VINYL OF THE MONTH
John R Miller The Great Unknowing (Rounder)
John R Miller’s youth was spent in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, an area where he imbibed Americana-folk fiddle music and began his career. The fiddles are mostly long gone but the feel of them is retained on The Great Unknowing, his fifth album. Miller combines raw country songwriting with a rough-edged bar-blues guitar twang. His voice is world-weary and his songwriting literate but catchy, dosed up on the blackly humorous cynicism found in the best country music (just check out “Looking for a Place to Die” – “gaols get fuller but they ain’t getting’ any whiter”). Very occasionally it settles to a Quo-ish chug but, even then, his songwriting raises the material to heights. The Great Unknowing sounds beautifully worn, by life on the road and by our times. It is one of the albums of the year. Comes on double in gatefold.
VINYL REVIEWS
Monolake Interstate (Field)
You don’t get much more techno than Monolake. Back in 1999, when Interstate was first released, the German duo of Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles, were developing granular synthesis in electronic music, taking a scientific engineering approach to the software. The eventual result of their work was Ableton, which Behles left the group to head, after this album. Back then, following in the footsteps of their countrymen Basic Channel, the pair were exploring the areas where minimal techno and dub blended, prefiguring what would later happen on the fringes of the dubstep scene. Interstate, then, is not a bangin’ album, although it contains real weight. Instead, it sounds subterranean, rife with effects reminiscent of the glottal languages of African bush people. It’s an ascetic listening experience, dryly serious, yet also an absolute mind-bath, a trip into ketamine robot zones. It comes on double, very well-pressed for bass depth.
Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band The New Atomic (Trash City)
Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band is a Leeds-based community project led by bassist Fergus Quill. Those imagining a marching colliery band will be in for a shock. This 30+ player collective, instead, turn to the groundbreakers of jazz for their sustenance. And to the spirit of punk. Just check out “Theme From ‘The New Atomic’”, a demented everything-but-the-kitchen-sink banger that gallops along at a rampaging pace, exuding the energy of the explosion it encapsulates. But there are also bluesy vocal cuts, such as a slinkin’ take on Bob Dylan’s “Love Sick”. When swing first appeared in 1935, long before Glenn Miller defanged it, Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa electrified Los Angeles and created hysteria, one of the first youth cultures. Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band translate that excitement to 21st century Britain. Comes in obi-stripped photo gatefold on white, back and grey splatter vinyl.
Himba Hymn Ghosts of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast (Sublime Frequencies)
Himba Hymn is not then name of a band, it’s the name that roving producer and anthropological adventurer Ian Brennan has given to his recordings of the Himba people in the Namib Desert. Brennan has recorded everything from Tinariwen to Tanzanian albinos to a Mississippi snake handling churches (and much else). For this record, he had to fly four days, drive four (including two off-road) for a two-hour recording session. It’s mostly looped mouth noises with occasional intrusions from a blown oryx horn covered in mud. It’s music that rams home the sheer strangeness of other cultural traditions to western ears. The opening “Lion Attack, Cattle Massacre” hits this listener as deeply sinister, sounding like a threatening occult splurge of growling jackal growls and whoops, but other pieces, such as “Friends Who’ve Passed”, contain more traditional singing, and “Please Help Me” sounds like American blues. Other tracks have an earthy hypnotic-psychedelic aspect. It’s heady stuff, far out there, and won’t be for many, but it’s also fascinating, the raw essence of music itself. Comes with a four-page photo-/info insert.
Scrimshire Bring Our Light to Every Corner (Albert’s Favourites)
Albert’s Favourites head honcho Adam Scrimshire describes his latest album (of many) as one where he became a bit lost, unsure where he was going, or whether it was any good. So he decided to just go with the flow and see what happened. This hippy decision turns out to be one of his best. I’m not so keen on his music when it seems to be actively attempting to be “jazzy” or “soulful”, but with Bring Our Light to Every Corner it’s as if he’s smoked a fat one and gone, “Hell, man, let’s just see what happens.” There are guests such as Idris Rahman and Joshua Idehen, but it’s the bizarre vocalising of Dwight Trible on “Asleep, A Dream” that you’ll remember, or the Faye Houston-featuring 15-minute chill of “Awake, A Dream”. It’s a set marinated in classic spiritual jazz, trip hop and Lonnie Liston Smith-ish fusion exploration It's reiki massage lounge new agey, but not too much so. One of Scrimshire’s very best. Comes with 12” x 12” info insert where he also talks about his dreams, which is spooky, as one of them is one of mine!
