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Arriving two years after his last full-length effort ("Jallalla"), Lagartijeando (aka Mati Zundel) once again returns to Wonderwheel with an expansive new album, "La Tercera Vision." A maturation of the Lagartijeando sound, "La Tercera Vision" ("the third vision") sees the Argentinian wade into uncharted, if sonically familiar waters, bridging his Andean inspired electronic-folk with psychedelic ambience, West African instrumentation, and even a few moments of pop melodies. The beauty of Lagartijeando's work is its ability to marry seemingly unrelated styles and sounds to something seamless and wholly original.

"Isla de Sol," the opening track, introduces the album with a taste of Mati's classic sound: Andean pan flute, the familiar chugging rhythm of a cumbia beat, luscious string arrangements, and a sampled vocal. Moving on, "Mano de Fatima" (the project's second single) sees a fusion of traditional Moroccan Gnawa instrumentation with digital cumbia rhythms, featuring the work of Khalil Mounji on vocals and guembri (aka sintir, the three-stringed, skin-covered lute used in Gnawa music). Eva de Marce - a singer-songwriter-producer based in Madrid - takes centre-stage on "Tierra Natal," with her vocals coming through in a rich whisper, singing a melody reminiscent of a lullaby.

At the album's halfway mark, Lagartijeando introduces a new direction for his sound with "Onda," a collaboration with the Brazilian artist Tagua Tagua. An earworm of a melody is sung over a joyous beat that nods to pop sensibilities while being satisfyingly infused with Zundel's sonic DNA. It's a gem of a tune that suggests an exciting new sound for the Argentinian. A few more collaborations close out the album, two with Mexican singer-songwriter Madeleine Bachan Kaur ("Crepúsculo" & "La Montaña Sagrada"), "Magaleña" with Javier Arce, and the album closer "Ware" featuring Sajra. Also included in the album is "Sideral Cumbia," the first single released earlier this Summer, which has seen extensive press and radio support from the likes of Vice / Noisey, Electronic Groove, Sounds And Colours, KCRW ("Today's Top Tune" & "Morning Becomes Eclectic"), and KEXP, as well as landing a spot on Spotify's "Fresh Dance" playlist.

Lagartijeando is the name of producer, musician and DJ Mati Zundel. Strongly influenced by his travels throughout Latin America, Mati's signature psychedelic dance tracks latch onto everything from traditional folk sounds from the Bolivian altiplano to the jungle beats of Brazil. Mati hypnotically fuses his traditional influences (with an emphasis on shaman chant and charango loops) with contemporary electronic beats, creating a sound that once left NPR speechless.

"La Tercera Vision" is due out on Brooklyn's Wonderwheel Recordings October 29th.

Multi-instrumentalist UMUT ÇAĞLAR (KONSTRUKT, KARKHANA), former BABA ZULA-drummer FAHRETTIN AYKUT and the Finnish saxophone player / shakuhachi specialist JONE TAKAMAKI join forces in a stunning improvised live set that blends Free Jazz with East-Asian ZEN-sounds.

The idea for "Myth Of The Drum. Urban Transformation" dates from an art exhibition in Istanbul 2017 where FAHRETTIN AYKUT exhibited an installation called "Urvban Transformation" that combined painting and music, dealing with the relation of humankind and earth which is symbolized through a tree put upside-down.. AYKUT, former drummer in the Turkish group BABA ZULA and these days a well-known architect in Turkey, asked his longtime friend UMUT CAGLAR, multi-instrumentalist in KONSTRUKT and KARKHANA, to join for an actual performance … CAGLAR on his side was in touch with JONE TAKAMAKI who has been a central figure of the Finnish Free Jazz / Avantgarde scene since the 1970s. His album "Universal Mind" (1982) is a sought-after collector's item of European Spiritual Jazz, he was a member of the group ROOMMUSHKLAHN (with RAOUL BJÖRKENHEIM a.o.) and in 1991 he joined the ECM signed Finnish jazz/rock/improv collective KRAKATAU, founded and run by RAOUL BJÖRKENHEIM, and last but not least TAKAMAKI received the first ever Pekka Pöyry Award. Besides being deeply rooted in jazz, he is also a specialist in Japanese shakuhachi and hocchiku flute playing which makes this adhoc-trio so extraordinary: repetitive drumming, shamanistic throat sounds and plenty of string and reed instruments, a constant ebb and flow of sounds and energy … neither pure jazz nor world music but a blend of both, forming a fascinating third! Meditative in its continuously pulsating rhythm, cathartic in the moments of sonic outbursts …

A few months after the Istanbul art fair performance, the trio (augmented to a quartet by ALAN WILKINSON) played 2 showsatLondon's Cafe OTO and gossip has it saying that THURSTON MOORE who attended the show confessed afterwards that he was very touched emotionally.

Credits:

All Music by Fahrettin Aykut/Umut Çağlar/Jone Takamäki.

A Konstrukt Joint.

Jone Takamäki: tenor saxophone, ney, shakuhachi, clarinet.

Umut Çağlar: guimbri, kalimba, gralla, zurna, mey, flutes.

Fahrettin Aykut: electronic percussion; drums, cymbals.

Recorded live at BantMag. Havuz/Bina in Istanbul (October 3rd, 2017) through a Tascam portable recorder.

Produced by Umut Çağlar.

Mastered & cut by Anne Traegert at D&M, Berlin

Honeysmack brings the acid back on this fresh take on his track Entity which was lifted from the album “Post Acid” released last year.

He invites remixes from his dear friends in MSTRKRFT, CJ Bolland and the elusive two4K.

This EP is made for the dancefloor with MSTRKRFT creating an acid house style banger from the future and CJ Bolland bringing his A-game with the electro style that never gets old. two4K takes it on a deeper and darker journey while Honeysmack reprises the tune with his trademark acid workout!

With Honeysmack currently tearing up the dance floors by literally setting up and playing live right in the middle of them, it was time to bring this EP to the world!

Need we say any more?

Brief Encounter, THE soul band from North Wilkesboro, N.C., formed the 1970's and recorded through the the 90s with various labels as well as self releasing. We have been working with band members Montie & Gary Bailey (who has actually visited me in Scotland) to bring you a few releases over the last few years, culminating in this final release alongside their rarest and unknown single when they were known as Sounds of Soul. Never a step wrong, not a bad track to be seen, one of America's finest 70s soul bands.

Gratitude is the eagerly anticipated new solo album from Abiodun Oyewole, the poet, teacher and founding member of The Last Poets. The album liner notes include an extensive new interview with Abiodun himself, detailing the writing process of the album.

Looking back, the Last Poets are often referred to as the godfathers of rap, and by listening to their early recordings; it’s easy to hear why. Their words encompass revolution, sex, death, drugs, and Black Power - they own their words. From their mouths – words are a sense of pride, a statement, and a feeling of empowerment. There’s no self-conscious hang-up with the Last Poets using words as an art form. On May 19th, 1968 (in celebration of Malcolm X’s birthday), The Last Poets performed their first ever concert in Mount Morris Park (in Harlem), now called Marcus Garvey Park. Their debut album was released in 1970 including poet/singer Abiodun Oyewole.

