MUSIC

Recorded as a live jam it's similar to The KLF’s Chill Out fused with Yokota’s unmistakable sound palette and Castle’s gift for storytelling. Initially CD only. Originally released in 95’ via CD on the seminal U.S ambient label, Silent, Numinous Island is the result of live jam sessions between Yokota and Castle. Several original tracks were recorded to DAT tape and then mixed to create a long form audio travelogue to an otherworldly destination. The result is something similar to the KLF’s Chill Out paired with Yokota’s unmistakable sound palette and Castle’s gift for storytelling. The vinyl edition has been faithfully edited by David Fogarty for uninterrupted hi–fidelity vinyl playback, maintaining the original track sequencing and energy of the CD version.

Music From Memory is pleased to present the new LP by Krefeld-born, Berlin-based artist Philipp Otterbach entitled 'The Dahlem Diaries'. Recorded in a little-visited corner of the German capital, 'The Dahlem Diaries' is a convergence of ideas, sketches and tracks, both old and new, most of which were produced between 2020-2022. Whilst eerie atmospheres, electronics and drums have played a pivotal role in Philipp’s earlier releases, his latest is a rather more introspective affair, in which the guitar takes a leading role. A role Otterbach uses to quietly bring light and hope to his music. Speaking about his writing process, Philipp explains that, based around his original compositions, “Friends were nice enough to contribute additional parts on their instruments which I then reworked, put together and re-contextualized. The recordings encapsulate a very specific moment in time, one that would have sounded perhaps very different the day before or after.” Combined with a strong use of effects and field recordings, 'The Dahlem Diaries' feels somewhat like a scene or fragment from a story, in which the narrative remains undefined. It is a playful album that is something of a blurred underwater adventure, sounding as bright as it is hazy, even psychedelic at times, yet with an almost melancholic positivity. In Philipp’s own words: “It could be an album about friendship and being at one with myself, whilst at the same time bringing a certain seriousness to my music, but not necessarily to myself; there is also a playful humour hidden in there. ” MFM063 will appear in LP and digital format, comes with artwork by David McFarline, and is expected to release July 23rd. Purchases via the official Music From Memory Bandcamp page include two exclusive digital only bonus tracks.

"Pulso is about sexual desire, my desire. Me as the subject, not only the object of it. I sing my pleasure and daydreams, because it's my body and my imagination, so I know what I like to feel." Sonically inspired by reggaeton, a genre that is personally nostalgic and reminiscent of times spent at parties listening to the imported genre as a teenager in her home country, Spain. Clara! works with producers who don’t usually dabble in the genre - SKY H1, Pearson Sound and Low Jack - in order to mix their own, unique universes with it.

