Strut presents a reissue of Mary Greer Mudiku & Oneness of Juju’s album “Black Love Alive Again”, first released on Back Fire Records.
Mary Greer Mudiku & Oneness of Juju – Black Love Alive Again [STRUT251D]
jazz
Felipe Gordon – Psychedelic Melancholia LP [HD16]
Felipe Gordon presents ‘Psychedelic Melancholia.’ With his new album, the praised Bogotá phenomenon producer shares the melancholy of a period of his life and the emotions that come with it. Through eleven tracks punctuated by collaborations with the finest artists on today’s lo-fi scene, including Saib and Made In M, among others, Felipe Gordon introduces a new sound while maintaining jazz as the primary influence. Drawing from hip-hop, boom bap history, and the transcendental energy of Indian music, ‘Psychedelic Melancholia’ showcases his eagerness to explore diverse genres. Creating its own hypnotic, infectious sound, enter the colorful world of ‘Psychedelic Melancholia.’
K15 – The State Of Play [ESC012]
K15 returns home to Esencia for his next ofering “The State Of Play”. Devoted, still is a lush number, where delicate harmonies whirl around the soulful composition. Sizzling percussion, warm pads and a hety slice of low-end combine to create a bouncy afair – primed for dancers and listeners. state of play closes out the EP in fine form. e opening chords, the Moog lead, the spirited percussion come together to create an infectious slice of music.
Hieroglyphic Being – The Moon Dance [APNEA104]
‘The Moon Dance’ Mark’s the come back of one of Chi Towns most innovative and iconic figures to Apnea Records. Jamal Moss (Hieroglyphic Being) sound’s were first released on Apnea in 2007. Now, in 2023, he’s back with this double 12” album flooded with synth jazz and cosmic acid explorations in his signature and irreverent style.
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids – Afro Futuristic Dreams LP [STRUTLP312]
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids are back with their first major new studio album in over 3 years, an epic, sprawling new work exploring the future, the past and the urgent reality of the present, ‘Afro Futuristic Dreams’. Recorded between San Francisco and London and brought together by the genius of Malcolm Catto at his analogue Quatermass Studio, the new recording represents another bold step in Ackamoor’s ever-evolving journey in jazz, adding full, intricate scores including string sections and choral elements to the Pyramids’ trademark spiritual Afro-jazz sound. Driven by the core Pyramids members Ackamoor (sax, keytar, organ), Margaux Simmons (flute), Sandra Poindexter (violin) and Bobby Cobb (guitar), tracks range from hard-hitting commentaries about police brutality (‘Police Dem’) to celebrations of the ancestors and departed loved ones (‘Requiem For The Ancestors’, ‘Re-Memory’) and hazy cosmic journeys, including the album’s title track and the sparkling, experimental closer, ‘Nice It Up’.
Tomorrow Comes The Harvest – Evolution [AX110]
Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is a theory initiated and put into action by late Afro Beat creator and Nigerian Drummer Tony Allen and Detroit Techno’s Jeff Mills. Each belonging to a long tradition of using music to reach higher levels of consciousness, along with veteran keyboardist Jean-Phi Dary, the three toured internationally until the untimely death of Tony Allen in 2020. Recorded live during Nuits Sonores, Brussels, 2022.
Roy Ayers – Virgo Vibes LP [NSD819LP]
Long before becoming an icon of funk, acid jazz, and R&B, Roy Ayers was a promising young jazz vibraphonist. Originally released in 1967, Virgo Vibes was Ayers’ second album, and his debut for Atlantic. With five cool, funky jazz tracks, the LP features talented musicians like Joe Henderson, Charles Tolliver, Bruno Carr, Jack Wilson and the mysterious pianist Ronnie Clark (Herbie Hancock playing under a pseudonym). A rare treasure infused with the relaxed, sunny vibe that defined Ayers’ stellar career, Virgo Vibes is now available again on vinyl.
Som Imaginário – Banda Da Capital: Live in Brasilia 1976 [FARO237]
Som Imaginário are the stuff of MPB mythos. Integral to Brazil’s Clube Da Esquina movement in the early 1970s, a heady blend of progressive rock, folk, psychedelia, jazz and traditional Brazilian rhythm flows through the three studio albums the band recorded between ‘70 and ‘73. Flying the countercultural freak-flag amid the context of military dictatorship, the Brazilian prog lords shared much of the sense of experimentation and bountiful fuzz bequeathed by their tropicalismo forbearers. But armed with genius composers, arrangers and stupendously high-level musicianship, Som Imaginário introduced a potent harmonic complexity to Brazilian popular music, which would inspire generations of artists to come. On 4th October 1976, having finished a spell of recording and touring with Milton Nascimento, Som Imaginário performed a concert in celebration of Nature Day in Brasília. The recordings of the show would become “Banda Da Capital”, which, for the past half century, has laid dormant, waiting for its mystical power to be untapped.
