LATE NIGHT TALES, the free-roaming mix series for mind-expanding chilling most recently brought to us by Khruangbin, has announced its next beguiling instalment, and its first for 2021; it’ll be out come April 9th, and it’ll come from the Antipodean artist Jordan Rakei, whose most recent brace of albums, Wallflower and Origin, came out on the excellent Ninja Tune.
As is always the brief with the series, as well as an excellent choice of tunes picked by the artist, there’s also that requirement to bring a cover version to the table; and Jordan’s opted to give Jeff Buckley’s “Lover You Should’ve Come Over” a soulful rerub. You can hear that below; it’s also available on all digital streaming platforms, should you wish to playlist it up and the like. He takes it out for a spin into soul verdancy and for good measure mixes up a little of Radiohead’s “Codex”.
Now in its 20th year (whaaaaat?) it falls to 28-year-old modern soul icon Jordan to rustle up a mix driven by soul and hip-hop bliss.
“I wanted to try and showcase as many people as I knew on this mix,” he says.
“My idea of Late Night Tales was to distil a series of relaxing moments; the whole conceptual sonic of relaxation. So I was trying to think of all the collaborators and friends that I knew,who’d recorded stuff with this horizontal vibe; plus, I was also trying to help my friends’ stuff get into the world.
“I know the story of Khruangbin blowing up after appearing on the series (in fact, I think that’s how I discovered them). So, the main idea was to create a certain atmosphere, but also to help some of my favourite collaborators and buddies to give their songs a little push out into the world. Hope you like it.”
And there’s plenty to bliss out on, plenty to discover; from Ninja alumnus Fink to Scottish producer and multi-instrumentalist C Duncan’s haunting “He Came from the Sun,” to Barcelona collective Oso Leone’s dreamy “Virtual U” and Snowpoet’s ethereal “Evitenity”.
The closing spoken word story comes from The Revenant director Alejandro González Iñárritu, reportedly a big fan of Rakei’s.
Late Night Tales: Jordan Rakei will be released by LateNightTales digitally, on CD, on trad black vinyl and limited white vinyl, both of which also come as a twinned with the CD boxset option; hell, get yourself over the webstore and get orderin’.