Since 2014, Brighter Days has been a part of the rich tapestry of Amsterdam nightlife – a semi-regular party promoting positivity and inclusiveness run by resident DJs Kamma and Masalo. On the back of the platform provided by the party, the duo has notched up a string of memorable club and festival appearances, a regular Brighter Days show on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM, and a memorable Boiler Room set streamed live from Dekmantel Festival. Now Kamma and Masalo have taken the next step and curated a Brighter Days compilation for Rush Hour, a collection that does a terrific job in offering up slept-on and unreleased gems – including a clutch of their own tried-and-tested re-edits – while also accurately representing the sound, style and ethos of the event that inspired it. Like Kamma and Masalo’s event, which invariably takes place in intimate dancing spaces in Amsterdam, the Brighter Days compilation offers up an open-minded, club-friendly soundtrack that joins the dots between crate-digging obscurities from the recent and distant past, fresh cuts, ‘secret weapons’ and previously unreleased music from young, local producers who have become regular faces on Brighter Days dancefloors. Across nine tracks, Kamma and Masalo deliver an enticing blend of tactile and colourful house, disco, basement-ready throb-jobs, inspired dancefloor dubs and righteous boogie jams, some of which are appearing on vinyl for the very first time (see Haroumi Hosono and Yasuhiko’s ‘Turquois’, an exceedingly rare, CD-only chunk of deep, throbbing tribal house intoxication). There are highlights everywhere you look, from the piano-house rush of the ‘Subterranean Mix Edit’ of S’Xpress’s overlooked 1990 single ‘Nothing To Lose’ and the South African Kwaito-boogie brilliance of Cisco The Champ’s ‘Move On’, to the Italo-disco excellence of Hugh Bullen’s ‘Alisand’, and Mr Fingers’ jacking 1988 remix of ‘We’re Gonna Work It Out’ by fellow Chicagoan house producers North/Clybourn. Kamma and Masalo’s remixing and re-editing skills are put in the spotlight, too. There’s the edit of Discotheque’s 1982 Dutch-Belgian disco classic ‘For Your Love’ and a previously unreleased ‘dub’ edit of French-Cameroonian artist Anyzette’s 1984 gem ‘Baladoun’, a low-slung slice of drum machine-rich body music that blurs the boundaries between Italo-disco, Afro-boogie and proto-techno. Completing the package are two cuts that demonstrate the duo’s love of showcasing tracks by young and little-known Dutch producers. Peffa’s ‘Routine’, an immersive and emotive treat that blends elements of deep house and Detroit techno, is just one of numerous unreleased tracks by the producer that Kamma and Masalo has been showcasing in their sets in recent years, while Desmon – whose ‘Submerge’ is a woozy, off-beat deep house treat – has been a regular on Brighter Days dancefloors since the start. It’s a fitting nod to what makes Brighter days special: a close-knit community of dancers and inspired, lesser-known music old and new.

Los Angeles-based saxophonist Sam Gendel ends 2023 with a remarkable run of releases, this time in collaboration with Ugnė Uma to bring us the mind-boggling Tam tikri objektai erdvėje (Lithuanian for Some Particular Objects in Space). Each track on the album is simply titled as a letter from the word "Saturn", and is conceptually cosmic, touching on both inner and outer space. Through improvisation they conjure a genuinely alien soundworld from strange musical instruments, sampling their own music and electronics. Incredibly far-out hybrid forms echo the peculiar mutant images on the cover art. Sam Gendel and Ugnė Uma's Tam Tikri Objektai Erdvėje album sketches a layered, melismatic and intertextual view on what both performers define as a lightness of being. Ugnė Uma's musical stance is influenced by experimental poetry and Lithuania's 20th century underground music scene - jazz and folk, resulting from the liberation of the country's independence movements. Sam Gendel, from Los Angeles, is a saxophonist and producer, proficient on more instruments than the saxophone alone, whose recorded work both solo and collaborative has brought him acclaim as a vital new voice in modern jazz and beyond. Tam Tikri Objektai Erdvėje is Lithuanian and translates as Some Particular Objects in Space. The six tracks on the album stand for every letter of the word Saturn. They sketch out a sound palette both fragile and full of forward momentum. With hints of improv, sampling their own recorded work and sounds of a childhood's Yamaha Portasound PSS-290 synth into abstractions of pop and r&b, some of these tracks reach an almost balearic feel, the more contemplative end of it. With lyrics delving into cosmic phenomena, Tam Tikri Objektai Erdvėje is an album about space, whether cosmic or inward or the one in between. It easily surpasses the sum of its influences and the materials and tactics used to produce it.

Far Out Recordings presents the new album from Brazilian guitarist and composer Fabiano do Nascimento: Mundo Solo. Recorded at his home studio in Los Angeles (2020) the album is fundamentally the sound of a man alone with his instruments. Utilizing a variety of guitars, including six, seven, and 1ten strings, Oktav guitar and electric baritone guitar, alongside a host of pedals and synthesizers, Fabiano tracked imagined landscapes with expressive, expansive improvisations, which tend toward the more ambient and atmospheric reaches of his recent output. Adopting Hermeto Pascoal's concept of "Universal Music," a rejection of nationalistic tendencies in order to express all of one's musical influences all at once, Fabiano avoided leaning too heavily on any particular musical language, without denying his own musical roots. After studying classical piano as a child, the Rio de Janeiro native discovered the guitar at aged ten. Studying under his late uncle, Lucio Nascimento, he eventually left Brazil for LA, where he soon became an in-demand player for his distinct and authentic sound. He has since released seven albums under his own name and collaborated with renowned Brazilian artists including Arthur Verocai and Airto Moreira, as well as experimental US saxophonist Sam Gendel. Mundo Solo (Do Nascimento's eighth), was recorded in one take per track, with occasional overdubs and a few appearances from collaborators and friends Julien Canthelm (drums on "Etude 1"), Ajurinã Zwarg, (percussion on "CPMV") and Gabe Noel (bass on "Curumim"). Fabiano Do Nascimento's consummate mastery of his instrument has afforded him a freedom of expression few can claim. Blending the emotional with the elemental, Mundo Solo is a stunning snapshot of solitude and the beauty which can blossom within it.

