News: Stepping ahead of the curve once more – Supersonic Festival returns for 2023
It’s staggering to think that Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival returns this year for its 20th inspirational iteration. No wonder it’s been called ‘The Mother of British underground festivals’. Here is an event of significance dedicated to championing those sonic explorers who occupy the outer fringes of noise, rock and experimentation. Expertly curated, proudly inclusive and defiantly …
News: ‘Midnight Street Special’- Afro boogie magic from Nkono Teles ahead of his stellar retrospective ‘Love Vibration’.
Behind a seminal scene there’s often a super producer, a sound shifter who gets the credit listing but sometimes not the credit. Now Soundway Records are set to introduce another member of this illusive club, Nkono Teles, keyboardist and arranger, a man at the epicentre of Nigeria’s electro pop explosion in the eighties. On 24th …
Album Review: Night Plow/Night Plow : a pulsating electronic offering, beat driven and sonically fresh.
Some things are just meant to happen. For proof just plug into the highly charged self-titled debut from Night Plow, available now from the venerable We Are Busy Bodies. It’s a pulsating electronic offering carved out from the partnership of bassist/beat maker Tim Lefebrve and keyboard afficionado Gregory MacDonald (aka Cola Wars), a spontaneous collaboration …
Album Review: BIG|BRAVE – nature morte : a profound, powerful post-metal statement.
If nothing else the release of nature morte, the sixth album from the Montreal post metal unit BIG|BRAVE, is a testament to the band’s stamina and stoic dedication to their work. Exploring the challenging frontiers of drone-shaded, slow core, electric rock since 2014 and still discovering cracks of inspiration is a tough pursuit but that’s …
News/Tracks: Yalla Miku preview debut album, a cranked up connection of gnawa rhythms, East African spirit and post punk dynamism.
Now here’s something to shout about, a new gutsy global beats collective Yalla Miku coming out of the house of Bongo Joe Records with a debut self-titled album hitting the shelves from 31st March. Formed by Bongo Joe founder, musician Cyril Yeterian and his band mate from the requisitely named Cyril Cyril, percussionist Cyril Bondi, …
Album Reviews: Claude Cooper & Brain Fog – More Myriad Sounds : Raucous rhymes and blistering jazz breaks make for one rebellious reworking.
Ah yes, the mysterious Claude Cooper – one person or many, illusive or illusion, prankster or producer, rumoured from Bristol but maybe not…still one thing is for certain, last year the Claude Cooper nameplate fronted the extraordinary ‘Myriad Sounds’ album, a riotous explosion of wild jazz and breaks that rightly slayed the critics and fired …
News/Tracks : Afrobeat alumni Dele Sosimi announces new album ‘The Confluence’ with a mighty double single shake down.
You wouldn’t bet on some collaborations happening. So having a touchstone afrobeat musician and band leader Dele Sosimi team up with long standing indie songsmith Sam Duckworth (aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) sounds almost like one of those longshots. Except now comes news of Sosimi’s next album ‘The Confluence’ coming to the shelves via …
Album Review: João Selva- Passarinho : Re-shaping samba soul, funk and pop with a fresh momentum.
The troubadour will travel but they always have roots. Brazilian song-crafter João Selva may have ended up in Lyon but those formative years in Ipanema and Rio is at the heart of his borderless grooves. Schooled in bossa nova and the traditions of Capoeira, steeped in the diasporic riches of Brazilian music and gifted with …
Album Review: Seljuk Rustum – Cardboard Castles : melodic, mischevious and magical, fresh soundscapes and songs from Southern India.
Womad used to run the strapline ‘bringing you the best music you’ve never heard’. Well the sonic explorers at Hive Mind Records are working on their own version of the same mission. Theirs is an internationalist mindset, navigating the rich expanse of contemporary global music and sharing the work of forward thinkers with a similar …
News/Tracks: Coming soon – two lo-fi funk lost gems ‘Thrust’ and ‘Thrust Too’, kickstarting an overdue retrospective of Wilbur Niles seminal grooves.
A label that does the crate digging for you, Toronto’s We Are Busy Bodies have announced a gold dust reissue series shining a light on the work of guitarist/producer Wilbur Niles. Much sampled but seldom celebrated this lo-fi funk luminary based in Cleveland, Ohio made infectious groove music crackling with unrestrained soul, jazz and rock …