Album Review: Nino Gvilia – ‘Nicole’ EP : Delicate songs for desperate times.
You may have noticed a couple of quirky tunes drifting out from the home of Hive Mind Records at the back end of ’23. Delivered by ‘new’ singer songwriter Nino Gvilia, the tracks drifted illusively between the tropes of bedroom pop, eastern European folk and lo-fi experimentalism but with a real sense of purpose. These …
Track/Video : Costa Rica’s budding pianist/composer Sofi Paez reveals the graceful ‘Por qué’ ahead of her incoming ‘Silent Stories’ album.
Easing us into the new year comes a song of shimmering reflections from Costa Rican pianist and composer Sofi Paez, the delicately poised ‘Por qué’. Her self-released EP ‘Circles’ from April last year stirred growing interest through its bold presentation of deceptively emotive, uncluttered piano pieces. Hints and sprinkles of Debussy or Satie, with the …
Album Review : iPhupho L’ka Biko- ‘Azania’ : introducing a significant South African jazz collective destined to reach out further.
Another piece of vinyl community service here from the We Are Busy Bodies team, sharing out the treasures of South African jazz to a wider listenership. This time though it’s not about resurrecting a long-lost classic from the golden seventies, ‘Azania’ by iPhupho L’ka Biko is the vinyl debut by a band that are now …
Album Review: Dustin Wong & Ari Liloia – ‘Guided To The Panoramic Merge’: delivering a box of folktronica delights and intricate sound-crafting.
There’s several reasons why you really shouldn’t let the release of ‘Guided To The Panoramic Merge’ pass you by as the year fades out. First it’s the inaugural collaboration between erstwhile post rock guitarist of significance and more recently electronic sound-scaper, Dustin Wong and emerging folktronica voice Ari Liloia. Secondly it’s on A Red Thread, …
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 …