Now AFAR is proud to present a whole new way of thinking socially, politically, emotionally, and humanly – via the perspective of Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets with his new solo album ‘Gratitude’ - it's not a protest album, it's an inspirational LP/CD via the inclusive words and God-like voice of Abiodun - this is not an angry man, but an older wiser man - reflecting on his life and spiritual quests. Rappers love him for coining the phrase "Party and Bullshit" decades ago - but this is not that - this is a sacred journey with a universal message for all people regardless of their background and nationality.

“ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SPOKEN-WORD GROUPS THAT PIONEERED HIP-HOP” NPR

“EXPERIMENTING WITH STREET POETRY AND PERCUSSIVE SOUND, THE MUSIC OF HARLEM’S LAST POETS HELPED LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR HIP-HOP” ROLLING STONE

After 30 years living in the US, between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Matt Goss has decided it’s time to return home to London. Goss’ new solo album “The Beautiful Unknown” will launch an exciting new solo chapter in the British pop music legend’s career, following a resurgence of recognition off the back of 2018’s BAFTA winning documentary After The Screaming Stops.

As one half of BROS, the global chart-topping, cultural pop phenomenon, Matt has amassed 16+ million album sales, with debut album Push going 4x Platinum in the UK as well as hitting #1 in 22 countries. The younger of the BROS siblings, Matt Goss is officially the youngest artist to sell out and headline Wembley Stadium, as well as a joint world record holder for selling out two nights at London’s O2 Arena in just seven seconds.

Matt Goss is a true internationally recognized performing icon, with Las Vegas residences at the world renowned Caesar’s Palace and The Mirage hotels.

Alternately author, actor, outstanding performer - notably in his last piano voice concert “Dans La Peau", Marc Lavoine is a total artist who revels in his freedom in all areas of expression. Three and a half years after his last studio album, he returns to his first love. "Adult Jamais", the new album by Marc Lavoine, includes the duets with Grand Corps Malade and Virginie Ledoyen. Reviews and Ads – R2 and London Macadam

South London genre-blending story tellers Alabama 3 are set to further add to their rich musical heritage with a new single ‘Whacked’, available April 30th via Submarine Cat Records, with an album to follow later inAugust.

‘Whacked’ is the first taste of fresh Alabama 3 material since the tragic passing of their beloved and unconventional frontman and songwriter Jake Black, aka The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love, in May of 2019. Jake had Addison’s disease and passed away several days after falling ill during a show at the HighestPoint Festival in Lancashire at only 59 years old.

Then, with the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown upon the world, the band got creative and submerged themselves in their music, teaming up with producer Cam Blackwood(George Ezra, Jack Savoretti, Tom Walker, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes…) to focus their minds on something vital, new and fresh. This can clearly be heard in ‘Whacked’, a song which pays respect to the late co-writer of the song, Pete Dunne.

"A product of old skool Brixton, the legendary Seven Kevin’s Pete Dunne threatened us with this song prior to his untimely death,” explains founding member Larry Love. “Despite the heavy manners we are proud to declare we rose to the challenge."

“Whacked was made in the early weeks of the first UK lockdown in March 2020,” remembers producer Cam Blackwood. “I think the hedonistic spirit of the song was amplified a million times by the fact we were making the record remotely - with the musicians in the band recording their parts at home, sending them all to me to collate and arrange - then I would send the instrumental track to Larry to record vocals on. The energy was pretty insane - we were like caged animals desperate to get out.

“We managed to find time three months later (when the first lockdown ended in July 2020) to get together and put the finishing touches to the song,” continues Cam. “Being in the studio with a few beers seemed like a fitting way to finalise the tune and put the last 1% of energy into the recording. This song feels like classic Alabama 3 to me. It’s a banger!”

Indeed it is. A low-slung groove propelled by frontman Larry Love’s infamous throat rattle, with the addictive chorus refrain ‘everybody’s getting whacked on something, something that makes them feel good,’ ‘Whacked’ will loop around your brain like a recurring dream you can’t wake from. These are hedonistic conscious unconscious times.

“You can praise the Lord, you can pass the ammunition, you can be woke you can be wicked you can have the wisdom of Solomon but unless you are ready to get whacked with Alabama 3 there’s no point in dreaming,” states Larry. “Rearrange the rubble, paint your bomb shelters and make sure everybody in the neighbourhood feels good cos we feel like getting stooped and you need to get whacked.”

Alabama 3 are very much back. Time to get whacked.

Sony Classical release - Levit is one of the few pianists who have performed these works live in their entirety. Completed in 1951, Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues – a summary of all the major and minor tonalities – lasts some two and a half hours in total, while Ronald Stevenson’s Passacaglia on DSCH, which he completed in 1963, is an unbroken set of variations lasting nearly an hour and a half. The album’s artwork is specially created by the internationally renowned graphic artist and book designer Christoph Niemann, who regularly illustrates for The New Yorker and The New York Times. His illustration for 'On DSCH' offers a playfully abstract counterpart to this musical experience. Formats are: 3 disc set presented in deluxe paper packaging and includes a limited edition printed insert of the cryptogram that Shostakovich used as his musical signature. Also a a limited Collector’s Edition of 'On DSCH' Vinyl Part One: Shostakovich 24 Prelude And Fugues Op. 87' presented on 3LP 180g vinyl set in gatefold sleeve including a download code. This is part one of the full 'On DSCH' album - vinyl 'Part Two: Stevenson Passacaglia on DSCH' follows in February 2022.

Founded by Freddy DeBoe, longtime Charles Bradley and the Extraordinaires saxman and stalwart, D-BO records' inaugural release are two burning, instrumental sides from the man himself.

"Remember the Good Times" breezy, mid-tempo groove and soulful horn melody sends you on a euphoric, Jr. Walker-laced trip through the forgotten corners of your mind. And if greasy, bluesy shakers are your bag, simply flip this platter over and dig "Gato Loco". A must for fans of the Las Vegas Grind compilations.

Panthers prowling through a desert. Cowgirls swaggering into a saloon and kicking up dust. Riding shotgun with a Tarantino heroine. Having the fiesta of your lives under a giant piñata with all your friends. Los Bitchos’ hallucinatory surf-exotica is as evocative as it is playful: the London-based pan-continental group could well be your new favourite party band with their instrumental voyages that are the soundtrack to setting alight to a row of flaming sambucas and losing yourself to the night. They’ve got a bun-tight knack for a groove – and they’ve got the best fringes in rock’n’roll too.

Serra Petale (guitar), Agustina Ruiz (keytar), Josefine Jonsson (bass) and Nic Crawshaw (drums) hail from different parts of the world but met via all-night house parties, or through friends, in London. Their unique sound binds them together, though, taking in a

retrofuturistic blend of Peruvian chicha, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych and surf guitars. They are London’s answer to Khruangbin, if Khruangbin spent all weekend getting slammed on cheap tequila in
a Dalston dive bar.

