Album Review: Societe Etrange – Chance: Pulsating dub and post rock electronics from Lyon
Though long established in the Lyon post punk/electronic scene, Societe Etrange look set to extend their wavelength with a pulsating new album ‘Chance’ (available on Bongo Joe March 4th onwards). Evolving from the partnership of Antoine Bellini (electronics) and Romain Hervault (bass), the music of Societe Etrange has been oscillating within their city’s cluster of …
Album Review: The Ano Nobo Quartet – ‘The Strings of Sao Domingos’: guitar driven rhythms and sumptuous songs from Cabo Verde’s soul.
New York’s Ostinato Records mission to recover and re-examine the rich legacy of lost musical cultures is tireless. You may have already been knocked out by the label’s benchmark trio of retrospectives that charted the rippling currents of Cabo Verde’s music but now they are bringing our attention to more contemporary sounds from the community …
Track: Ambient explorer Earthen Sea previews the soulful ‘Rough Air’ from his soon come album ‘Ghost Poems’.
Jacob Long (aka Earthen Sea) has a musical provenance that inevitably draws you in to take a look. He’s been a member of the Dischord endorsed, post-hardcore agitators Black Eyes, injected sax and bass to the electro-dub, no-wave work-outs of Mi Ami and since 2014 released less abrasive sounds as Earthen Sea, probing ever deeper …
Album Review: God is God – Metamorphoses: shape shifting electronic music and song.
Put two forward thinking musicians together like guitarist producer Etkin Cekin and multi-instrumental chanteuse Galina Ozeran and your unlikely to get stuck in reverse. Meeting in Berlin in 2015, the pair grew a musical relationship through long improvisational sessions, letting their combined narrative lead the way. Cekin’s imaginings, rooted in Istanbul’s indie-experimental scene then swelled …
Track: Global beat fusionists The Bongo Hop drop ‘The Red Hill’, prime Latin hip hop vibes to announce soon come mini album.
French musician/producer Etienne Sevet (aka. The Bongo Hop), traveller, sound selector, trumpeter has his finger on so many pulses. Funk, soul, jazz, afro-grooves all pumped up with that racy Latin heartbeat from his one time home Colombia. It’s a blend that makes for a distinct Bongo Hop sound, rhythmically slick, smartly arranged songs for head, …
Album Review: Ilmiliekki Quartet – Ilmiliekki Quartet : Essential atmospheric jazz
Trying to unravel the interconnections and collaborations in jazz is often like code-breaking. Players are likely to be in several groups at a time, they form their own units, perform solo, take a guest spot, record a one-off with new people to keep up that spirit of adventure. The four members of Helsinki’s Ilmiliekki Quartet, …
Album Review: Gonora Sounds – Hard Times Never Kill: Jump, jive, bounce and bite, direct from Harare.
Heard about ‘paying your dues’– well Gonora Sounds leader and inspiration Daniel Gonora’s back-story makes him a bone fide member of the dues-paying club. Twenty years ago the blind guitarist and song writer was a key player in Zimbabwe’s ground-breaking Jairos Jiri Band, a group that tragically imploded as successive members passed away. Forced to …
Track: Happening afro-soul fusionists Jembaa Groove present ‘Mokole’ ahead of debut album ‘Susuma’
A lot of bands get together from chance meetings in a bar, or a gig or knowing friends of friends but not usually after a chat in a Berlin kindergarten playground. Still that’s how Jembaa Groove got started, co-founding musicians Yannick Nolting and Eric Owusu on the school pick up run, bonding over the possibilities …
Album Review: Dowdelin – ‘Lanmou Lanmou’: Creole rhythms and a Soul-Jazz twist make for the sound of now.
It’s been over a couple of years since Lyon located fusionists Dowdelin were last seen bouncing across the WOMAD stage and pulling the horizontal sun soakers up onto their dancing feet. Now comes evidence of renewed activity with their latest album ‘Lanmou Lanmou’, available from 28th January from Underdog Records, and proof that the band …
Track: Lyon based post punk experimentalists Societe Etrange preview their pulsating new album ‘Chance’.
New to Bongo Joe’s roster but long established in the Lyon post punk/electronic scene, Societe Etrange look set to oscillate more widely with their pulsating new album ‘Chance’ (released on the Bongo Joe label March 4th). Evolving from the partnership of Antoine Bellini (electronics) and Romain Hervault (bass) with roots in their city’s cluster of …