Mojave 3 Ask Me Tomorrow + Out of Tune + Excuses for Travellers + Spoon and Rafter + Puzzles Like You (4AD)
With the startlingly huge success of Slowdive, decades after their original career, 4AD have sensibly decided to see if anyone would be interested in the band key members put together in 1995. Mohave 3 were formed by singer Rachel Goswell, guitarist-songwriter Neil Halstead, and drummer Ian McCutcheon when Slowdive fizzled to a halt after being dropped by Creation Records. They were soon joined by keys-player Alan Forrester and Chapterhouse guitarist Simon Rowe. Their sound is a spectral, sometime gorgeous take on country. The first album, 1995’s Ask Me Tomorrow is so quiet it makes Gillian Welch sound like The Stooges, but it’s also lovely, akin to those opiated 4.00 AM Velvet Underground numbers. With 1998’s Out of Tune, they amp things up to lush, full-band Americana, with Halstead taking over all vocal duties. 1998’s Excuses For Travellers pares things back again to an acoustic-led set, tipping its hat to Townes Van Zandt. 2003’s Spoon and Rafter is uncharacteristically upbeat, with Halstead finding his falsetto. It even rocks out on the excellently titled “Billoddity”. Their final album, 2006’s Puzzles Like You, sees the band go full, ebullient country rock, albeit from a Brit indie angle. Throughout all five albums, the quality of the songs is high. I’ve never listened to this band before but I'll certainly be doing so again, and these well-remastered vinyl albums are a good place to start.
Agile Experiments Havana (None More)
Dave de Rose is an Anglo-Italian musician who’s played bass and/or drums for artists ranging from Mark Ronson to Mulatu Astatke but, alongside this, he’s released a series of albums as Agile Experiments, of which Havana is the 13th. It’s a wonderful set of dub-tinted percussive-organic rollers, many of them ripe for WOMAD-ish dancefloors. Such cuts are interspersed with moments of wonked-out weirdness, such as the dizzying gloop-craziness of “Where the Wild things Are”. A discovery.
Genesis Owusu Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge (Ourness) + Deafkids Cicatrizes Do Futuro (Neurot)
Two albums riven with punk rage via an Afro-rock noisiness. When I first heard Australian-Ghanian artist Genesis Owusu on the release of his 2021 debut Smiling With No Teeth, I was blown away. It was like he’d fused Kanye’s “Black Skinhead” with The Weeknd and Run The Jewels, all wrapped up in his own larger-than-life persona. Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge is his third album and he’s mining the same seams, but has stirred in a heavier flavour of American hip hop and European four-to-the-floor. It’s tasty stuff, fierily attacking racism and more; I just wish the world would hurry up and “get” him, so he feels comfortable moving further from his original blueprint. Comes in photo/lyric gatefold double on fluorescent green-yellow vinyl with
a 12” x 24” poster. Ultra-prolific underground Brazilian duo Deafkids are a much gnarlier proposition, their music a mangled mess of South American rhythms and Butthole Surfers-ish distorted guitar assault. It’s an echoing, percussive, psychedelic pummelling, and, unlike Genesis Owusu, it stands no chance whatsoever of crossing over. I imagine that if you saw them live, you’d become a lifelong convert. Comes on fluorescent orange, black-spattered vinyl with a 12” x 12” info insert (in Portuguese).
Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes Visions of a New World (BGP) + George Clinton Computer Games (BGP)
Two different faces of 1970s funk. Lonnie Liston Smith followed his career-defining 1974 Expansions album a year later with Visions of a New World. The keys-player had always tended towards the jazzual side of the funk and, with this album, he plunges further into mellowness. It’s more bedroom than dancefloor, with even wah-wah’n’sax rollers such as “Devika (Goddess)” devoted more to a hip-moving mood than to the feet. Then again, Lonnie Liston Smith does this stuff impeccably. Comes in gatefold. At the other end of the spectrum and, OK, actually released in 1982, is
George Clinton. In a financial hole, caused by record company shenanigans around his many groups, Clinton bounced back with a set inspired by the titular electronic games, and by the rising tide of proto-hip hop electro, a style which he explicitly incorporates on “Loopzilla”, but P-funk fans are catered for too, with a Clinton classic in “Atomic Dog”. Arriving in a photo/info inner sleeve that contains the back story in detail, Computer Games showcases a hedonist Afro-American kingpin making a rocketing comeback.
LIFE Abstract/Natural (EMI North/Launchpad)
Hull band LIFE have been around for a decade and Abstract/Natural is their fourth album. Choosing that band name in the age of Google was both proudly ambitious and foolhardy. I wonder if it’s affected their profile. Around their own area they have a strong reputation but, judging from Abstract/Natural, they deserve a wider one. It’s full of epic, fist-pumping indie-rock, widescreen and stadium-ready, with snifters of The Killers but more of older Manchester bands such as The Chameleons and even New Order. If you’re going to make this kind of music, you need to do so with utter conviction and commitment, and they do. Comes in gatefold on bright green vinyl in lyric inner sleeve
Leverton Fox Eternal Gong Bath of the Sunbed Mind (Not Applicable)
Electronic experimentalist trio Leverton Fox have been going for about 20 years. Their latest release is a six-track EP drawn from sessions the band had forgotten about. Leverton Fox are sometimes placed in the jazz category, partly because of two members’ associations with that world, but Eternal Gong Bath of the Sunbed Mind has little to do with jazz, even if Alex Bonney’s trumpet occasionally sneaks in. Instead, this is an EP of outlandish ambience, which is to say it’s kind of mellow but so filled with weirdness that few would listen to it to chill out. Indeed, it’s more like the soundtrack to the nightmare sequence in an East European animation. Synths are used to create a scuttling, blur-noise sound-bed, amid which tinkles, drums, squelches, creaks, and other noises float about. It’s a heady gumbo and a thoroughly original listen. Comes on melty mauve vinyl in a holey die-cut outer sleeve.