Mit der Veröffentlichung ihres selbstbetitelten Debütalbums veränderten KORN die Welt. Es war ein Album, das für ein ganzes Genre wegweisend war, und der anhaltende Erfolg der Band beweist, dass es nicht nur eine Momentaufnahme war. Seit ihrer Gründung haben KORN weltweit 40 Millionen Alben verkauft, zwei GRAMMYS erhalten, sind unzählige Male um die Welt getourt und haben dabei unzählige Rekorde aufgestellt, die wahrscheinlich nie mehr bertroffen werden.

Sänger Jonathan Davis, die Gitarristen James ”Munky” Shaffer und Brian ”Head” Welch, Bassist Reginald ”Fieldy” Arvizu und Schlagzeuger Ray Luzier haben die Grenzen des Rock-, Alternative- und Metal-Genres immer wieder neu ausgelotet und halten ihren
Einfluss auf ihre Fans und ganze Generationen von Künstlern rund um den Globus bis heute aufrecht.

Das vertritt auch ihr neues Album „Requiem“. Die Band setzt sich hier mit dem Loslassen alter Laster auseinander, dem Auferstehen aus der eigenen Krise und zerschmettert diese mit gewohnt harten Riffs und
Texten. Das dunkle Ablegen und ins Helle treten, sich aus der Krise bewegen und gestärkt heraustreten sind Motive, die wie Symbolbilder unserer gegenwärtigen Welt scheinen. Korn bietet einen unpathetischen Soundtrack für genau diese Zeit nach einer Krise, die uns alle kollektiv und individuell bewegt.

Hollis Brown's latest album, 'In The Aftermath' (Mascot Label Group/Cool
Green Recordings), is the deliciously depraved outcome of an all-night
rock n' roll riot
The Queens, New York- based quintet escaped to the Poconos to record with a
few handles of whiskey, and, in one 24- hour session, ran down the Stone's
seminal first album of all originals, 1966's Aftermath. Tracked live in the studio
with minimal overdubs, 'In The Aftermath' is potent proof the five-piece group is
one of the last great American rock n' roll bands.'In The Aftermath' is the second
in a casual homage series. Previously, Hollis Brown issued 'Gets Loaded', saluting
Velvet Underground's 'Loaded'. This new album directly follows the band's most
successful release yet, 2019's 'Ozone Park', which earned rave reviews from
Rolling Stone, Billboard, Paste Magazine, Pop Matters, Relix, and Goldmine.

Pompeii, Cate Le Bon’s sixth full-length studio album and the follow up to 2019’s Mercury-nominated Reward, bears a storied title summoning apocalypse, but the metaphor eclipses any “dissection of immediacy,” says Le Bon. Not to downplay her nod to disorientation induced by double catastrophe — global pandemic plus climate emergency’s colliding eco-traumas resonate all too eerily. “What would be your last gesture?” she asks. But just as Vesuvius remains active, Pompeii reaches past the current crises to tap into what Le Bon calls “an economy of time warp” where life roils, bubbles, wrinkles, melts, hardens, and reconfigures unpredictably, like lava—or sound, rather. Like she says in the opener, “Dirt on the Bed,” Sound doesn’t go away / In habitual silence / It reinvents the surface / Of everything you touch. Pompeii is sonically minimal in parts, and its lyrics jog between self-reflection and direct address. Vulnerability, although “obscured,” challenges Le Bon’s tendencies towards irony. Written primarily on bass and composed entirely alone in an “uninterrupted vacuum,” Le Bon plays every instrument (except drums and saxophones) and recorded the album largely by herself with long-term collaborator and co-producer Samur Khouja in Cardiff, Wales. Enforced time and space pushed boundaries, leading to an even more extreme version of Le Bon's studio process – as exits were sealed, she granted herself “permission to annihilate identity.” “Assumptions were destroyed, and nothing was rejected” as her punk assessments of existence emerged. Enter Le Bon’s signature aesthetic paradox: songs built for Now miraculously germinate from her interests in antiquity, philosophy, architecture, and divinity’s modalities. Unhinged opulence rests in sonic deconstruction that finds coherence in pop structures, and her narrativity favors slippage away from meaning.

In the years between 2018’s BAMBI and LP3, Minneapolis’ Hippo Campus -- made up of vocalist/guitarists Jake Luppen and Nathan Stocker, drummer Whistler Allen, bassist Zach Sutton, and trumpeter DeCarlo Jackson -- has grown up and into itself. Although the five-piece has been friends since middle school and put out a number of studio releases since its inception, it’s the new record, LP3, that’s the most honest portrait of who Hippo Campus is. It’s also a study in the nuances of growing up -- coming to terms with mortality, the confusing journey of sexuality, bottoming out, seeing decisions from the night before in the harsh morning light; finding your identity as a person and as an artist -- how that can be a collision of elation and shame, painful and joyful all at once. LP3 marks a sort of ego death -- and ultimately feeling okay with that. So much of LP3 was written in the chasm between grappling with the value of your own art and the larger, chaotic context of the world. It traverses the end of relationships, of careers, and the chance of meeting yourself as a brand new person. If you take the signifier of “musician” away, what does it mean? And how do you expand your identity outside of work? Here, it’s something the band works through. And, in the end, it happens with the same ride-or-die crew at your back to hold you down -- or up -- the entire time. Over the last few years, the Hippo universe has expanded outward. Luppen and Stocker both put out solo records as Lupin and Brotherkenzie respectively, and the two also teamed up with Caleb Hinz to put out the debut Baby Boys record while DeCarlo Jackson founded, and collaborated with multiple bands around the Twin Cities, including DNM, Arlo, and FPA. Navigating solo projects and new dynamics and the spotlight alone is humbling, bringing up new insecurities and defense mechanisms. It was challenging in its own way to branch outside of Hippo -- and it made the eventual return to the project feel like coming home. “With LP3, Hippo felt like a very safe space to express those things because you have your best friends around you, rallying behind you,” Luppen says. “And each person could chime in with their own experience. I felt like it was a very safe space to be earnest.” Here, Hippo Campus killed what they knew and started again.

In the years between 2018’s BAMBI and LP3, Minneapolis’ Hippo Campus -- made up of vocalist/guitarists Jake Luppen and Nathan Stocker, drummer Whistler Allen, bassist Zach Sutton, and trumpeter DeCarlo Jackson -- has grown up and into itself. Although the five-piece has been friends since middle school and put out a number of studio releases since its inception, it’s the new record, LP3, that’s the most honest portrait of who Hippo Campus is. It’s also a study in the nuances of growing up -- coming to terms with mortality, the confusing journey of sexuality, bottoming out, seeing decisions from the night before in the harsh morning light; finding your identity as a person and as an artist -- how that can be a collision of elation and shame, painful and joyful all at once. LP3 marks a sort of ego death -- and ultimately feeling okay with that. So much of LP3 was written in the chasm between grappling with the value of your own art and the larger, chaotic context of the world. It traverses the end of relationships, of careers, and the chance of meeting yourself as a brand new person. If you take the signifier of “musician” away, what does it mean? And how do you expand your identity outside of work? Here, it’s something the band works through. And, in the end, it happens with the same ride-or-die crew at your back to hold you down -- or up -- the entire time. Over the last few years, the Hippo universe has expanded outward. Luppen and Stocker both put out solo records as Lupin and Brotherkenzie respectively, and the two also teamed up with Caleb Hinz to put out the debut Baby Boys record while DeCarlo Jackson founded, and collaborated with multiple bands around the Twin Cities, including DNM, Arlo, and FPA. Navigating solo projects and new dynamics and the spotlight alone is humbling, bringing up new insecurities and defense mechanisms. It was challenging in its own way to branch outside of Hippo -- and it made the eventual return to the project feel like coming home. “With LP3, Hippo felt like a very safe space to express those things because you have your best friends around you, rallying behind you,” Luppen says. “And each person could chime in with their own experience. I felt like it was a very safe space to be earnest.” Here, Hippo Campus killed what they knew and started again.

