John Parry, Author at Backseat Mafia

Album Review: Lophae – ‘Perfect Strangers’: thrilling, fine-tuned jazz with subtle powers.

There’s a playful irony in both the band and album names chosen by this new London jazz quartet led by guitarist/composer Greg Sanders. For a start this lush, intricately woven…

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Track/Video : Jupiter & Okwess, Congolese fusion funksters, preview new album with the sizzling ‘Congo Blinders’.

They may be veterans of the tight Congolese street music scene but Jupiter & Okwess have always thrived on going beyond these roots. Formed by Jupiter Bokondji in 1990 the…

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News: Legendary Finnish experimental rockers Circle announce ‘Piste’, a sound-art installation to be experienced.

Remember Finnish deep-prog legends Circle and their irrepressible collaboration with super-fan Richard Dawson in 2021,’Henki’? It was an album of spirit and invention, oozing warmth in a very loud manner…

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Track: Rising UK jazzers MATTERS UNKNOWN preview new EP with the sweeping ‘I Am The Birds’.

Brass player, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Jonathan Enser’s most recent project MATTERS UNKNOWN highlights the irrepressible fluidity of contemporary UK Jazz. Well known as a key member of pioneering global beat…

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Track : Peace Flag Ensemble preview upcoming album with the intricate ambient jazz ballad ‘The Past Is What Changes The Most’.

Now here’s some news that makes looking beyond the festive maul less difficult. Saskatchewan sound sculptors Peace Flag Ensemble have announced that their new album ‘Everything is Possible’ will arrive…

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Album Review: Maalem Houssam Guinia – ‘Dead Of Night’ : An unforgettable, intense offering from the Gnawa master-musician

We should be mighty thankful for the long and strong relationship that’s grown between Brighton’s Hive Mind Records and Guinia family of Gnawa musicians in Morocco. Back in 2017, the…

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Track/Video: Maud The Moth previews new album ‘The Distaff’ with the cathartic ‘Siphonophores’.

Celestial, ethereal , bestial and brutal, woven with beauty and darker mysteries, you need a tapestry of adjectives to describe the music of Maud the moth. The project of Spanish-born…

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Album Review: Earthen Sea –‘Recollection’: Blissful ambient techno with a deeper trip-hop flow.

Jacob Long’s musical journey has wound from seminal Dischord post-hardcore band Black Eyes through the deep dub rhythmics of Mi Ami to arriving, around 2014, in more greyscale/ambient landscapes with…

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Track/Video : Seminal Ambient expressionist Lawrence English announces a landmark new album.

Lawrence English has now devoted nearly 25 years to exploring sound as an idea, as a physical thing, as an experience and as a phenomenon. A theorist, writer, artist, curator…

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Track/Video: Lo-fi indie realists No Frills preview upcoming album with the chiming ‘Shopping In The Toothpaste Aisle’.

It’s been a while since anything’s been heard of Daniel Busheikin and his No Frills buddies. The Toronto band’s self-released debut album ‘Downward Dog’ trundled into the US college radio…

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