Andy Crofts Melody Boy (Colorama)
Paul Weller associate and leader of late period mod outfit The Moons, Andy Croft releases his debut solo album. Unsurprisingly, it sounds like the sort of thing Acid Jazz might release (they released The Moons 2010 debut album). It’s a set of Sixties-flavoured pop, somewhere between The Beatles and their at-the-time beloved, now-long-forgotten easy listening contemporaries. These are sunny songs, full of optimism, retro but riven with upbeat zest which will put a smile on the faces of those who look back wistfully at Britpop. Of course, theartsdesk on Vinyl abhors Britpop, but we have to acknowledge the melodic craft of this set. “Sat in her council flat she dreams of absolute freedom, away from the mind-altering magazines,” Crofts sings on “Living in a Box,” and it sounds as if that same “absolute freedom” fuels the uplift of his songwriting. Comes in photo/lyric inner sleeve.
The Belle Stars The Belle Stars (Demon)
Flash-in-the-pan, early-Eighties pop band The Belle Stars were underrated and ahead of their time. A seven-piece, all-female outfit, born from first wave 2-Tone band The Bodysnatchers, they released a series of cleverly chosen, Afro-pop-favoured covers, notably “Iko Iko”, their adaptation of a New Orleans Mardi Gras chant, and “The Clapping Song”, another early 20th century rhyme adapted to pop. They turned to these covers, which also included Northern Soul classic “The Snake” and early-Sixties novelty number “Mockingbird”, when they couldn’t make headway with their own material. Contrarily, their biggest hit was their own song, “Sign of the Times”. This vinyl picture disc set, features only their post-success singles and B-sides, not earlier material. It is, nonetheless a decent snapshot of a band whose production is of its time but, at its best, can still percussively work a dancefloor.
Opus Kink The Sweet Goodbye (So)
It’s taken a long time for festival favourites Opus Kink to release their debut album. They’ve been blowing up gig-land for almost a decade. Their music is a crowd-ready amalgam of stompy, twangy burlesque indie, gypsy brass, Nick Cave homage, and punky vocal theatrics. Redolent of Tankus and Fat Dog (although not the latter’s penchant for electronic bang-bang), there’s a joyful cynicism, a hedonic darkness, to their music, the sound of a life well-lived, perhaps a bit burnt by it too. The album captures their mood well, although perhaps not fully their energy, but it’s a tasty, often catchy opening shot. Comes in photo/lyric inner sleeve on vinyl that looks like clouds overwhelming a very blue dusk.
The Solomon Gundy Band Hancestry (Dundus) + Matt Berry Trio Everything’s Peachy: The Jazz Sessions Volume 2 (Acid Jazz) + Jaga Jazzist A Living Room Hush (Ninja Tune/Smalltown Supersound) + Ella Fitzgerald Live at Falkoner Theatre Copenhagen 6th February 1966 (Gearbox)
And, now, four from the jazz milieu. Trumpet-player Sean Corby has been around the block a few times, and has put together The Solomon Gundy Band. The idea is it’s a link between the young jazz explosion of the 1980s and 1990s and the one of today. In fact, almost everyone involved is over 40, aside from an appearance by rising pianist Sultan Stevenson. But, putting that quibble aside, it’s a deliciously eclectic and fun set, with appearances by figureheads such as Courtney Pine and Julie Dexter splashed amongst lively numbers co-written by Corby and Grupo X trombonist Jonny Enright. The range of styles incorporates everything from skanking cuts to virtuosic
showcases to Afro-jazz to poppy dancefloor bits. It’s all very likeable, as is the second volume of Acid Jazz Records’ Jazz Sessions. Matt Berry is usually known as a singer (and actor) but, on keys, organ and Mellotron, he leads bassist Phil Scragg and drummer-trombonist-saxophonist Graham Mann on twelve quirky pieces that run the gamut from bleepy, bonkers retro-synth antics to abstract library music funk to smooth Sixties film grooves. Back in 2002, when mixing jazz and electronica wasn’t a
thing, the second album by Norwegian band Jaga Jazzist made waves. “Jazzist,” we said, knowingly, “Geddit? It’s like jazz but not quite.” Credit, then, to this band as innovators (about a quarter of the material sent to theartsdesk on Vinyl is now “jazzist”). A Living Room Hush reappears in gatefold double on orange vinyl. The massive contemporaneous influence of Kruder & Dorfmeister-style stoned beats, as we all came down from the 1990s, is to the fore. But there are also cuts such as ”Real Racecars Have Doors” and the drum & bass-flavoured “Midget” which welly it. Groundbreaking albums often don’t sound ground-breaking in the wake of the many albums that imitated and superseded them. Such is the case with this one but it is,
nevertheless, a playfully groovy listen. Finally, a previously unreleased live set by one of jazz music’s original queens, Ella Fitzgerald, recorded the day after a concert already in the public realm (The Stockholm Concert, 1966, released in 1984). Working with Duke Ellington’s band (but not the man himself), Fitzgerald is on boisterous form, loose and swingin’, on cuts such as Ellington’s “I’m Just a Lucky So-And-So”, and Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” (replete with contemporaneous ad-libs about Burton & Taylor and James Bond). With Jimmy Jones running around her on piano, another highlight is Fitzgerald in full scat empress mode on “How High the Moon”. Lying around for decades in a Danmarks Radio producer’s private collection, it’s a small but welcome addition to legendary canon.