An exploration of misplaced desire and all-consuming romantic obsession, told through a series of beautifully constructed leftfield pop songs. La Porte, the second studio album by Charlotte Kouklia aka Charlène Darling, finds the artist and her group building a self-contained musical world via French and English language vocals, and a minimalist backing of guitar, organ, bass and drums.

At times recalling the feminist post-punk of The Raincoats, the avant songcraft of Brigitte Fontaine, or the psychedelic vignettes of Cate Le Bon, in truth Charlène Darling sounds like herself. The arrangements are playfully experimental, dubbed out percussion bubbling over the stripped back instrumentation, or rough tape edits disrupting lush harmonies, but never losing sight of the earworm hooks that make these songs so addictively listenable. Step through the door and walk right in.

Charlotte is one quarter of the band Rose Mercie. After a beguiling series of DIY tape and CD-R releases, her first widely distributed solo album, Saint-Guidon, was released in 2019.

boygenius is Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus
All songs written and performed by boygenius except "Ketchum, ID" by boygenius and Christian Lee Hutson
Bass on this recording by Anna Butterss
Drums on this recording by Elizabeth Goodfellow
Recorded at Sound City, Van Nuys, CA
Engineered by Joseph Lorge
Mixed by Collin Pastore except "Me & My Dog" mixed by Joseph Lorge
Mastered by Heba Kadry at Timeless Mastering
Photo by Lera Pentelute

In 2021 Nijs and Smolders started a series of free improvisations. Each came from a different background (see bio’s) and wanted to explore musical horizons that they were not used to. As a next step they decided to record an album of composed tracks. The experimental platform shifted from long improv sessions to composition and structure, with the work of Delaere as a source of inspiration. The material of his work, the unevenness, the detail of pigments clashing, superimposing on the canvas served as a metaphor and inspiration for sonic canvases that they constructed. The result has become a record full of surprises. Rhythm, drone, dynamics, timbre, notes, tones, all have been thrown in the tumble dryer and during the process many times led the two musicians towards an outcome they couldn’t have possibly foreseen. But here we are. Our own experience is that the music works best when it’s played loud. Crank up the level of your amp and dive into these 35 minutes of colorful sounds.

Follow-up to 2010’s acclaimed EP Addis-Abeba, Mercato is the debut album by Swiss band Imperial Tiger Orchestra, the finest connoisseurs and grooviest performers of Ethiopian music from the Golden Age. Raphaël Anker, trumpet player from Geneva, one day decides to gather musicians for a live performance revisiting the golden age of Ethiopian music. It's 2007, and the experience is so memorable that the one shot happening becomes a band: Imperial Tiger Orchestra. Consisting of members with very diverse backgrounds (free jazz, noise experimentations, contemporary music, twisted pop…) the Orchestra tests the grounds with an EP and a 7" breaking the boundaries of genres followed by a trip to Addis-Abeba where they perform with local luminaries and learn about the large diversity of Ethiopian music. A life-changing experience which brings them back to the studio for their debut album: Mercato. Overseen with flair by Ethiopian music expert Jeoren Visse, Mercato is a mesmerizing re-interpretation of Ethiopian music's golden age mixed with the digitalized themes that appeared in the 80s and filtered through the eclectic influences of the Orchestra. It's a fascinating retro-futuristic piece of music, close yet totally different from the songs that inspired the band. It's progressive Ethiopian rock! Whether saluting Mahmoud Ahmed on "Lale Lale", re-interpretating the classic wedding theme "Shinet", or taking Martha Ashagani's "Zoma" to new heights, the Orchestra always does it with its unique vision while honoring the Ethiopian originals. Thunderous rhythms and feverish hooks, down tempo moments and fast paced epiphanies, electronic sounds and ambient nirvanas, Mercato explores multiples paths and never loses its warm groove. A winter Mercato sure to bring fire to stages this summer!

