New Track/Video : Global groove-riders Nubiyan Twist announce new album and tour with the upbeat R n B flow of ‘So Mi Stay’.
Let’s move forwards with Leeds/London global beats collective Nubiyan Twist as they look into 2024 with a spotlight on their new music to come. Led by guitarist/producer Tom Excell, the big band who forge afrobeat, jazz, soul, hip-hop and latin while staying way ahead of the fusion cliché, have been defining their own space for …
Album Review : John Garner – ‘Movie Night’ : Re-imagining the soundtrack through an improviser’s lens.
That most singular of labels, Lewes based Difficult Art And Music consistently end the year with a flourish. They capped 2022 with their three volume cassette release ‘Bivouac Of the Avant Garde’, a fulsome resume of the experimental, leftfield scene from those on the inside. Now to round off 2023, the final release from the …
Album Review : Lea Bertucci – Of Shadow and Substance : Pushing through electro -acoustic boundaries and shifting our perspectives.
For over a decade of releases and live performance Lea Bertucci has drawn on the shapes, sounds and possibilities of the clarinet, saxophone, strings, vibraphone and harp to create long form, experimental music that challenges, intrigues and entrances. This dedication means the New York based sound artist dances to the left of the leftfield, in …
Album Reviews: Jan Nemeček -‘Dissolved’: The Serbian synthesist scales up the ambience with orchestral vision.
Jan Nemeček may drift around the fringes of the bustling Belgrade electronic scene but in many ways he draws from the inner soul of eastern European experimentalism. The sound designer, producer, underground clubland fixture ,Norbu label founder and electronic musician is a restless creative, thriving on the possible and energised by the communal DIY aesthetic …
Album Review: TONN3RR3 X BIKAYE – ‘It’s A Bomb’ : Legendary Congolese vocalist and Parisien dance floor agitators team up and knock out.
So let’s debate – what’s the holy trinity of seminal afro-electronic albums? Anything by Onyeabor would come into it, Konono No 1’s ‘Congotronics’ would be a contender, Manu’s ‘Electric Africa’ would have a look in… but possibly the first record on the list would be ‘Noir et Blanc’ by Zazou Bikaye from back in the …
Album Review : We Are Busy Bodies reissue three mid-seventies SA Jazz gems from sax supremos “Mankunku” and Makhalemele.
The irrepressible curators at We Are Busy Bodies continue to tap into the energised seventies South African jazz eco-system with three more illuminating re-issues in their significant As-shams archival series. For some time now WABB have worked in close collaboration with Johannesburg based As-shams (aka The Sun) label, bringing the historic imprint’s burgeoning back catalogue …
Album Review : Anenon – Moons Melt Milk Light : taking its own path to absorbing places.
Electro-acoustic musician Brian Allen Simon (aka Anenon) is an artist who has always absorbed place and context, destinations that have shifted with each release. ‘Petrol’ from 2016 bustled and boomed with the kinetic energies of his home-town LA while two years later he took residence in the serene Tuscan hills to produce ‘Tongue’, an album …
Album Review : Ben Sloan – Muted Colors Live : re-igniting tracks from his debut with a fresh collective energy.
Percussionist and producer Ben Sloan’s decade plus as collaborator and contributor, drumming with the likes of Moses Sumney, Beth Orton, WHY? and The National, testifies that here we have a musician with an exceptional range, pedigree and rhythmic sixth sense. Still that’s not the whole picture. March ’23 saw him step out confidently from the …
Album Review : SHOLTO – ‘The Changing Tides Of Dreams’ EP : Cinematic soul given a fresh new perspective.
You could say producer, composer, drummer and instrumentalist Oscar ‘SHOLTO’ Robertson has always operated under the radar. He was part of the indie/r&b stompers Hidden Charms who in 2015/16 looked set to break through on the back of a series of banging singles and an LA placement with the legendary producer Shel Talmy (yes The …
Album Review : Maria Grapsa Sextet– Life : The jazz pianist/composer and her band merge melody, power and tradition to break new ground.
As we gear up to indulge in all things jazz for next week’s London Jazz fest, here’s a strong reminder that the UK scene itself remains bustling with new talents. The pianist and composer Maria Grapsa together with her sextet has just released a solo debut ‘Life’ via Musical Dojo Records and its some statement. …