappearing quite a lot recently and this immersive album of dope beats, psychedelic guitars and atmospheric textures certainly resides in this smoky territory. Read / Listen.
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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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Conjunto Papa Upa 'Fruta Madura' (Music With Soul) - a review
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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