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Unsigned no more, Johannesburg's BLK JKS have found a home on Secretly Canadian who, for a limited time, are re-releasing their Mystery EP as a free download. If you missed it when we first featured the record last summer as a download exclusive, here's your chance to check out what is truly the future sound of Africa. Produced by Secret Machines' Brandon Curtis at NYC's Electric Lady Studios, the Mystery EP is an excellent four-song sampling of the quartet's infectious sound, an indescribable, shapeshifting blend of kwaito beats, jazz, punk, and eerie noise. BLK JKS' music has a heart and pulse that resonates with anyone who listens, their diverse arrangements echoing both the conflict and celebratory spirit of this modern day tribe surviving the city under an African sky. And they successfully challenge every genre, social and cultural stereotype associated with their country. Check out live videos of the band of the band performing an acoustic version of "Summertime" and the unreleased song "Mzabalazo," on DigForFire.tv.
How much sound can you stuff into an EP? In the course of the six rampant songs on this debut disc from San Fran via Brooklyn noisemakers Lemonade, the answer is "all of it." Moving into a sector of dance music that relies as much on the history of underground white label 12"s as it does the jam band mentality, the palate of sounds are sometimes familiar, but the presentation is striking. A web of post-DFA beats and gargle-phonically chopped-up vocal samples bang us through hot-as-ice opener "Big Weekend" into the moody electronic snare-snaps of "Unreal." "Sunchips" (who doesn't like Sun Chips?) smashes together Pop Group/P.I.L. angry punk-dub vocals and menacing bass-synth sweeps akin to recent Gang Gang output. By the time album closer "Bliss Out" rolls around, it makes perfect sense that the record's all-too-soon crescendo is based on an almost Ibiza four-on-the-floor beat and could-be-but-isn't-corny electronic piano riffs that fade into a myriad of stranger's voices repeating "We're all having a good time!" Indeed we are. Following this stellar debut EP and coming off of an opening spot on a recent El Guincho tour, future good times with Lemonade seem guaranteed. -Fred Thomas
Well my word, the new Fennesz album is finally upon us and after months of speculation and precious few promo copies, I have finally had the chance to sit back and take it all in. I must admit, the first time I heard it I wasn't sure what to think -- sitting in the Other Music HQ listening through computer speakers didn't do the album a world of justice. Could it have been that Christian Fennesz, the savior of electronic music, had failed in making an ample follow-up to his breakthrough album Venice? Thankfully no, Black Sea is a subtle, quiet and measured record, every bit the follow-up we needed, and with absolutely none of the fanfare you might expect from an artist with such a dedicated fan base. It is a record which demands your absolute attention, be it from sitting in front of a good pair of speakers or soaking it in through headphones. When I finally gave the album the attention it had been craving, it was not long before I was convinced that Fennesz had again crafted a record worthy of his good name, a record which manages to be markedly different from its predecessor but carries the same emotional and harmonic weight that made him so popular in the first place. We drift calmly through the album's first few tracks -- soft, measured field recordings blended with restrained string-work. This is not the epic guitar manipulation we heard on the artist's previous works, rather Fennesz has taken a far more orchestral route, and the opening pieces lead us slowly and very softly into the album's centerpiece, the crushingly beautiful "Glide." Possibly the most gorgeous track to fall from the Austrian's battered laptop, this takes the noise aesthetic he has honed so well and pits it against the most gorgeous cascading strings, using the guitar merely to punctuate slightly the lilting harmonies. As "Glide" comes to a calming close we are treated to "Vacuum," Christian Fennesz's answer to Brian Eno's seminal "An Ending (Ascent)" -- all hauntingly beautiful synthesized pads pointing mournfully to somewhere special, the kind of track you can fall back on when the rest of the world fails you. Then it all slips into place. Black Sea is more than just a title, the music becomes the sea; rising and falling, drifting slowly and crashing down violently. It bubbles and oozes, allowing distant melodies to soak through layers of froth and surf. As the eerily melodic droplets of sound herald the conclusion of "Glass Ceiling," we are brought into the album's devastating finale with "Saffron Revolution." Building from a mere tickle of strings we are pushed headfirst into the kind of harmonic electronic assault Fennesz is best known for: all density and blissful noise. Maybe this is the kind of sound My Bloody Valentine would have made if Kevin Shields had fallen in love with Max/MSP rather than his collection of pedals. It's clichéd to reference, the shoegaze genre, but that's really the only time that pure harmony and thick, dense noise have been combined to such a crushing degree. To put it simply, Black Sea is Fennesz's most mature, most delicate album to date, and possibly his most beautiful. It might not have the instant sugar-rush of Venice but this is a record that rewards the patient listener, and I have a feeling the rewards will keep coming for months to come. A genuine contender for album of the year. -John Twells