Produced by Jonathan Wilson (Dawes, Father John Misty, Conor Oberst), Erin Rae's highly anticipated new album Lighten Up is a timeless amalgam of classic pop, cosmic country and indie rock, recorded earlier this year in California’s Topanga Canyon. Three years have passed since the release of her critically acclaimed debut Putting On Airs, which drew high praise from publications from Rolling Stone to NPR Music. She mostly spent her time on the road, performing at Newport Folk and Red Rocks, sharing stages with Iron & Wine, Jason Isbell, Jenny Lewis, Hiss Golden Messenger and Father John Misty, before her touring came to a sharp halt at the start of the pandemic. The solitude of the road and then the pandemic created space for Rae to undergo a sonic and philosophical shift where she found personal catharsis in creating an album that reflected on her newfound lessons of self acceptance, alongside finding the confidence to offer social commentary on the environment, gender identity and equality. “My last record was a lot of self-assessment and criticism, and trying to kick old habits and ways of relating and not relating to people,” Rae acknowledges. “This one is about blossoming, opening up, and living a little more in the present moment. Fully experiencing what it is to be human.” With a renewed sense of agency, Rae also took a more active role in creating the kaleidoscopic soundscape that became Lighten Up, setting out to reflect a sound she calls, “an emotional pallet, I could get lost in.” Alongside Erin and Jonathan Wilson, who contributed various instruments, the album also features guest appearances from fellow rising star singer songwriters, Meg Duffy, Ny Oh, and Kevin Morby.

Central to the enveloping aural experience of Dooms Children is its live-off-the-floor recording and organic production style. The effort was co-produced with musical col-laborator Danial Romano, and Montreal guitarist Patrick Bennett. More information on the project will be available in the coming weeks. Since co-founding pioneering post-hardcore outfit Alexisonfire in the early 2000s, the Canadian singer, guitarist, songwriter, and composer Wade MacNeil has lent his talents to numerous influential and impactful projects. He founded gritty punk outfit Black Lungs, fronts U.K. hardcore heroes Gallows, put fingerprints on recordings by the linkes of Anti-Flag, Cancer Bats, and Bedouin Soundclash, and scored a handful of successful feature films and video games. In 2017, Wade composed music for Jay Baruchel’s comedy Goon: Last of the Enforcers, and also scored Baruchel’s 2020 horror film Random Acts of Violence.

Having performed on funk & soul stages at over 50 UK festivals over the last 5 years, Daytoner can't wait to return to promote their forthcoming album and new single, their first release since 2019, written and recorded during isolation in their homes across Cornwall. The first single, released on 28th January 2022 features 2 new tracks 'Time' & 'Keep It Moving' with Lucy's lyrics focussing on the importance of time spent with family and friends when life feels so fragile, backed by the funk-fuelled brass and breaks of her bandmates.

Exclusive first radio play of 'Time' on New Year's Day on The Craig Charles Funk & Soul show on BBC6 Music, followed by a play in his afternoon show on January 5th. Interview with Moss and play of both sides of the single on the David White Show & the Boogie Wonderland show on BBC Radio Cornwall on January 6th & 7th and 'Time' is 'Single of the Week' on his drivetime afternoon show on the station with repeat plays in the week 10-14th Jan.

Gordon Koang is a fountain of warmth and joy, immediately accepting any stranger who strays into his presence. With a beaming smile that is unfettered by blindness, a condition he has lived with since birth, Gordon welcomes any and all around him, encouraging them to sit for a while and chat, maybe even to share a song.

Originating from the Nile Valley in what is now South Sudan, Koang was born blind and began playing music from an early age, busking on the streets of Juba and producing his own self-released CD-R’s and cassettes, before becoming a crowd favourite and recording a series of singles and music videos celebrating South Sudan’s cultural wealth. His music went viral, spreading throughout the country, and Koang was invited to perform at everything from weddings and political rallies to church meetings and parties alike. His reputation quickly grew as the poet and homegrown hero of the Nuer people, sometimes called the ‘Michael Jackson of South Sudan’.

In 2013, while Koang was performing to expatriate Nuer communities in Australia, renewed conflict broke out at home. He made a difficult and heartbreaking decision to not return to Sudan, applying to the Australian government for humanitarian protection. After six long years of waiting, living in a foreign country far away from his family, he now proudly calls himself an ‘Australian’, and eagerly awaits the day he will rejoin his wife and children in safety.

Unity is, remarkably, Gordon’s eleventh full-length album, and his first since coming to Australia. It is his only recorded output in a painstakingly long six years of living as an asylum seeker, mostly recorded in the last winter months of 2019, when Gordon began performing with local musicians through the Music in Exile label. The album was completed just weeks before Gordon was awarded his permanent residency. He could have had no way of knowing, and yet there is no frustration in the songs, not a shred of impatience or anger - only Gordon’s unending positivity, his love of all people and of the world he has never seen.

The Sound Of Love International 004 is a particular poignant collection of rarities, collectables and unearthed gems, pulled together by the Italian DJ and crate digger Budino. For the last two years, the pretty coastal town of Tisno in Croatia has been devoid of the (now) legendary Love International week-long celebration of music, leaving thousands of revellers and regular devotes with only the sounds of Love International to keep the spirits strong until the next time friendships are rekindled and dance resumes under the sun and the stars. Luckily, the fiesta is scheduled for a return to Tisno from 13th – 19th July 2022.

Budino, AKA Valentina Bodini, has a lifelong passion for vinyl, amassing an enviable collection of multi-genre LPs and singles via her years spent in Italy and now in Berlin. As resident DJ for Discodromo’s CockTail d’Amore parties, her enthusiasm for music and digging knows no boundaries, and her instalment into the Sound Of Love International series gives us an aural insight into her musical realm.

Musically, The Sound Of Love International #004 is a smorgasbord of sound. Opening with the glacial tones of Peter Seiler’s 1986 new-age gem ‘Serengeti’, the twelve track selection glides through proto-house, tribal ambience, industrial EBM, balearic dance and so much more. It’s a testament to the ground- breaking nature of these tracks that most of the music here was originally released some 30-40 years ago. Inclusions from Oliver Leib’s The Ambush project, Vibes Of Rhythm and Scott Edward stem from the post house & techno explosion of the early 90s, whilst the early proto-electronic experiments from the likes of Kirlian Camera, Clock DVA, Bourbonese Qualk and Pyrolator are welcomely revived for a new audience. Interestingly, a flexi-disc only release of ‘Hark’ by William Orbit & Laurie Mayer’s early 80s Torch Song project is also included here, elongated by Budino herself in the edit suite. Two brand new productions from DJ Blasy and Budino & Berko ensure that business is brought bang up to date, offering a unique and modern spin on the sounds of Budino, and her tantalising selection on this compilation.

