Review: Straop yourself in and prepare for a cosmic trip on psyched out cosmic polyrhythms with kosmische overtones at the hands of newcomer Glass Beams. This debut on Research Record is a stunning one from the enigmatic producer but will have you googling t find out as much as you can while you get lost in the sliding bass and transcendent synthwork. It's tinged with a certain retro charm and 70s prog magic but also feels decidedly new and fresh. Masterful.
Digital Justice - "Theme From "It's All Gone Pearshaped"" (12:12)
Dorothy Ashby - "For Some We Loved" (4:04)
Frantz Tuernal - "Koultans" (5:55)
Review: Melodies International is a real favourite label here at Juno HQ, headed up famously by Floating Points and finds including Mafalda. The third volume of their Melodies record Club is as good as anything the label has put out to date: it features a trio of jazz cuts selected by the one and only Hunee. First is Digital Justice's 'Theme From "It's All Gone Pearshaped"', a 13 minute live jam packed with synth action. On the flip is a spiritual piece from harpist Dorothy Ashby and Frantz Tuernal's 'Koultans'. Says Hunee, "these three distinct pieces of music tap into different layers of my memory."
Hector Cari & The Dancing Strings - "Rumba Rhapsody" (2:55)
Davy Jones & The Dolphin - "Strictly Polynesian" (1:57)
Jim Solley & The Lubocs - "Malaquena" (2:32)
Rick & Trisha - "The Lonely Sea" (2:22)
Review: Jazzman recently served up a big and freaky old collection of Halloween themed jazz sounds from Greasy Mike. Now the venerated digger and collector opens up his archives once more for another deep dive, this time under the heading of 'Shipwrecked On A Tropical Island.' As such these are Afro-tinged jazz sounds with shimmering steel drums and gently breaking waves. There are Afro-Cuban spinners like Phyllis Branch's 'Babalu' and samba shufflers full of soul. An epic and escapist collection that takes you to another world.
Review: 'Available Forms' is the latest masterwork of the musical project Tobor Experiment, led by Giorgio Sancristoforo, an Italian sound artist and music software designer based in Milan. Active since 2007, Sancristoforo's work has largely centred on highly technical odysseys in avant-disco, exploring surreal takes on the ambivalent promises made by the tide of technological advancement, channelled into a that has been described, perhaps quite cleverly, as 'moogsploration'. Coming after a 12-year hiatus on gatefold LP, Sancristoforo returns to his go-to label Bear Funk for yet another foray into this retro-modernist vision, mixing genre-bent jazz, electronica, nu-disco, and psychedelic influences.
Review: A remarkably sleazy new compilation from the digger's delighter known as Greasy Mike, who has generously opened up his 'vinyl dungeon' for the purpose of letting us in on just a small slice of his wax "harem". Ah yes, the sensual and voluptuous pleasures of Middle-Eastern jazz on wax. Unmatched. The choice cuts on this comp, one of many from Mike, this time catalogue the works of Middle Eastern jazz unknowns, championing their work starting from the genre's inception.
Review: Manu Dibango's grooves will never dull with time. The Cameroonian sax man made some of the most infectious, feel-good funk to ever transmit from the African continent, and here's one of his heavy-hitting high-watermarks, reissued by Soul Makossa. African Voodoo originally came out in 1972, a year that saw nearly all Dibango's most revered jams cut loose on an unsuspecting public. These sessions were recorded in France with Yvan Julien on trumpet, Slim Pezin on guitar, Jacques Bolgnesi on trombone and Lucien Dobat on drums to name but a part of the line-up, but of course it's Dibango holding court on the vibes, marimba, sax and organ who brings the unmistakable magic to the music.
Review: Jitwam is an already accomplished, beatmaker who brings even more goodness on this new album. It is a work that fuses totters samples and edits with plenty of live instrumentals and brings to mind plenty of peaceful moments during the busyness of everyday life. The album was years in the making we are told and was inspired by time he spent in London but also his adventures in New York City. There are some guest features from Melanie Charles and Akhtari and a mixture of processed vocals, heady soul sounds and lush jazz moves.
Review: Opa's Back Home was first reocrded in 1975 but not released until 1996; it was the fourth and final album by the esteemed Uruguayan fusion band, whose preferred admixture was usually some melted pot of funk and samba, making for an impressive heuristic building on their intuitive recalling of their mutual upbringing in South America. Mysteriously (for reasons unknown to the band), Opa's debut was shelved and remained so until the mid-1990s. But the story goes that it was recorded after renowned label producer and owner Larry Rosen heard the band playing in a Brooklyn nightclub; with this in mind, Back Home makes for an ironic title, since the sonic turn expressed by the band is not one of homesickness, but rather that of an immersion in New York's metamorphous music scene ('Brooklynville' has an instant proto-hip-hop vibe, if not for its original urban field recording, then certainly for its bulbous broken funk twang). Now reissued on vinyl and CD via Far Out, you won't want to miss this round trip.
Review: Horacio Chivo Borraro is an Argentine saxophonist who toured with many bands and artists in the 1960s and 70s. His album Blues Para Un Cosmonauta is a curt four-tracker of naive-not-naive free jazz and avant-garde spiritualisms, all of which, in theme, collapse the boundary between actual space exploration and that of the figurative astral plane. A comparatively rare jazz record, now reissued in greater numbers, its mystique is backed up by its musical dubiousness, with quizzically trilling synths on the title track, or the potent and full-bodied electric pianos on 'Cancion De Cuna Para Un Bebe Del Ano 2000', spreading both confusion and delight.