Session Victim’s 5th studio album ‘low key, low pressure’ feels like an anathema to today’s fast-paced, industry-driven musical landscape – and for all the right reasons.

Having released two intense, dancefloor-focused 12“s on Rhythm Section and Delusions Of Grandeur over the past year, their return to NIGHT TIME STORIES brings out their trippy, headsy side once again.

And despite the pandemic downtime being over, Hauke and Matthias remain holed up in the studio, jamming, head nodding to drum breaks, and churning out records like the one in front of you.

Spanning 10 tunes – 12 if you count the limited bonus 7“ that comes with the first pressing – the LP is undiluted Session Victim, with their occasional trio partner Carsten “Erobique“ Meyer as the sole musical guest on the library-esque SOFT LANDING, a tune reminiscent of something the boys would try to hunt down on one of their compulsive record store rummages to feed it to their Akais.

You’ll also find the sequel to one of their cornerstone tracks from their 2020 album NEEDLEDROP, Jazzbeat 07. (It’s JAZZBEAT 08, in case you were wondering.)

Having acquired a taste for the occasional cover version over the years, the duo closes the album out with their rendition of Instra:mental’s PHOTOGRAPH. Tackling such a classic is a daunting task which they approach in a gentle way, not swaying too far from the original, subtly reimagining the rhythmical foundation and exchanging the distinctive playground sounds from the original with field recordings of the locals populating the gritty area around their Neukölln studio.

Being longtime fans of Swedish organ player Bo Hansson, Hauke and Matthias tried to reach out to the people responsible for his cover artwork - who today are in their late 80ies and have not answered ever since.

Things came together in the most fortunate way when the pair were introduced to French artist Xavier d’espinay Saint Luc and his enchanting pencil wizardry. The outstanding result is what you’re holding in your hands right now.

But what do you really need to know? This is ‘low key, low pressure’. It’s got pristine drum chops to zoom in, hazy melodies to zone out, and all the texture you need to lose yourself in the details. 

Following "CITTA' '93," which has already been released worldwide to great acclaim, the performance at the Kichijoji Baus Theater on February 13, four days earlier, is now available as "BAUS '93. The performance, which was Raley's return to the stage after a five-year absence, is also known as a legendary performance. As in "CITTA '93," Makoto Kubota again put his heart and soul into mixing and mastering the 8-channel digital multitrack master, adding cassette recordings made at the venue and stereo outs from the tuning console. The result is a concert reconstructed by Makoto Kubota with a sound image that no one has ever heard before. The members of the band on that day were Takashi Mizutani (Vo, G), Katsuhiko Ishii (G), Kiyohiro Takada (B), and Toshiro Mimaki (Dr.) The lineup was different from the rhythm section at the concert four days later, and you can hear a performance with a different face from the previous "CITTA' '93". The first pressing of the CD will also include a DVD containing a video created by Akira Uji, who used to be in charge of visual direction for Raley's, based on a video he shot on the same day on stage. The commentary was written by Jennifer Lucy Allan, a writer for "The Wire" and "The Quietus" who also has a BBC radio show. In addition, Julian Cope, well-known as the author of "Jap Rock Sampler," the monstrous book that introduced the world to Japanese underground rock, including the Larrys, has made a special contribution.