The Waterboys Atlantic Rain: The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings Boxset (Chrysalis)
Prior to 1988’s Fisherman’s Blues album, The Waterboys were, perhaps, aspiring to join the Joshua Tree-led explosion in widescreen Celtic rock. Their 1985 single “The Whole of the Moon” had, after all, put a big spotlight on them. Instead, band leader Mike Scott spent months and months recording in (mostly) Dublin, laying down hundreds of songs, originals and covers, with his band heading another way. The eventually released album lent heavily into folk but the songs on this three-record box set showcase revelling in soulful Springsteen-ian rock, such as the feisty, sax-laced, newly unearthed, nigh-on-nine-minute “Come Back to Galway”. There are 16 other previously unheard numbers too, albeit abbreviated versions of some were dipped into on 2013’s Fisherman’s Box. One would imagine the barrel-scraping stage reached by now but, no, from a stripped back, reverbed take of Princes “Dove’s Cry” to the melancholy Dylan-esque roll of “Endless Store” to the around 20 minutes manic jamming on The Beatles “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (with “Hey Jude” interludes), there’s plenty for fans to get into, and even quite a bit for passing listeners like theartsdesk on Vinyl. The box also contains a 40-page book which includes Scott talking through all the tracks, as well as a bunch of photos.
ALSO WORTHY OF MENTION
Candi Staton Back to My Roots (Kent): Made over a few years and intended as her final album, 86-year-old disco-soul queen Candi Staton returns with a fine set of gospel and blues. I was taken by surprise by its earthiness and aspects such as the fabulous guitar work of “prophecying” Jonathan DuBose Jr. Rootsy and very much dedicated to her Lord, but still taking in The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street whopper “Shine a Light”, there’s also a bonus 7” containing a cover of The Flying Stars of Brooklyn’s 2017 single “My God Has A Telephone”, featuring 1960s Stax singer William Bell, and Staton’s own “God’s Gonna Use Me Anyway”. Indeed, she writes or co-writes most of it. Back to My Roots stands up as fine late period work by the woman who’ll always be most famous for “Young Hearts Run Free” and “You Got the Love”. Comes in photo/lyric/info inner sleeve.
Empirical Like Lambs: To the Slaughter (Whirlwind): The eighth album from vibraphone player Lewis Wright’s band has been flavoured by his move to the USA, as is made clear by the notes from Soweto Kinch on the photo/info gatefold. It’s an instrumental album that bubbles with a discordant energy that reflects our times, with interludes of sad-eyed slowness. Alongside saxophonist Nathaniel Facey, double bassist Tom Farmer, and drummer Shaney Forbes, various guests assist on this mission, covering three sides of vinyl, the fourth featuring a coiling etching. With moments of serious percussive attack, parts of it boast a liveliness that those inclined could even shake a leg to.
The Heavenly Bodes Green Hills (Fuzz Club) + Upupayāma Honesty Flowers (Fuzz Club): Two from London’s Fuzz Club label, an imprint that perennially supports the reverb-laden rock’n’roll underground. Cornish Sixties-style garage band The Heavenly Bodes (note, NOT "Bodies") are a case in point, channelling the spirit of The 13th Floor Elevators and ? And The Mysterions. Their debut album has vocals low in the mix, buzzy guitars to the fore, and a general sense of bowl-haircutted LSD consumption. Where this might be music one would typically expect from Fuzz Club (even just judging by the label’s name), Upupayāma is whole other kettle of baked brains, the project of Italian headfry expert Alessio Ferrari. Their fifth album, in as many years, is a double on gatefold, jammed with (mainly instrumental) psyche-rock that mingles global percussive grooves with freaky and, yes, fuzzy hippy guitar play. It’s a bit of a belter.