Review: Legendary Italian drummer Tullio De Piscopo's quintet offered up the magnificent Future Percussion in 1978. It is a cult classic album for collocates and anyone else that now gets a deserving reissue owing to its hard to fid and expressive nature. It is a fantastic suite of cuts with rare musicality and expressive jazzy sax solos, splashing cymbals and rousing drum work. These are powerful evocative pieces that can elicit everything from rage to romance, tears to sweat. Music like this will never age.
Tony Allen - "Don't Believe The Dancers" (Mophono remix)
Midnight Hour - "Phoenix" (Theon Cross remix)
Katalyst - "Reflections" (Bei Ru remix)
Jean Carne - "Love Brings Happiness" (Melanie Charles remix)
Henry Franklin - "Black Rainbow" (Shabaka Hutchins remix)
Lonnie Liston Smith - "African Sun" (feat Kaidi Tatham - Tall Black Guy remix)
Garrett Saracho - "Altitude" (LO & Diisko remix)
Phil Ranelin & Wendell Harrison - "Running With The Tribe" (DJ Nyack remix)
Review: To mark the 20th instalment in their popular and ongoing series of collaborative albums, Jazz Is Dead, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have decided to serve up fresh remixes of cuts from the series' bulging back catalogue. Given the series love of fusing jazz's past and present, it's a concept that makes perfect sense. The resultant rubs are uniformly inspired, too, with our picks of a very strong bunch including Shabaka Hutchings' fantastic revision of Henry Franklin hook-up 'African Sun', Mophono's psychedelic, dancefloor-ready tweak of Tony Allen collaboration 'Don't Believe The Dancers' (which comes complete with heavy drums and hazy, Fela-esque horns), Theon Cross's drum & bass style re-imagining of 'Phoenix' (featuring the Midnight Hour), and Bei Ru's duty, head-nodding hip-hop interpretation of Katalyst collab 'Reflections'.
Review: Brazilian saxophonist and composer Glaucus Linx and French percussionist and composer Antoine Olivier are a long-standing and fruitful musical pair. They are known for their unique mix of Afro-Brazilian Candomble rhythms and jazz, and they never sound better than on this album Kan. For the first tie ever the album is now on vinyl and it comes on Brazilian DJ, producer and MIMS resident, DJ Tahira's brand new label in collaboration with Memoria Discos. The sounds manage to be ancient and ancestral as well as contemporary and futuristic. The brilliant 'Canto de Xango' is a standout tune here amongst many.
Review: Soyuz follows up their 2022 debut Force Of The Wind with a stark but subdued reissue of their second album, Ii, released three years earlier in 2019. The album captures a pivotal evolution in the band's career, the recordings giving a snapshot of what would become their sound on Force Of The Wind, yet with echoes of avant-psychedelic-pop footprints from yester years. Produced at a time when bandleader Alex Chumak had moved from Minsk to Kyiv, torn between the need to try something new and the homesickness it brought about, Ii nicely captures the slow burn of homesickness extended across a long bouts of travel and transience, through stylistic recollections of Mikita Arlou, Ethiopian jazz and Italian library music.
Review: Sessa's Grandeza, his debut album, marks a fresh, minimalist approach to modern Brazilian music. Released in 2019, the album blends the rich textures of Brazil's musical heritage with a stripped-back aesthetic. Sessa's songs, sung in Portuguese, evoke the sensual lyricism of Caetano Veloso and the melodic grace of Tom Jobim and Arthur Verocai. Yet, the music's sparse arrangement draws comparisons to Leonard Cohen's bareness, enriched by hints of tropicalia, psychedelia, and the spiritual jazz of Moondog and Pharoah Sanders. Grandeza is an intimate exploration of love, the human body, and the vibrant hues of Brazilian music. Recorded between Sao Paulo and New York City, the album's delicate production emphasises Sessa's deep connection to Brazil's musical tradition while pushing into new, understated territory. Sessa is an amazing songwriter, known for his enigmatic and sensuous style. With Grandeza, Sessa solidifies his place as one of Brazil's most promising voices, weaving together a timeless yet refreshingly modern sound.
Review: Los Diablos Rojos is the renowned Peruvian cumbia band that has achieved global recognition for its unique tropical sound while defying fleeting trends with enduring appeal. Emerging from CaNete Chico, their distinct instrumental tropical music set them apart from their contemporaries and over the years, they have led a musical trend that continues to gain acclaim. As pioneers, they serve as a benchmark for modern tropical bands with their creativity and resilience and innovative approach that challenges existing norms. Their musical freshness is on full display in Ritmo Satanico, a truly tropical international delight.
Review: Spanish funk-rock group Barrabas formed in the 70s and had big success through that decade and the next. Drummer and producer Fernando Arbex lead the band and fomented a fusion of Latin rock and jazz-funk initially, before moving into a more disco orientated sound later on. Power was the band's second album and it came in 1973 with country-tinged tunes such as 'Boogie Rock', high speed funk workouts like 'Keep On Moving' and then more jazzy library sounds such as 'The Horse.' The second half of the album touches on busy dance floor funk like 'Casanova' and more stripped back and deep cuts like 'Children.'
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