As Young Druid, John T. Gast distills his most endearing Midi-eval energies into a suite of LED candle-lit fugues and funky Myrdas, making a sterling follow-up to his UVA_roots_and_destruction mixtape for Richard Sides’ Bus and the INNA BABALON tape in 2016, which was also self-issued on his 5 Gate Temple label. Concocted from a bank of recordings alchemised on one box and a two-track recorder, Young Druid follows 12 ley-lines of investigation with findings equally applicable to occult soirees and the downtime of amateur archaeologists and tyrannical trap lords alike; conjuring a haul of exquisitely ornate, glyphic hooks, gilded dub grooves and smoked-out chamber themes of a supremely rarified yet earthly air. They bear a striking resemblance to the bright, poised baroque MIDI orchestrations of Coil as much as King Tubby’s classic digi dubs, splitting the fine difference between K. Leimer’s new age experiments and Roland Young’s mystiphonic experiments or even Wiley and Geneeus’ early grime etudes; essentially divining an obscure, arcane and meditative sense of spirituality that transcends time and place with a broad appeal to armchair and headphone-dwelling mystics of all stripes. If you need any prompts, check the creamy luft of Young Druid for a start, then the cross-eyed invocation of Fugue and the Jammer-meets-kenji Kawai stepper, Myrda, and Blue’s exquisite trip hop pallor and you should have a good measure of the variety and consistency of mood and vibe therein. Strongly recommended.

Terekke drifts gracefully onto Music From Memory with a long player of looping ambient pad pressure...BIG TIP!'The recording of Improvisational Loops began in 2012 during yoga classes at Body Actualized Center in NYC. In the spirit of past ’New Age’ or Minimal music, it aims to open up a space within the room giving the listener a chance to explore inward or outward. It was recorded using a digital synthesizer, reverb, and looper." Terekke, January 2018'

Palestre is a study of higher-dimensional spaces and altered states of consciousness. It explores parallel dimensions and temporal anomalies from a perspective that blends mythology, modern physics, ADHD, transcendental music and club culture. Sciogli Assurdi was recorded between art galleries, clubs, squats, and folkloric festivities in 2018.

Príncipe zoom out from dancefloor immediacy to dreamiest zones with XEXA's outstanding debut of world-building wanderlust, oscillating between bloozy ambient intimacy to lilting rhythmelodies and widescreen modern classical tipped if yr into Vox Populi, Emeka Ogboh, Laurel Halo, Rafael Toral, Arthur Russell, and David Toop. A reminder to never second guess Lisbon’s brilliant Príncipe, ‘Vibrações de Prata’ (’Silver Vibrations’) showcases the sparkling imagination of new signee XEXA. Her striking debut began life as part of her studies at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where she developed a compositional style of organic electro-acoustics woven into impressionistic storytelling, deploying original instrumental performance and nuanced sound design at the service of immersive, poetic aural environments.

Nídia's third full-length is a future-facing suite of mutant Afro-Portuguese rhythms and wormy melodies rooted in Guinea-Bissau's anti-colonial history. Like everything we’ve heard from Nídia, it’s an effortless but deadly amalgamation of peak-time curveballs and gloriously catchy hooks - essential for anyone into DJ Danifox, Nazar, DJ Lycox, Matias Aguayo. '95 MINDJERES' ("95 women" in crioulo) is Nídia's most charged and unforgettable album yet, taking its cues from the women freedom fighters - like Titina Silá and Teodora Gomes - who helped bring Guinea-Bissau to independence from Portuguese colonial rule in the 1960s and '70s. Nídia braids lilting, West African rhythms into multicoloured electronic prangs, sharpened to a knifepoint that cuts straight thru the heart. She asks "it's like?" on opener 'É COMO?', goading us into a search for comparisons. The truth is she's completely out on her own, screwing with the form as she waltzes with familiar elements - hand drums, woodblocks, neon stabs, vibey hooks. On 'Caiomhe' she pushes resonant, clattering percussion into focus, before embracing a warehouse groove on 'To La', shattering its darkness with wafting guitar licks and zig-zagging shakers. She displays a deep knowledge of Euro-washed club forms and pierces them with conspicuous emotion: joy, melancholy and indignation. There are traces of Detroit's sci-fi-minded futurism left in the DNA of 'Sukuku', with its rolling synths and euphoric pads, but Nídia shuttles into a different zone, chopping the rhythm and never dragging things out for longer than needed. We can hear echoes of Innerzone Orchestra's epochal 'Bug in the Bass Bin', split with Afro-Portuguese rhythms instead of jazz, the result fully transcendent. We're treated to a rare DJ tool with 'cp', and Nídia's club skills are fully on show on ‘Pose’ too, where she refracts the House blueprints of Lil Louis into a martial, horny banger. On 'Mindjeres', she uses invigorating flute and mbira-like chimes to suggest a more downcast mood, before dialling serrated FM synths into tremulous thuds on 'abcd'. And to close, Nídia deploys her most widescreen cut to date - ‘Paradise' - a slow-paced epic that opens with a wash of Art of Noise-style pads and builds to a low warble with trapdoor kicks and pointillistic stabs. Tense but deliriously heady, it's the perfect finale to an album that's immensely uplifting, energising and unforgettable. Príncipe’s best in class.