Sanyu Circumspect (Sanyu): Circumspect is the debut album from Oslo-based Irish-Ugandan singer Sanyu. She hits the sweet spot between contemporary femme-pop and something more organic. With a fabulous voice, able to run from husky to showily soulful in moments, her music has hints of both R&B and indie, but is opulent and baroque, organic orchestrations to the fore, weavings of jazz and trip hop. It’s catchily pop, but without the AI-ish plasticity of most chart fare. Comes in photo/lyric gatefold on mossy green vinyl.
St. Vincent Live in London (Total Pleasure/Virgin) + Sparks Live on the Moon (Transgressive) : Two live albums taking a new slant on the artists’ music. Anne Clarke – AKA St Vincent – gives us a double set in gatefold, reimagining her oeuvre through a collaboration with The Jules Buckley Orchestra for the BBC Proms. At their best these reinterpretations give songs throughout her career (though mainly more recent) a John Barry-ish, James Bond theme quality that listeners will either embrace or feel undermines the songs’ original intent. I’d go with the former perspective. Some songs, such as “Candy Darling”, are given an even more old-fashioned treatment, rendered as string-laden old Hollywood ballads. Sparks go one better and offer us the first concert album recorded on the Moon. We’ll not quibble with the venue claim but the contents jumps around their career, from a frenetic version of their 1972 Roxy-esque “Whippings and Apologies” to ballistic takes on the “The Number One Song in Heaven” and “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us”, to colourful takes on modern Sparks anthems such as “All That”. Their pal Cate Blanchett introduces them. Sparks are fab in concert and this double set on gatefold goes some way to capturing the appeal, a combination of showbiz kicks, and genuine joy in pop. And, of course, it’s on “Moon-coloured vinyl”.
Various Plants Can Dance (Flo): The premise of this album is that “plants are dancing, just very, very slowly”. It’s a collection, created by Brian D’Souza, the guy responsible for the Mycelium Pavilion sounds at Glastonbury Festival 2023, that sees producers utilising the electrical activity of plants translated by various equipment to sound forms. Naturally the results are ambient and range from new agey tone music to the more active synth’n’jazz of Modern Biology & Zekarius Muesele Thompson. Gentle and friendly, the whole is given rich context by a 28-page booklet, full of thoughts, essays and information. Others on board include Jason Singh, Helen Wilson, Bit Marten, Lamine… which is to say no-one I’d ever heard of but, on white vinyl, it’s an interesting project. It’s also a solid signifier for where our thinking should be heading in these times of environmental Armageddon.
Thee Marloes Di Hotel Malibu (Big Crown) + Marco Benevento Glera (Big Crown): Happy 10th birthday to Big Crown, the soul-funkin’ Brooklyn label set up by Kali Uchis/Lizzo producer Leon Michels (of El Michels Affair) and crate-digger DJ Danny Akalepse. And here are two of their latest albums. First, Thee Marloes, an Indonesian trio, whose second album is a sunny head-nodder, paying tribute to the area where soul wanders into global exotica of the kind that used to grace suburban stereos in the 1970s. It’s easy, baby, with frontwoman Natassya Sianturi’s vocals designed to soothe. Comes on transparent aquamarine vinyl. My preference, though, is for the the latest from massively prolific New York jazz pianist Marco Benevento whose set is busier and has a retro library music swing. It’s mostly instrumental, but one of the outstanding cuts is the sultry, stoned sweetness of “Quattro Passi”, featuring vocals by Italian torch singer Chiara Civello. Other guest include Dream Crease, Molly Lewis and Elizabeth Steiner.
Van Wilks Low Down, Wound Up. Rockin’ Texas Blues (Zippo): The title of this album says most of what you need to know about it. That and the opening cut, ZZ Top’s “Drive By Lover”. Texas-born guitar slinger Van Wilks has earned his stripes on the roadhouse circuit, as well as touring with bands such as Aerosmith. Needless to say, it’s hardly subtle and doesn’t do anything sonically new but, whereas those who play this music usually focus on relentless hackneyed covers, Van Wilks’s material is almost all original, while keeping to the spirit you’d expect. One to see live, for sure (in Texas!). Comes in photo/lyric/info inner sleeve.
Thandii x Regalado Coco Okayo (Sama Sama): This is an intriguing mix-up. Margate band Thandii went to the Philippines, where band member Graham Godfrey has heritage, and put together an album with the country’s most recorded drummer, Jun Regalado, best-known for his work on funk-flavoured Seventies cuts. The result is an album that has a genial space-groove feel, nailed down by Regalado’s beats. It’s summer-funky, with light floaty vocals by Jessica Berry, tinged with electronic wooziness. In fact, it’s exactly the sort of music one might expect from Big Crown Records (of the review above this one).