Moufang & Czamanski – Recreational Kraut [SR23LP01]
“Recreational Kraut”, the latest release on the recently relaunched Source Records label, is a collaboration between Jordan Czamanski (aka Jordan GCZ) and David Moufang (aka Move D). “Recreational Kraut” was recorded live in in three sessions in Jordan’s Amsterdam studio in 2018 and 2019. As the title suggests, the album flirts with the term and the “genre” krautrock and it’s prolonged, often improvised instrumental passages. The equipment used in the late 60s and early 70s was often rather conventional like electric piano, old synthesizers and electric bass guitar. The two instruments shaping the album and giving it a coherence, despite the varied styles and tempos are Czamanski’s Fender Rhodes and Moufang’s lyra-8, an 8 oscillator drone synthesizer which is played manually via touch sensors, giving it a very expressive sometimes violin-like other times outer-worldly, atonal character. The album’s 11 tracks span beat-less ambient soundscapes to jazzy psychedelia, as well as hints of house, techno, broken beat and funk.
Grupo Um – Starting Point [FARO235LP]
In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Zé Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpção to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo’s Teodoro Sampaio Street. As teenagers, the trio had already been playing together in Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto’s direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then known) began to realise their own potential. With many nightclubs and venues closed in the mid-70s and government censors dictating the output of radio, TV and art galleries, many Brazilian artists fled during the years of dictatorship. But underground, Grupo Um were fusing avant garde ideals with contemporary jazz and Afro Brazilian rhythm; making phenomenally free and expressive music – in stark contrast to the sterile, conservative conditions being imposed above ground. Starting Point was to mark the inception of one of Brazil’s most daring instrumental groups. Their debut now sits in the lofty echelon of otherworldly 70s Brazilian music, alongside the likes of Marcos Resende & Index’s self-titled debut, Cesar Mariano & Cia’s Sao Paulo Brasil, Azymuth’s debut and indeed Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som. But just like all of those titles, which were either shelved or largely ignored at the time, Grupo Um – so radically ahead of their time – struggled to find a label to release their debut album. So Lelo kept the tapes safe in his archives, which is where they sat for almost half a century. Finally, almost fifty years later, this mesmerising piece of history is here, and it was only the beginning.
Hieroglyphic Being – A Memoir Of Life In The Lust [MFMCD011]
“A Memoir Of Life In The Lust” is a collection of tracks from Hieroglyphic Being aka Jamal Moss released in 2011 on Music From Mathematics.
Don Cherry & Jean Schwarz – Roundtrip: Live at Theatre Recamier – Paris (1977) [TRS026]
After more than 45 years forgotten in the personal archives of Jean Schwarz, Transversales Disques is releasing this previously unpublished recording which brings together the great Don Cherry and his friend, composer Jean Schwarz, pioneer in electro-acoustic music and member of G.R.M. This concert was recorded in 1977 at the Paris MIX festival (Théatre Récamier) organised by G.R.M and hosted by director François Bayle. An elegant mix of spiritual jazz and electronic sounds around this astounding quintet made up of JF Jenny Clark, Nana Vasconcelos and Michel Portal.
Ayanda Sikade – Umakhulu [AFS052]
Born in 1981 in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape, Ayanda Sikade is one of South African jazz’s most in-demand and respected drummers, a familiar face on the scene for years and a driving force behind its growing prominence on the world stage. Dedicated to his grandmother who raised him, Sikade’s long-awaited sophomore album as a bandleader, Umakhulu, follows his 2018 debut Movements. Recorded in Johannesburg in early 2021, it features the talents of frequent collaborator Nduduzo Makhathini on piano, young Simon Manana on alto sax and Nhlanhla Radebe on bass. The album’s nine tracks, composed and produced by Sikade, pay homage to the artist’s heritage — most noticeably on ‘Mdantsane’ and ‘Nxarhuni River’ — while forging onwards to a brave new world on others, like ‘Imithandazo Yeengelosi’ (Prayer of Angels) and ‘Space Ship’.
Tapan – Novi Svet [OFFEN023]
Belgrade’s Tapan debut on Offen with an EP that has been a long time in the making but finally arrives in grand fashion. It is an exotic and intoxicating take on Balearic music with ‘Missing’ defined by snaking and hypnotic synths and tumbling drums. There is brilliantly loose drum programming and tons of echoing hits on ‘Samo Prolaznost’ that make it impossible not to shake your limbs to and ‘Rain Dance’ is a ten-minute slow-motion workout. ‘Novi Svet’ closes with more crashing drums and intense dance floor feels.