Lucy Railton trusts in the nuance of her own creative instincts on an intensely modern, quietly radical new album, her second for Modern Love. Following her 2018 solo debut Paradise 94 (LOVE 108LP), and countless collaborations in the time since, Railton's diverse musical circles here bleed into each other, creating an insoluble testament to a lifelong pursuit of sound. The multi-instrumentalist further articulates her own tonal register, embracing her solo strengths and trusting the process to reveal vulnerable and compelling emotional facets through a fluid mix of composition, and pure expression. On the simplest level, Corner Dancer is a record that revels in the momentum of creation. Through a range of approaches, Railton gradually loosens her grip and allows her identities to expose themselves; cut to the bone, sinew and spirit of music making. Reaching outside tried and tested zones, she lands at a charged space characterized by unmetered pacing and an embrace of imperfection, using cello, viella (a medieval cello), Buchla, 808, a fan, synths, horse hair whips, a handheld harp and her own voice, across eight tracks that arc from an opening sequence of ruptured asymmetries, to something bordering the sublime on "Blush Study," the album's masterful closing flourish. In between, Railton invokes psychoacoustic, heady spins and repetitions, while also allowing space for live performance, a mode to which she feels most attuned, and here captured best on "Held in Paradise" (her violin debut) and "Rib Cage." Collapsing boundaries, Railton harnesses a lifetime of formal training in order to patiently trace more ambiguous, intimate and sometimes deviant shapes, operating to a fuzzed logic that loops back to themes with an ingenious underlying dramaturgy of energies, dismantling the form from the inside out, in a way that bends through feeling, rather than design.。

BACK IN PRINT! This is a soul version of Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music, a collection of gorgeous soul music selected with a keen aesthetic eye.

This is an unusual album in the catalogue of Ornette Coleman, and one that passes by most critics. It is however a unique insight into the ‘free jazz’ pioneer’s way of working in the early 70s. Recorded at his large loft space in downtown New York which inspired a whole scene of experimental musicians who were locked out of playing established venues. The music is a romp showing Ornette playing trumpet as well as saxophone. His quartet which featured second saxophonist Dewey Redman alongside long term cohorts Ed Blackwell and Charlie Haden prove to be the perfect foil for this short set. This is the first vinyl reissue in nearly 20 years and utilises a fresh 24/96 transfer from the original production master.