Keyside One Way Paradise (Modern Sky): There’s nothing new here but if you want proficient Liverpudlian jangling, tuneful indie guitar pop by a classic four-piece line-up, then you’re in luck. Think The Coral, The La’s and that kind of thing. Not my bag but, if they can find the right tail wind, they have the potential to make it, as the songs are present and correct. Comes on pale orange vinyl in lyric inner sleeve.
Bob James One (BGP): Anyone who likes hip hop will be familiar with the final track on this 1974 album by keys-player Bob James. “Nautilus” is one of the most sampled cuts in hip hop, utilized by A Tribe Called Quest, Run DMC, Wu-Tang Clan, EPMD, Eric B & Rakim and, literally, hundreds of others. James is famous as one of the foundational players in smooth jazz, a style theartsdesk on Vinyl can't stand, but with One, he’s at the start of his career and has yet to find the heart of blandness. So it’s a funky album, full of flavour, ranging from brassy jazz to blaxploitation soundtrack-ish fare to his cover of Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Making Love” (he’d played on the original just a couple of weeks earlier and, yes, OK, this one does tread deep down the super-smooth path). Comes in extensive info gatefold.
Token Intercourse (Ace): The Tokens were a 1950s New York doo-wop group who had a mega-hit in 1961 with their Americanized version of Solomon Linda’s “Mbube”, entitled “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. It’s a record almost everyone knows and they used its huge success as a platform to back their own BT Puppy label and A&R skills, hitting the jackpot with the production and marketing of The Chiffons. In 1968, as paisley pop spliffed-up the US charts, they created their own Brian Wilson-esque long-player, Intercourse, which combines light-hearted silliness and thoughtful, playful, crisply harmonised vocal pop. Warner Records rejected it and it was eventually released in paltry numbers and became, as these things do, if they’re good enough, a word-of-mouth cult. Via Ace Records, Bob Stanley gives all the background on the inner sleeve and Intercourse is, indeed, a super-Sixties minor gem that most of us never even knew existed.
Break_Fold Planner_Tracker (Analog Horizons/EMI North): Bradford electronic producer Tim Hann brings together his favourite cuts from his Planner and Tracker EPs, alongside five new pieces. Most of the press around this terms Break-Fold an ambient project but Planner-Tracker isn’t really; more moody skittering electronica that’s judderingly antsy, although it occasionally settles to something more determinedly downtempo. Stern rather than cuddly, it has its moments.
Thirsty Quireboys God Bless America: Best of Thirsty (Thirsty Music/Cadiz Music): The Quireboys were a British Guns’n’Roses-meets-The Faces rock band who achieved success at the end of the Eighties/start of the Nineties. Their key founding members, singer Spike and guitarist Guy Bailey, reunited to make music in 2022 but Bailey died a year later. His own band were called Thirsty and this release sees Spike tackle Thirsty’s material with his sandpapery rocker’s voice, alongside Thirsty’s Irina D and Quireboy Chris Johnstone. It’s a raw, bluesy bar thing, heartfelt, romantic, celebratory but tinged with the sadness of bereavement. Comes in photo/lyric gatefold on blue vinyl.
Tom Sharkett 25 EP (Test Pressing) + Juni Habel Cloud Song Reformations (Basin Rock): Manchester band W.H. Lung’s 2017 song “Inspiration!” is one of the songs of the last decade, one I've consistently played in DJ sets that will allow it, but I never became as addicted to the band’s ongoing output. Now a debut solo EP arrives from the band’s guitarist, Tom Sharkett, via the Test Pressing label. It’s a four-tracker of indie-tronica, whose wafty, ethereal-leaning lead cut “Painting on Glass” is a stand-out. The rest, including the early OMD-esque “Sleepwalk”, featuring London alt-popster mui zyu, is tasty Factory Records-flavoured fare. Also featuring Sharkett is a set of remixes for the song “Pearl Cloud Song” from folk singer Juni Habel’s latest album, Evergreen in Your Mind, on her own label. Sharkett contributes the lead, an atmospheric chugger, but it’s Minotaur Shock’s version on the flip that wins it, a gloopy ambient tweak on a loop of the original’s acoustic guitar work. A version of Habel’s original instrumental is also present
Roger Glenn Reachin’ (Craft): This is one fat-sounding repress by Craft of a relatively unknown Latin funk-fusion corker. Put together by the Mizell Brothers, off the back of their success with The Blackbyrds and others, it features session musician flautist Roger Glenn to the fore, but also members of Herbie Hancock’s band. By turns manic, groovy and virtuosic, it’s avoids jazz-fusion’s tendency towards pretentious noodle, keeping things bubbling for the dancefloor, alongside slower, psychedelicized, wah-wah-laden cuts such as “E.B.F.S.”