The debut album from hotly tipped kiwi band Jamie and The Numbers, finally sees a release via Pete Brady’s Superfly Funk and Soul Records. After years of limited release 7”s being fought over worldwide by collectors and fans, this superb LP is the culmination of years of work for highly gifted Tongan-Kiwi Jamie Mavusa. Based in Wellington she can occasionally be seen singing soul tunes for Tapestry Music Promotions at many of their Music Reviews and also in her gospel choir at Church. It was at one of the Tapestry Music shows in Wellington that Jamie met Simon from Deltaphonic Records/The Numbers and after watching Jamie perform an amazing version of "Wade In The Water”. It was suggested they do some recording together with the view of doing some cool Soul classics and a bunch of originals too, the rest is now history.



The Numbers are an incredibly tight Wellington based band. Prolific writers of their own original material they are a 4 piece that consist of three brothers from Wainuiamata and a newly adopted Kiwi originally from Birmingham England. If you get a chance check these guys out they are brimming with cool retro tunes and some barnstorming original songs played with verve and passion and their shows are always fun, 2019 they supported "From The Jam" on their visit to New Zealand and after teaming up with Jamie have played Pasifika Festivals and open-air concerts to thousands of people. The Numbers collectively have played, sessioned, recorded for other artists on such labels as Gut Records, D-Star, EG Records, Imaginary Records and have in excess of 40+ published songs with Universal, Complete Music, KWS Records NYC and Cherry Red Records.

For the second chapter, Late Night Superglue invited the homey Droste back for a solo mission. From peak time bangers to menacing late night acid, flavours from A1 to B2 on red vinyl…

Dusky’s Life Signs project for Running Back remixed! The Londoners and their distinct hallmark of euphoric, yet multilayered dance floor dynamite get treated by Cinthie, KiNK and Rumu. Similar to the scope of original artists themselves, their interpretations are a wide choice of styles and suitable for different usages. Berlin’s true school house head Cinthie delivers her tried, tested and desired method of disco bass lines and deep house melodies on „Static“, while everyone’s favorite live act from Sofia turns the sounds of „Fridge“ into a lost mid-90ies techno classic. KiNK’s high-octane take would fit perfectly on every fantasy mixtape of Derrick May or Laurent Garnier of those days. Last, but not least, Dusky very own discovery and 17Steps artist Rumu uses „Lea Valley“ to punch his ticket with the UK bass and breaks fare. These goods sell well!

After the recent reissue of their first eponymous album, Favorite Recordings proudly presents Vegas, the second LP from Venezuelan band Esperanto. Rare and sought-after for many collectors, it was recorded in between Las Vegas and Caracas and originally released in 1981. Following bandleader Jorge Aguilar in his musical trip to the infamous American city bathing into flashing lights and vivid colors, we're invited to an excursion in Disco, Boogie and Jazz-Funk territories. Finally reissued, fully remastered, Vegas will be available as Gatefold Tip-On Vinyl LP.

With great care and attention to details, Esperanto managed to create a very convincing sequel to their Jazz-Funk debuts. Vegas keeps indeed a perfect balance between various influences. Through energic disco beats with intense funky solos, catchy AOR-influenced songs, where Jorge delivers convincing vocal performance, or sunny jazz-funk slow jams, the album still reveals something quite authentic. And this feeling echoes surely the one that could have been felt by Jorge Aguilar while discovering USA on a trip - where it all started for the music he loves. Like sometimes a foreigner's enriching view on some local specialty, he surely brought with the band all his authenticity and young but vibrant experience while convincing at the same time major labels for distribution.

With certain notoriety coming with the release of their first album, Jorge Aguilar and his drummer Pablo Matarazzo planned to go to Los Angeles for a few gigs. But once there, they realized their contact had to leave for Tina Turner's tour in Europe. Before that, he invited them to come along to Las Vegas and eventually meet musicians there. Luckily, the plan worked perfectly: Jorge came back to Los Angeles with a lot of contacts then moved to Boston and NYC before finally coming back to Caracas. He told: "I was so impressed with this trip that I told myself that one day I would return to Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The first tracks I did them in Los Angeles with Kenny More, James Gadson and other session musicians from that city. Later, I took the tracks to Caracas where the musicians of the band recorded overdubs. After that, I returned to Los Angeles to master with Bernie Grundman who was still working in his small studio at A & M records studios in Hollywood. As can be seen in the title of some of the songs like "Hollywood", "Vegas", "Kenny's Place", were only the translation of my experiences at the time."

Mondo, and Jagjaguwar are proud to present a limited edition vinyl pressing of Sharon Van Etten's incredible song 'Let Go,' recorded for the 2020 documentary Feels Good Man, chronicling the emotional journey of comic artist Matt Furie and the discovery that his lovable creation Pepe The Frog had become symbol of the alt-right. A super powerful film about reclamation, artistic expression, and above all else Letting Go.

Featuring the aforementioned original song 'Let Go,' as well as a cover of 'Some Things Last A Long Time' by Texas legend Daniel Johnston as B-Side.

“After watching the documentary, I just followed the feeling of coming to terms with something and tried to evoke peace through my melody and words," says Sharon. "The song and film’s producer, Giorgio Angelini was a great collaborator and communicator and I was given a lot of freedom. That says a lot about the film and the people who made it."

Music by Sharon Van Etten

As songwriters we spend a lot of our lives trying to bottle up a feeling into a song, and often, the biggest feelings, the best ones... the complicated, detailed, messy, incredible ones... just aren’t going to fit. Line by Line is our recognition of that... of how one song just isn’t enough to capture it all, but how we’re just going to keep writing, futilely and lovingly, anyway". - JP Saxe ABOUT JP SAXE Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter, JP Saxe always finds a way to cut beyond the surface, tapping into a deep connectivity with universal emotion and human experience. His powerful duet with Julia Michaels titled “If The World Was Ending,” led to his late-night TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last November. JP and Julia also performed the song while quarantined for The Late Late Show With James Corden. Idolator proclaimed the song ‘packs a strong emotional punch,’ and PEOPLE Magazine praised the song as a “beautifully stripped back piano ballad.” JP has also amassed fans at The FADER, following his single “Women Who Look Like You”, featuring rapper Guapdad 4000. In February, JP released his anticipated six-track debut EP, Hold It Together. TIME Magazine praised the project for “exploring the weird – sometimes lovely – sometimes painful – emotions that bubble up in relationships” and included “3 Minutes” off the EP in their ‘5 Best Songs of the Week’ roundup. Over the last year, JP completed a nationwide summer/fall tour with Noah Kahan and joined Lennon Stella on her European tour.