The Pyramids – Aomawa: The 1970s Recordings [STRUT290]
Strut present the first box set release to bring together the 1970s recordings of The Pyramids, led by Idris Ackamoor. As students at Antioch College, Ohio, alto saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, flautist Margaux Simmons and bass player Kimathi Asante created three lasting monuments in sound – Lalibela, King of Kings, and Birth / Speed / Merging, a trio of albums produced without any label backing or distribution between 1972 and 1976. Their music is unique among the varied canon of avant-garde and experimental music of 1970s America: high intensity African-styled percussion topped with songs, chants, and horns, laced with African instruments and arranged into long, flowing suites that surge and roll.
The Paradox – Live At Montreux Jazz Festival LP [AX108]
Techno legend Jeff Mills and keyboard wizard Jean-Phi Dary embark on a live musical trip, documenting their most recent performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland – and encapsulating their mission to fuse techno and jazz. In the past Jeff has spoken of the need to “take a few steps back and try and assess what has been done, and what might need to be approached to be able to go forward.” Jeff’s reassessment manifests as jazz-hno, film music-hno, conceptechno… anything to happily build of the mad range of influences he’s drawn on over the years. Paradox: Live at Montreux is the result. Jeff Mills – electronics; Jean-Phi Dary – piano, Fender Rhodes, synthesizer; Zaf Zapha – electric/upright bass.
VA – Beyond Space & Time Vol. 2 [BEST002]
Internationally recognized and much-loved festival from Japan, Rainbow Disco Club’s offshoot project ”Beyond Space And Time” record label presents their sophomore release. Their second compilation has been compiled by none other than Antal. Also known as the festival’s headliner and the man behind Amsterdam record shop/label Rush Hour, all 11 tracks are selected by Antal in a 2 x 12-inch + bonus 7-inch format. From local Dutch newcomers to ’80s Japanese cult music, rare grooves to danceable house music, and rare Caribbean soul, this compilation is a portrait of music enthusiast Antal Heitlager’s enormous collection and 30-year DJ career, a work of art that can be enjoyed by all music fans.
Flock – Flock LP [STRUT269LP]
Flock is a brand new collaboration between five leading musicians from London’s open-minded jazz and experimental scenes: Bex Burch (Vula Viel), Sarathy Korwar, Dan “Danalogue” Leavers (Soccer96, The Comet Is Coming), Al MacSween (Maisha) and Tamar Osborn (Collocutor).
Oneness Of Juju – Bush Brothers & Space Rangers LP [STRUTLP255]
Strut continue their deep dive into the archives of Black Fire Records with a new reissue of Oneness Of Juju’s Bush Brothers & Space Rangers, showcasing the band at the peak of their powers in 1977. Primarily recorded at Arrest Studios in Washington DC, the album ispacked with landmark Oneness tracks including ‘Be About TheFuture’ (“possibly the first ecology-themed song that I know of”) the George Clinton-influenced ‘Plastic’, an acoustic alternative version of ‘African Rhythms’ and strong covers of Caiphus Semenya’s ‘West Wind’ and Bobby Womack’s ‘Breezin”. Plunky continues, “The album is composed of several different sessions featuring different personnel and only first came out as an album in its own right when Black Fire MD Jimmy Gray started working with P-Vine Records in Japan during the ’90s. For me, it’s one of the hottest periods for the band.”
Solis Lacus – Solis Lacus (A Special Radio ~ TV Record – No 15) [SDBANSELECTION06]
Sdban Records will reissue several installments of the legendary library series ‘A Special Radio ~ TV Record’ on vinyl. These were originally released on Belgian imprint ‘Selection Records’ between 1975 and 1981. N°15 in the series was the Belgian milestone jazz album ‘Solis Lacus’ released in 1975. Solis Lacus is the cult group around renowned Belgian pianist Michel Herr, a pioneer of electric jazz in the 70’s in Europe. Michel Herr rose to international prominence after winning the first prize at the jazz festival in Loosdrecht, The Netherlands, in 1971. He accompanied many European and American jazz stars on foreign tours and ran the group Jazztrack with saxophone player Wolfgang Engstfeld in Germany. At the same time, he set up his own band Solis Lacus, which consisted of Belgian musicians who had all made a name for themselves on the national jazz scene of the 1960s including Richard Rousselet and Bruno Castelluci both from Placebo. Inspired by the reigning jazz-rock sound of the day, Herr expanded his musical vocabulary and started to play electronic keyboards. Solis Lacus recorded its only album in the course of 1974 and 1975, before the members of the group headed in their own direction.
The Hipodrome Of Music 