The Durutti Column Renascent (London): Factory Records alumnus Vini Reilly’s longstanding Durutti Column project were once an act out of time, with their ambient guitar experiments and gloopy indie mood music. Nowadays their softness is on-trend, with artists such as Harry Styles and Frank Ocean proclaiming themselves fans. In such a climate the band reappear with a typically downtempo set of effects-lathered, blissed-out guitar. A couple of tracks up the ante a little and a couple, featuring the singer Caoilfhionn Rose, move towards Celtic folk territory. They sound in a good place and, while it lacks the Mancunian gloom of some of their work, their fans may enjoy this. Comes on yellow transparent vinyl.
Marian Wallentin & Vestnorsk Jazzensemble Spring Flood (HUBRO): Mariam Wallentin is best known for Swedish two-drumkit alt-rock duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums (whose “Love is Fire” is covered here), but is equally capable of avant-garde jazzing. This collaboration with the West Norwegian Jazz Ensemble, led by Kjetil Møster, is a concept piece based around spring’s blossoming plant life during a stay next to the Rhine. Wallentin’s dryly mournful, slightly Nico-esque voice leads some fairly approachable songs, with folk-ish backing tracks. Quietly contemplative, it’s a set that could be a grower.
AND WHILE WE’RE HERE
- Sam Hales was, until recently, one of the driving forces behind Aussie pop-dance act Confidence Man but, what theartsdesk on Vinyl didn’t know, is that he’s also behind huge-Down-Under band The Jungle Giants whose fifth album, Experiencing Feelings of Joy on TJG Records is nothing like Confidence Man, boasting a jolly, summery electro-funk-pop sound. Comes in gatefold on light blue vinyl in lyric inner sleeve.
- Last time we encountered Glaswegian jazz-funkers Mama Terra was last year’s Chameleon live set of Herbie Hancock covers. It was a hip-wiggling mover. Their latest, Inner Space on Acid Jazz Records, is less so and more into jazzual lusciousness. Classy as ever, there are moments redolent of early-Seventies psychedelic soul, other trip-hoppy bits, some dives into showy “proper” jazz, and solid female vocalising.
- Yorkshire producer King Zepha and his band sound like they’d be just the thing for a sunny afternoon at a small green field festival. Their third studio album, The Return of King Zepha, on Property of the Lost Records, is an affable take on reggae, ska-tinted, akin sometimes to a jolly fusion of Dean Fraser and Rico. For my books, for this kind of music, it needs to sound HEAVIER, but is still a varied set which runs the gamut from exploratory jazz cuts to jolly, chatty songs about not wanting to get out of bed in the morning.
- Polish-born lo-fi indie eccentric Joyeria is London-based but spent many years in Canada. His debut album is Decay Decay Decay on Dead Cactus Records and is scratchy indie, with notable basslines, hints of Manchester circa 1979. Thematically, it’s built around his bedroom moping, which is rendered palatable by a dry voice and wilfully oddball lyrics which veer between the comically downbeat and the cantankerous.
- Salford cult act GNOD have been around for 20 years, working a seam of psychedelic indie. Their latest, Chronicles of Gnowt Vol.1 on Rocket Records, is the first part of a trilogy, all recorded in six days (!) with Lankum producer John “Spud” Murphy. It’s rife with stoned-out hypno-grooves, grimily rendered, moody, underpinned by the same vibe (if not sound) as down-tuned sludge metal. One for the heads. Comes on blue vinyl in scribbly art inner sleeve.
- In the producer’s chair for the latest album from Leeds singer-songwriter Jonny Woolnough’s new band Present Nature, is Bill Ryder-Jobes of The Coral. This is pertinent as the songs have the light groove and twinkle of that band. Present Nature is also the name of the album, via Low Records, a set of West Coast Sixties easy-psyche, lathered in harmonies, and friendly, lightly funky grooves. It’s likeable, catchy sunny and mellow.
- The Espen Berg Trio is led by the eponymous pianist, the other members being bassist Bárður Reinert Poulsen and drummer Simon Albertsen. Their fifth album is Entropies on Svale Records. For this writer, the short, manic, clappy “Nap of the Earth”, featuring guitarist-vocalist Nils Olav Johansen, is a stand-out, but this is a serious, proper jazz album, elegantly crafted and twisty, yet still with the idea of actual hummable tunes hidden somewhere at its core
- Amsterdam frontman and Elvis Costello associate Ian Prowse (once of Pele) has a long solo career. His latest album is No Names on Kitchen Disco (the title misprinted on the spine as No Nonsense!). It’s a set of straightforward, enthused strum-pop, wordy, indie in tone, reminds of Doves in places. Not one for me but more-than-competent.
- Iceland-based Janus Rasmussen is best-known as one half of Kiasmios with Ólafur Arnalds, but his own solo career is with worth keeping an ear on. His second solo album, Inert on Embassy One Records, shows off a bunch of fatly produced numbers that mingle Moderat-style delicate electronic songwriting with pulsing 4/4 that leans further towards the dancefloor. It’s a warm, polished outing. Comes on vinyl that looks like Octopus ink swirling a vat of toffee.