Wenn es um deutschen Speed- und Thrash Metal geht, dann
dauert es nicht lange bis der Name Living Death fällt. Alte
Fans reagieren ebenso euphorisch wie die junge Generation,
die die Band vielleicht erst durch Wiederveröffentlichungen,
sicher aber durch das Internet kennengelernt haben. Die
ersten beiden Alben sind dem frühen Speed Metal zuzuordnen
und bieten eine ebenso hohe Dosis an traditionellem Heavy
Metal. Die folgende EP und das Album „Protected From
Reality“ zeigen die Band im Thrash Metal verwurzelt,
was auch durch den von Violent Force zu Living Death
gewechselten Drummer Atomic Steif möglich war. „Worlds
Neuroses“ war dann die letzte Scheibe mit Sänger Toto und
wurde bei Veröffentlichung 1989 nicht flächendeckend positiv
aufgenommen. Ein Phänomen, denn im Grunde bündelt diese
Platte die besten Eigenschaften der genannten Phasen der
Band und bietet zudem eine wesentlich abwechslungsreichere
Gesangsarbeit. Schon wenige Monate später änderte sich das
Gesicht des Heavy Metal ganz empfindlich, doch in veränderter
Besetzung gibt es 1991 doch noch ein letztes Album. Über
die Jahre hat sich gezeigt, dass „Worlds Neuroses“ trotz klar
strukturierter Songs einfach etwas länger gebraucht hat, um
sich einen gewissen Status in der deutschen Metalhistorie
zu erarbeiten und dass die Scheibe mehr zu bieten hat als
die beiden Thrash-Leckerbissen „Last Birthday“ und den
Titelsong. Intelligent arrangierte, sehr kraftvolle Metalstücke
wie „The Testament Of Mr. George“ bieten zudem auch noch
unterhaltsame Geschichten als Lyrics. Dazu handelt es sich
ganz klar um die bestklingendste LP/CD von Living Death.
Die längst überfällige Vinyl-Wiederveröffentlichung kommt
mit einer Bonus CD (anstatt einem Download-Code) und
mit einem bedruckten Inlay. LP und CD bekamen ein jeweils
separates Remastering.

Die Wiederveröffentlichung des achten PJ Harvey Studioalbums „Let England Shake“, sowie die Sammlung
unveröffentlichter Demos „Let England Shake (Demos)“ erscheinen am 28.01.2022.
„Let England Shake“ wurde von PJ Harvey, Flood und John Parish produziert und ursprünglich im Februar
2011 veröffentlicht. Das Album enthält die Singles „The Words That Maketh Murder“ und „The Glorious
Land“ und war das zweite Album der Künstlerin, welches den britischen Mercury Music Prize gewann.
„Let England Shake (Demos)“ enthält eine Sammlung unveröffentlichter Demos von Stücken, die für das
achte PJ Harvey-Studioalbum „Let England Shake“ geschrieben wurden, darunter Demos von „The Words
That Maketh Murder”, „The Glorious Land” und „The Last Living Rose”. Das Album enthält unter anderem ein brandneues Artwork und bisher unveröffentlichte Fotos von Seamus Murphy. Beide Alben wurden
dabei von Jason Mitchell unter der Leitung des ursprünglichen Co-Produzenten John Parish geschnitten.
„Let England Shake (Demos)“ und „Let England Shake“ erscheinen beide als 1LP und „Let England
Shake (Demos“ zusätzlich noch als 1CD.

Top, the chart-topping second studio album from the still rising, Multi-Platinum rap superstar YoungBoy Never Broke Again and featuring the hit singles ‘Callin (feat. Snoop Dogg)’, ‘Kacey Talk’ & ‘All In’, is out on vinyl on January 28th 2022.

With 76 total RIAA certifications and over 72.5M certified units under his belt thus far, YoungBoy Never Broke Again is without question among the landmark hip-hop artists of this or any era. 2020 and 2021 have both seen him become America’s #1 most video on demand streamed artist of any genre. His second studio Album, Top, is officially platinum certified after an explosive debut at #1 on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 upon its September 2020 release. YoungBoy was also last year’s #3 most audio on demand streamed artist industrywide and is currently #5 for 2021 thus far and it serves as a testament to his remarkable talent and versatility, showcasing the Baton Rouge, LA-native’s true heart & soul.

Never stuck for inspiration, people-powered and newly electrified singer-songwriter, Jamie Webster watched the world get weird and channelled every wicked turn into a new, 10-track album, Moments, set for release on Fri 28 January 2022. Following last month’s teasing single, Days Unknown, Webster reveals the follow up to last year’s number six-charting debut with new, rallying-cry single, Going Out.

Melding together two short stories, one of Paul and the other Annabella, Webster’s renowned people-watching prowess, setting vivid pen pictures of neighbours and strangers in his native Liverpool to music, switches to pin-sharp short fiction for Going Out. Cutting

across the strange absence of empathy for Britain’s young, Webster uses his characters to spell out the loss, frustration and rebellion of the twenty-somethings stopped in their tracks by recent circumstance and a tangle of incomprehensible rules.

Never stuck for inspiration, people-powered and newly electrified singer-songwriter, Jamie Webster watched the world get weird and channelled every wicked turn into a new, 10-track album, Moments, set for release on Fri 28 January 2022. Following last month’s teasing single, Days Unknown, Webster reveals the follow up to last year’s number six-charting debut with new, rallying-cry single, Going Out.

Melding together two short stories, one of Paul and the other Annabella, Webster’s renowned people-watching prowess, setting vivid pen pictures of neighbours and strangers in his native Liverpool to music, switches to pin-sharp short fiction for Going Out. Cutting

across the strange absence of empathy for Britain’s young, Webster uses his characters to spell out the loss, frustration and rebellion of the twenty-somethings stopped in their tracks by recent circumstance and a tangle of incomprehensible rules.

Pressing Info: 180g black vinyl, standard sleeve, printed inner sleeve. Arriving right off the back of their second album 'El Refugio' which was released in November 2021 via Fuzz Club Records, Mexican post-punk/krautrock group Sei Still are back with a 'Fuzz Club Session' LP that's due out January 21st 2022. Having upped sticks from Mexico City to Berlin, Sei Still's Fuzz Club Session was recorded live at Berlin's Monoton Studio back in October 2020 and is comprised of five tracks from the newly-released 'El Refugio' LP: 'Esperando' (later titled 'Saldados Caidos' on 'El Refugio'), 'Hombre Animal', 'Las Puertas De La Noche', 'Me Persigue' and 'Se Asoma el Sol' (later 'Solsticio'). 'El Refugio' and the session LP set to be released in support capture a new era for Sei Still. The expansive Krautrock jams heard on their 2020 self-titled debut have evolved into a dark, motorik post-punk sound that owes far more to 70s punk, goth-rock and Spanish New Wave than any kosmische travellers. The session is released on 180g black or white vinyl with a printed inner sleeve and is accompanied by a series of videos recorded during the session.

New York trio Sunflower Bean announce their second record Twentytwo in Blue. The album will be released on March 23rd when all members of the band - Julia Cumming, Jacob Faber and Nick Kivlen - will be 22 years old. The album comes almost two years and two months after the release of their critically acclaimed 2016 debut album Human Ceremony.

