My favorite rap album of the year so far. Great follow-up to 'Lil Big Man'. It's some lush and jazzy abstract hip-hop, super chill sound if you like the style.
The new Surgeon record contains many wonderful slabs of clattering, dubby, exceedingly Brummie techno. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Free Music (Part 1) by The Free Music
Habibi Funk's latest lives up to the label's name— Libyan soul-disco-funk with bass grooves and horn riffs for days.
Apparently The Free Music released 10 albums in their heyday, but they're all sitting on a dusty shelf somewhere in some Tripoli record shop.
Comp here— not quite a reissue— consisting of a slim 9 of their cuts. I'm assuming Part 2 will be in the works.
Reminiscent of Parliament/Funkadelic, funk-era Isley Brothers, The Meters, stuff like that— but fused with Ghanaian highlife/Nigerian 80s disco, etc
There was a time in living memory where if you couldn’t get your hands on the 7-inch or your friend didn’t make you a tape with the songs or the band existed for five minutes in a city 3,000 miles away and played two shows and broke up forever and their music never made it your way—well, you just never got to hear it, and that was that. Sound familiar? Congratulations on a) reaching middle age and b) living long enough to see the release of Gone By Fall: The Collected Works of The Shapiros, which collects together all twelve tracks recorded by one of the myriad ephemeral Pam Berry-fronted indie pop groups who, rather romantically, lasted only for a few weeks in the summer of 1994, and whose entire recorded output hitherto forth was spread across a few obscure singles and appearances on compilations. Something of a Washington D.C. DIY supergroup, the Shapiros were formed by the prolific Berry (Black Tambourine, Glo-Worm, Belmondo, et al) and visiting Aussie musician Bart Cummings (The Cat’s Miaow, Hydroplane) with Heartworms’ Trish Roy and Veronica Lake’s R. Scott Kelly. The band existed in a particularly fertile moment for American indie pop, and their wistful, elegant music connect the dots between Sarah Records dewey-eyed romanticism and the janglier sounds favored Stateside and in Australia. With impressionistic lyrics delivered by Berry in one of her best vocal performances and a pitch perfect choice of covers (14 Iced Bears, Beat Happening, and the Shirelles) that nicely lays out the band’s MO, Gone By Fall is a crucial piece of indie pop history restored, a must-have for fans, and a fine entry point to Berry’s non-Black Tambourine output, which tends to sound more like this than that.
For fans of anything twee/jangle/C86/early-indie rock, easy — top-notch.
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The Upper Cuts by Alan Braxe
You know these songs.
All those timeless Parisian 12" cuts— anytime, anywhere, anyreason.
This isn't exactly a dug-out-of-nowhere release by any means— the comp was originally issued in '05— but the remaster work is pristine.
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Kuku Sebsibe — s/t
(Ethiopian cassette, not on site yet—)
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Isao Suzuki — Approach
(Semi-experimental bumblebee-piano/gruggy-bass/Krupa-percussion trio 80s Japanese jazz, also not on site yet—)
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Gamelan In The Mangkunegaran Court, Sur...ran Palace
Old, dusty, crackly, broken gamelan from Java.
Gets off on the wrong foot unfortunately— most of the best cuts are in the second half.
Worth giving a spin for those seeking some spookily spacious vibes.
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The Berlin Session by Dur-Dur Band
More in the spirit of reissues, a band that has never had anything but—
Dur-Dur Band dropped new material, and it's the best they've ever put on wax.
Brilliant bit of powerhouse afrobeat/jazz/funk— grooves just keep bouncing.
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Oh Me Oh My by Lonnie Holley
Not a reissue, but Oh me Oh My God— wow wow wow—
For some reason I thought Lonnie Holley died a year or two ago. Not sure why
Glad he didn't though, because this would have never existed.
Gorgeous. Passionate. Colossal.
Year's best so far.
Oh Me Oh My by Lonnie Holley
Not a reissue, but Oh me Oh My God— wow wow wow—
For some reason I thought Lonnie Holley died a year or two ago. Not sure why
Glad he didn't though, because this would have never existed.
Gorgeous. Passionate. Colossal.
Year's best so far.
Never heard of Lonnie Holley, but this is brilliant. Lots of high profile collaborators from a few genres, probably the best I've listened to this year so far. Hard to compare against KGLW's monumental 8.5 hr live album, but they're competing for top spot right now. _________________ 51 Washington, D.C. albums!
I'm not sure this quite counts as '2023 music', but she dropped a new song, so... sure—
9m88, whose 'Love Is So Cruel' was one of my choices for the 2022-track tourney, just happens to have a short Bandcamp article with some of her recs from the site. Worth a quick go-through.
She also dropped a solid track— è‹¥â€‹æˆ‘â€‹å‘Šâ€‹è¨´â€‹ä½ â€‹å…¶â€‹å¯¦...½ What If– which leans heavily towards her jazz/neo-soul vibe. Really chill stuff, and the instrumentation is a little fatter than her previous material. Looking forward to her next full-length.
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