Hive Mind and Sing-A-Song Fighter are delighted to present to you their first collaborative release, the amazing solo guitar album from legendary Congolese guitarist Kahanga Dekula aka ”Vumbi”. At last, Mr Dekula is finally releasing an instrumental solo guitar album after more than 40 years of playing lead guitar in numerous great bands and orchestras. Vumbi, who now lives in Sweden, is one of Europe's greatest ambassadors for Congolese music, has got a special story to tell and he uses his magnificent, infectious guitar playing to do so... Vumbi and the guitar go back a long time. Born with polio in the Kivu province of North Eastern Congo, Vumbi grew up in a Swedish missionary home and picked up the guitar at an early age. Listening intently to the radio, he learned the style and rhythms of Rumba and Soukous from the giants of the Congolese guitar sound, Dr Nico and Franco. "Listening and playing Soukous music makes you feel happy to be alive and you just have to dance to it no matter what". In the early 80’s Vumbi emigrated to Tanzania where he successfully auditioned to play lead guitar for the legendary group Orchestra Maquis. He toured extensively with the band, and from them he earned the nickname Vumbi, his solos being one of the main attractions of Orchestra Maquis' live shows. He moved to Sweden in the early '90s and played in numerous bands including the Makonde Band with Ugandan artist Sammy Kasule and Ahmadu Jarr's Highlife Orchestra. In 2008 Vumbi put together his own group, The Dekula Band, playing his beloved rumba and Soukous every saturday night to an eager crowd of dancers in a worn and faded restaurant in Stockholm called Lilla Wien. Vumbi has since taken the group's infectious and hypnotoic sound to Stockholm Jazz Festival, Face Z in Geneva and festivals and shows around Europe. Swedish producer Karl-Jonas Winqvist (founder of Sing-A-Song Fighter and member of Senegalese/Swedish act Wau Wau Collectif) has been a longtime fan of Vumbi Dekula’s artistry which led to him releasing The Dekula Band's debut album ”Opika” in 2019 with the Dekula Band. While watching the band perform was always a blast, says Karl Jonas, his desire to hear Vumbi play on his own, without the thunderous drums, wailing saxophones and chanting vocals grew in his mind, “Because, in a way, Vumbi’s guitar playing is like an orchestra on its own. And the idea of just concentrating on all the amazing riffs and beautiful, uplifting melodies was just so appealing”. Karl-Jonas proposed the idea of producing a solo album to Vumbi, and within a week the production process began Recorded in two days during lockdown at the Helter Skelter Studios in Stockholm, Karl and Vumbi allowed the music to guide them. Vumbi was inspired to play 2nd guitar adding some harmonies and melodies here and there, and on the final track (”UN Forces Get Out of the DR of Congo”) he introduced a banjo into the world of ”Congo guitar”. Karl Jonas started up his old rhythm box machine to some of the songs to see how Vumbi and his playing would react to it. Elsewhere, wordless backing vocals from Karl-Jonas and Emma Nordenstam were added to Maamajacy, bass melodica by Karl-Jonas appears on Weekend, and a little piano tinkering from Emma adds some sparkle to Zuku. But clearly, Vumbi's virtuoso playing remains the star of Congo Guitar.

Hostile Environment is the first album in over forty years from the legendary Creation Rebel, who were the original On-U Sound house band and responsible for classics such as Dub from Creation and Starship Africa. The trio of Crucial Tony, Eskimo Fox and Magoo are back with producer Adrian Sherwood to create a modern spin on their heavyweight dubwise rhythms.

It is the seventh album credited to the group, who originally coalesced as a live backing group for the late, great Prince Far I, in the process sharing stages with the likes of The Clash, The Slits and Don Cherry. Vocals from their former band leader, preserved on archive tapes, feature on the new record, as well as guest contributions from the likes of Cyrus Richards (musical director for Horace Andy and the Dub Asante Band), Italian synth maestro Gaudi, and fast chat king Daddy Freddy.

The album title refers to former British Prime Minister Theresa May’s controversial policy towards asylum seekers, and the recent Windrush scandal, all too relevant to a group of musicians of Jamaican origin who have spent their whole lives operating in the darkening shadow of a former colonial power with a staggeringly short memory for historic wrongs.

Innse Gall ‘The Islands of the Strangers’ is a companion piece to the film An Dà Shealladh ‘The Two Sights’; a sound-forward documentary that cinematically re-connects the disappearing Gaelic oral tradition of the Outer Hebrides to its surroundings. The accompanying LP explores the shifting acoustic ecology of the islands interwoven fragments of dialogue, song, and industry. These two compositions were developed from studies made for the soundtrack of the film using the same elements: hydrophone and field recordings collected on the islands of Barra, Berneray, North Uist, Harris, & Lewis between 2017-19, collaged and assembled in Ithaca, New York 2017-20.