Co-produced by Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Jacob Portrait (who also mixed the record) and HC-producer Matt Molnar of Friends, Twentytwo in Blue shows Sunflower Bean stay true to their guitar band core and classic rock-inspired roots, while exploring new sonic textures with more direct and progressive themes. Unlike their debut, which was essentially a compilation of songs Sunflower Bean wrote while still in their teens, Twentytwo in Blue was made in the year between December 2016 and December 2017 and showcases how far the band has come since playing together in their high school days.

To celebrate the album announce, Sunflower Bean share a new single and follow up to I Was A Fool' entitled Crisis Fest.' 2017—we know/ Reality's one big sick show/ Every day's a crisis fest,' vocalist and bassist Cumming sings. This last year was extremely alarming, traumatic, and politically volatile,' explains the band about the track. While writing this album, we often reflected back on the people we met while on tour. We felt a strong kinship with the audiences that came to see us all over the country, and we wanted to write a song for them - something to capture the anxieties of an uncertain future. 'Crisis Fest' is less about politics and more about the power of us, the young people in this country.'

Sunflower Bean find a sublime maturity and progression to their sound and songwriting on Twentytwo in Blue. If there was a ragged beauty in the gauzy, groovy wall of sound of Human Ceremony, there's a new directness to these songs, a product of the band's growth and the insanity of the times we're in. Sunflower Bean have gained a newly confident voice that they bring to the second album, one that doesn't shy away from addressing the other events of those two years—political changes and cultural shifts that have left America and the world stupefied. This has been such an unbelievable time,' says Kivlen. I can't imagine any artist of our ilk making a record and not have it be seen through the lens of the political climate of 2016 and 2017. So I think there's a few songs on the record that are definitely heavily influenced by this sort of—whatever you want to say what the Trump administration has been.' A shit show,' offers a helpful Faber.

Ultimately, this record is much more than a political statement or piece of commentary on today's political climate. I think one word that always comes to mind when I think about this record is lovable,' says Cumming. We want the songs to be something that someone can get attached to, and have be a part of them. Because that's what I look for in songs myself, and that's the kind of experience we want to give to others.'

The wheels rattle into the thrilling unknown on The Coral’s first new music since 2018, finding the unsurpassed, metamorphic gonzo-pop five-piece in the company of crooks, sell-by-date candyfloss and plastic skeletons as they release Faceless Angel. Of misplaced memories from a place and time that might never have been, the track precedes a new and vividly evocative body of work from the legendary Merseyside band in the form of their TENTH and first, ever double-album: Coral Island.

Squinting into the neon-lit penny arcades and draining an after hours glass with the displaced and dispossessed once the power is pulled, The Coral’s latest caper concerns listeners with the light, shade, thrills and profound melancholy of coastal palaces packed with fun and fright. Both now and then, or perhaps never as fiction encroaches on reality, the feverous anticipation of a night amongst the screams, fights and romance of the fair become part of life on the newly-built Coral Island.

Welcoming travellers one trepidous step at a time, Faceless Angel sits amongst a series of promised audio visual portraits of and inspired by the Island’s inhabitants. Conceived and created by artist, Edwin Burdis, the single’s video was filmed ‘on’ Coral Island itself, a sprawling diorama purpose-built inside a deserted Chinese restaurant in Cardiff. It’s the band and fans’ first venture onto the surreal land mass, populated by surreal sculptural forms, charity shop-finds, looming mountains and gathering storm clouds. Filmed in debt to the traditional model-based filmmaking methods of greats like George Lucas or Ray Harryhausen, Burdis navigated Coral Island at waist-height and via camera-friendly pathways to gather 360 degree footage from inside and outside his and The Coral’s fascinating, fabricated world. The expansive and ambitious installation also provides the album artwork for Coral Island as well as designs for Faceless Angel and future singles.

Indebted in part to the classic pre-Beatles rock and roll era of Duane Eddy and Chuck Berry alongside the clattering of a weary ghost train’s rusted wheels on worn steel, Faceless Angel’s title evokes DC Comics ominous occult detective series, Hellblazer and the broken character of the strip’s protagonist, John Constantine.

This is the first release of the brand new vinyl label Terra Magica Rec. which was founded by Munich based music producers and DJs Mirko Hecktor and Tom Sprenger in mid-pandemic times of 2021.

The first release hosts two tracks of the label bosses themselves under their moniker Hektisch Sprengen DJs. In German language the term Hektisch Sprengen basically means blowing up things in a very hectic manner. Instead prepare for quite the contrary sound vise. Their tracks Social Rub and Dancing Dust are electronic, analog Slow-Disco-Cosmic-Trance-Tunes containing some SH101 and Korg synth lines with TR-808 beats and some Japanese, African 2 South-American hints. While one track is tracing an ultra rare psychedelic voice sample from Nigeria’s 70’s Highlife scene the other one uses a little boinx gag.

To round things up no other than Dirk Leyers from Africaine 808 did the final mixdown on those tunes.

On top DJ Normal 4 straight outta ‚Pott’ hits full on groove with an uncanny Funk Breaks anthem recalling early 90s Warp and the best of UK-Big-Beat-Acid and conga easiness.

Last but not least Down Under`s DJ Chrysalis jumps into the genre madness on Terra M`s first release delivering a raw UK-Garage-IDM influenced dreamy synth shiver down your spines transcending those fellow e-dancers straight into the golden years of club culture.

Introducing Jackson + Sellers and their debut album Breaking Point, on ANTI records. Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers, two rising stars who aligned during the pandemic to write one of the most compelling duo albums of the last decade. Drawn together by instant chemistry, cosmic forces and their ability to write intuitive romantic breakup songs for each other, their album is a window into the dissolution of two different relationships and the formation of another: a perfect, platonic, creative union. United in their desire to write a record that reflected their expansive musical interest from 70s rock to raucous roots to indie pop, their LA written, Nashville recorded album is a masterclass in unexpected vocal har?monic convergence. With Breaking Point, Jackson + Sellers will establish themselves as two individual artists who together, share a deep friendship, musical kinship and the ability to craft tight singular pop rock songs that will embed themselves in your ears for the rest of time.