- The second album from New York saxophonist Alden Hellmuth is a busy and interesting experiment. Entitled Tether on Nils Frahm’s Leiter label, it channels Ornette Coleman via the use of two double bassists, panned in a stereo mix. Hellmuth plays with jerky fluidity, assisted by Thundercat drummer Justin Brown, as well as interludes with pianist Paul Cornish and trumpet-player Yakiv Tsvietinskyi. Its tricksy stuff but surprisingly invigorating.
- No messin’ Texan blues label Gulf Coast bring us the latest from Albert Castiglia, one of those hard-working American musicians who earns his living criss-crossing his homeland, spinning electric bar blues. Entitled Grits and Glory, Castiglia recorded at Abbey Road as he wanted to capture the debt he owed Brit guitarists from Jimmy Page to Eric Clapton and, indeed, his sound here is a rollin’, committed gumbo of blues and rock that comes on transparent vinyl in photo/info inner sleeve.
- People talk a lot about “dreampop”. I’ve never liked the term but I know what it means and the eponymous debut album from sundayclub pretty much defines the sound. The duo from Canada’s wildlands (Winnipeg/Manitoba) have the requisite tuneful blend of Lush, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Star. Given the kids love this stuff, they may go far. It’s on Paper Bag Records and comes on lyric inner sleeve on murky fir-green vinyl marbled with orange.
- Back when I was a teenager, a billion years ago, a friend brought a Camel album on a group holiday and we all mercilessly mocked its light-prog widdling. It was not Music Inspired by The Snow Goose, which now appears as part of Decca’s Thousand Club (ie, limited edition of 1000 from analiogue masters, cut fat’n’deep at Abbey Road) but, listening to this, I can hear exactly why we objected. It is the epitome of what punk sought to kick out, an indulgent instrumental suite based on Paul Gallico’s much-loved opus of sentimentalised spirituality. I still dislike prog but this music is pretty and listenable, especially compared to the likes of Yes or Gentle Giant. It’s not something I’ll ever be embracing but is noodly, tuneful chill-out, somewhere between Ozric Tentacles, Clannad and Mike Oldfield. Comes in photo/info inner sleeve with plenty of background information.
- A much more lively concept album is the debut from Oxford singer-songwriter Emma Hunter, a jangling energized song-yarn of ill-fated lovers in 1950s Mexico. Self-released and entitled Yolanda, it comes on somewhere between Nick Cave and Marc Almond’s grittier Mambas material, with musical Latin themes, laced with a dark indie, all adding up to plaintive gothic heft. One to watch.
- In our age of endless worry, ambient music, once the preserve of esoteric modern classical sorts and drugged-up clubbers attempting to come down, is having a boom time. In its newer forms, mantric minimalism and/or psychedelic silliness have been clipped off, to render it as characterless but comforting as possible. Manchester’s Marconi Union have been beneficiaries of the new ambient era and their latest, Multiforms (Ambient Transmissions: Volume 3) on JustMusic Records, is a soothing set that melds breathy tone music with sweet-natured plinking. Comes with A4 art insert.
- The second album from DOMi & JD Beck is Who Asked?, released via Apeshit and Blue Note. Hyper-virtuosic and hyper-connected, DOMi is French keyboard sorceress Domi Louna and JD Beck is a Texan drummer (once in Mac DeMarco’s band). They’ve worked with everyone from Earl Sweatshirt to Ariana Grande and have received Grammy nominations along the way. Who Asked? is a double on gatefold and consists of a Flying Lotus-flavoured broken beats-ish, jazz-meets-R&B songs that are complex and different but don’t appeal to these ears.
- Brighton singer Warby releases a double A-side 7” single, “Struggles and Resolutions” backed with “Bullies”, via Esco Romanesco/AWAL. He has a clear voice and a way with strummed indie-pop tune. “Bullies” is the better of the two, a clearly stated but insightful takedown of its subject matter, but both show off a confident new voice.
- Once known as downtempo drummer & basser Future Loop Foundation, Mark Barrott has long recorded under his own name, combining a successful career in commercial composition with his own recording output which, in recent years, especially since a move to Ibiza a while back, has tended towards head-nod Balearic. Now based in mainland Spain, the prolific Barrott’s latest album is The Exit Diaries on Anjunachill Records. Side One is a suite of laidback orchestrations while Side Two heads into cuddly chill-out, still orchestrated but with more electronic elements. It’s lush stuff for lounges. Comes in photo inner sleeve windowed by outer sleeve die-cut.
- Dutch singer Celine Cairo reaches her fifth album with Panacea on Ivy Records. Her emotively enunciated middle-of-the-road songs are not to theartsdesk on Vinyl’s taste. Its skilfully executed “adult contemporary”, vaguely akin to Dido but indie-baroque orchestrated rather than electronic. Comes on translucent powder blue vinyl in photo/lyric gatefold.
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