Outernational Sounds very proudly Presents The Mallory-Hall Band "Song of Soweto" & "The Last Special".
Limited, fully licensed digital and vinyl reissues of two crucial South African sessions led by Charles Mallory and Al Hall, Jnr., featuring Kirk Lightsey, Marshall Royal, Rudolph Johnson, Billy Brooks and more! Essential companion pieces to Kirk Lightsey’s legendary ‘Habiba’.
Featuring tracks:
Song Of Soweto: Side A – ‘Song of Soweto’, ‘Hamba Samba’; Side B – ‘Cape Town Blues’, ‘Moroka Rock’, ‘The African Night’
The Last Special: Side A - ‘The Last Special’, ‘Princess of Joh’Burg’; Side B - ‘Amafu (Clouds)’, ‘Blue Mabone’
Never released outside South Africa, and out of print since 1974, Outernational Sounds presents two long-lost Johannesburg sessions from the Mallory-Hall Band – an all-star review of West Coast jazz stars who toured apartheid South Africa in the mid-1970s.
Sanifu Al Hall, Jnr. is a musician’s musician. During a storied career stretching across six decades, Hall has recorded with the greats of the music including Freddie Hubbard, Doug Carn, and Johnny Hammond, and leads his own Cosmos Dwellerz Arkestra. But until recent years, the only records on which he had appeared as leader were a brace of rich, funky LPs, Song Of Soweto and The Last Special, issued only in South Africa under the moniker of The Mallory-Hall Band (named for Hall and his co-leader, guitarist Charles Mallory – musical director for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Mallory was conductor for Dusty Springfield touring bands, and had worked with John Lee Hooker, Stevie Wonder, and many others). Neither LP had any wider release, and both have remained out of print since 1974. How did a young stalwart of the Los Angeles jazz scene end up in a recording studio in apartheid South Africa?
Al Hall, Jnr. and Charles Mallory had arrived in South Africa as part of the touring band for the singer Lovelace Watkins. Sometimes billed as ‘the Black Sinatra’, the Detroit-born Watkins sang standards and ballroom classics on the Las Vegas circuit. He never made it big in the US, but in his 1970s heyday he was a huge star in southern Africa, and 1974 he hired a jazz big band to accompany him on a tour of South Africa – Hall and Mallory were part of the line-up, alongside Mastersounds bassist Monk Montgomery, pianist Kirk Lightsey, tenorist Rudolph Johnson, drummer Billy Brooks, and Marshall Royal, musical director of the Count Basie band. The tour was a huge success, and during downtime from performing, members of the group managed to independently record no fewer than three albums. Lightsey and Johnson’s stunning Habiba was the first (reissued as Outernational Sounds OTR.013), and it was followed by two crucial sessions led by Hall and Mallory – Song of Soweto and The Last Special, issued on the local IRC imprint.
Visiting apartheid South Africa in 1974 was a controversial choice for any artist. Numerous artistic and cultural bodies around the world had already announced that their members would boycott the country in solidarity with the struggle against apartheid, and working in South Africa was severely frowned on by anti-apartheid activists everywhere. For a Black band, touring the country to play to mostly white audiences could have been seen by many both inside and outside South Africa as a questionable decision. ‘It was a batch of mixed reactions when I choose to visit South Africa whilst apartheid policies were in place,’ Hall recalls. ‘To me the choice was a simple one – “I wanna see for myself!” I also wanted to be a part of breaking down racial barriers, having been down some of the same roads in my own country.’
The albums were recorded by a twelve-piece band at Johannesburg’s Video Sounds Studios in December 1974, and feature the legendary pianist Kirk Lightsey, Black Jazz recording artist Rudolph Johnson, and the rest of the touring band. Both records are superbly arranged slabs of peak 1970s funky big band soul jazz, with tasteful Latin inflections and more than a nod to South Africa’s upful township jazz sound. They are the sonic traces left by a seasoned African American band who were touring South Africa in the depths of the apartheid era, and who immediately moved beyond the segregated hotels and ballrooms to build links with local South African players and audiences.
Never previously available outside South Africa, Outernational Sounds’ new editions of Song of Soweto and The Last Special (alongside our edition of Kirk Lightsey’s Habiba) represents the first time these albums have been in print for nearly fifty years. Fully licensed from Gallo Records and pressed at Pallas in Germany from Gallo’s original masters, they feature new sleeve notes from Francis Gooding (The Wire) based on interviews with Al Hall, Jnr., and a reminiscence from pianist Kirk Lightsey.

Gonzalo Benitez and Luis Alberto Valencia were kingpins of the musica nacional movement in Ecuador. Check them out on the cover, on a rooftop in Quito’s Old Town, surveying their dominion. In 1970, when Valencia collapsed onstage during a performance of the yaravi Desesperacion — ‘My heart is already in ashes’ — and died four days later, aged 52, his coffin was carried through those city streets on the shoulders of his fans.

They began singing as a duo in their mid-teens. During twenty-eight years together they recorded more than six hundred songs, for Discos Ecuador, Nacional, Granja, Ortiz, Rondador, Onix, Fuente, Real, Tropical, Fadisa, RCA Victor — and of course CAIFE.

Their exquisitely romantic harmonising is a sublime blend of collected forbearance and abject self-annihilation, underpinned and elaborated by the heart-piercing, improvisatory guitar-playing of Bolivar Ortiz. Effectively the third member of the group. ‘El Pollo’ sets the tone and intensity for everything that follows: listen to his soloing at the start of our opener, Lamparilla.

Musically a pasillo — a cross between a Viennese waltz and the indigenous yaravi rhythm — Lamparilla draws its verses from a poem by Luz Martinez from Riobamba, written in 1918 when she was 15, under the influence of Baudelaire and Mallarme. Another pasillo here, Sombras is one of the best-loved songs in the musica nacional canon, setting lines about undercover sex and loss by the Mexican poet Maria Pren, which were considered pornographic on publication in 1911.

And Benitez & Valencia looked back still further, to the indigenous roots of Ecuadorian music, as the key to its future. Carnaval de Guaranda is their take on a song dating back to the era of the Mitimaes, a broad group of Bolivian tribes conquered by the Incas and displaced to Ecuador. ‘Impossible love of mine / I love you for being impossible / Who loves what is impossible / Is the truest lover.’

Lovingly presented in a gatefold sleeve with spot-gloss, and printed inners, with stunning photos and expert notes. Excellent sound, drawn from original tapes, by way of Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas.

“For me music is not a calculation, when I play I follow my intuition.
The creative impulse always comes from within me. Me and my
piano, they’re at the centre of my musical world.” - Joel Lyssarides
 For Joel Lyssarides, jazz is above all a language, a tool for
uniquely personal expression. He composed the pieces for ‘Stay
Now’ in a remote house in the forest, a good half-hour outside
Stockholm. And by preference at night, in silence, darkness and
deep concentration.
 The atmosphere of this place is audibly reflected in the music,
which is strongly influenced by space, sound and mood -
reinforced by the highly concentrated, differentiated, subtle
interplay of pianist Lyssarides with bassist Niklas Fernqvist and
drummer Rasmus Blixt.
 What these three young musicians have in common is their
capacity for great sensitivity and expressiveness. Their music is
based on a vocabulary that draws equally from European classical
music, jazz from both sides of the Atlantic and great songwriting,
with all its depth and accessibility.
 And yet this has nothing to do with crossover. Everything flows
and swings, nothing seems deliberate or contrived, one can hear a
natural understanding for the infinite possibilities of every note.
 This trio has the self-confidence to put the entirety of their efforts
into enhancing the expressiveness of the music. And it is in the
most intimate, quiet, focused and concentrated moments that the
most spectacular things happen.
 The album title ‘Stay Now’, therefore, is above all an
acknowledgement of quite how precious the here and now is.
These are the moments when we start to understand the true
value of present and past encounters. As we listen, we can let the
moment linger… and allow ourselves to sink blissfully and
unforgettably into it.