The RetroAfric label digs up a true treasure with this reissue of Henri Bowane's sole LP. Bowane was an early mover and shaker in the Congo rumba scene of the 1950s -- he was actually the first manager and mentor of Franco & OK Jazz, and is credited as the man who gave Franco his infamous nickname. He recorded several hit 78rpm records in the fifties, and was one of, if not the first African musician to stir up trouble regarding the lack of royalty payments -- Bowane was actually jailed for speaking up about not getting paid, the events of which were then detailed in his song "Kotiya Zolo Te (Don't Stick Your Nose in Our Business"). Legend also has it that he was the first Congolese musician to be spotted driving around the Republic in a Cadillac. So how did it take such a high-rolling, big-balling master musician until 1976 to record this, his only long-player? I'm not entirely sure if the whole truth is known, but what we do know is that he left the music biz in the early 1960s, only to return to a studio in Ghana in '76 to record the equally incredible album by rumba new-wavers Zaiko Langa Langa (also available on RetroAfric and of highest recommendation). During that time, he also cut this collection of tracks under his own name, which upgrades the lackadaisical rumba groove with infusions of harder Ghana rhythms and even injections of Nigerian highlife's playful swing, not to mention Western Anglophilic interpretations of rumba styles -- check the funk backbeat of opener "Sam Ba No" or "Natali Nato"'s change midway through from a lazy, hazy ballad into a rollicking tumbler replete with a merengue beat! The tunes are ripe with melody, usually from robust horns and a chorus of singers, with those weightless guitars that make the Congolese rumba so addictive. There are even moments on this record that hint at an imaginary juju funk collaboration between James Brown and King Sunny Ade. In fact, so many tracks on here hint at experiments that others either never picked up on or that it simply took years to catch up with, it's that forward-looking whilst simultaneously nodding back with a retro feel in the rumbas. I've owned this on CD for a number of years now, and it has become without question one of my favorite African recordings, and quite possibly THE record I'll play for someone who hasn't heard Congolese rumba before -- it's that unique and special. Highest recommendation, folks!! - Mikey IQ Jones
Louisiana's Bettye Swann was one of those underappreciated vocalists from the sixties and seventies who put out some amazing tunes that were little heard at the time, but have since become favorites of many soul aficionados. Fans of Jackie DeShannon, Sharon Jones, Irma Thomas and Candi Staton will find a lot to love, and like the aforementioned, Swann had amazing country-like phrasing and a strong Southern gospel influence. I suppose you could call it Country Soul, but that's kind of like saying Soulful Soul. Although in her relatively short career Swann had stints on three different labels, the material she recorded for Money Records is her most beloved and did give her a small bit of success. This album collects almost all of the singles from her stint on the California-based imprint and it's top-notch soul of the highest order. My personal favorites are the brassy, bluesy "The Heartache Is Gone," the Carolyn Franklin-penned "Don't Wait Too Long" and her biggest hit, "Make Me Yours." Like contemporaries Margie Joseph, Bettye LaVette and Barbara Lynn, Swann was a victim of bad management, label indifference and poor timing. She eventually left Money and cut excellent records for Atlantic and Capitol, but despite this, Swann never had another hit and by the mid-seventies, had faded into obscurity. Needless to say, Bettye Swann is one of my favorite soul vocalists of that era, and I can't recommend this enough. Essential soul! -Duane Harriott
Nadja Korinth and Ryan Schaefer are the consummate noughties alternative "band". Korinth is based in Berlin and Schaefer in New York City, but the two have managed somehow to thrust their creative vision into being, thanks to the wonders of the modern age. Thankfully It's Midnight in Honolulu isn't another email collaboration to bore over, this is the result of two musical minds confined in the hipsterrific Rare Book Room studio. The results are unsurprisingly haphazard given the dual citizenship, but there is a common thread of dark electroid pop weaving the tracks together somehow. Think a lo-fi re-imagining of the Knife or the darkwave answer to Barbara Morgenstern and you might have some idea of what Palms sound like -- lo fidelity to a point, but with a synthesized pulse and vocal confidence rarely chanced upon in the genre. It's not a million miles from something you might expect to find on Paw Tracks, but in this case the relentlessly lo-fi production doesn't ever get in the way of your enjoyment of the songs themselves. As Korinth slips from French to German and to English, there's a sense she is genuinely having fun with the possibilities of the genre; and what could be more worthwhile than that? Oddball, sure -- but worth its weight in gold. -John Twells
The Afro-Blues Quintet was a talented outfit operating in the fertile yet underrated LA jazz scene of the late sixties. Led by vibraphonist/percussionist Joe De Aguero, this band specialized in making the kind of hip Afro-Latin cocktail jazz that was scoffed at by many purists at the time, but was still extremely popular. The cool sounds of Ramsey Lewis, Cal Tjader (who the ABQ percussionist played with as well), Vince Guaraldi and the Tijuana Brass are good reference points, but the Afro-Blues Quintet had nice modal qualities that the aforementioned never quite had. This album is a good retrospective that culls highlights from all four albums that they released on small West Coast labels Mira, Crestview and Surrey. Standouts include the mod, northern soul stepper "Jerico," the tiki room psyche-out "Freaks" and the lovely Coltrane-esque "Evening of the Beast." Fans of the aforementioned as well as the Afro-Latin sounds of Henry "Pucho" Brown, Tito Puente or Har-You Percussion group will find a lot to love here. -Duane Harriott
Deeply moving and melancholy works for solo viola da gamba, the seven-stringed precursor to the cello. We've been carrying this album on a regular basis for quite awhile now, and whenever it gets played in the store it never fails to sell at least a couple of copies. And although this music was written about four hundred years before everything else we stock here, I can't imagine that there aren't tons of Other Music customers who wouldn't love to have this in their lives. By all accounts Tobias Hume was an unusual character. A contemporary of Shakespeare, a captain in the army, and sometime mercenary who served in campaigns in Russia, Sweden, and Poland, he claimed that the only feminine aspect of his personality was his aptitude for music. He wrote two extraordinary books of music for the viol that were quite avant-garde for their day, with unheard of notations such as striking the strings with the bow, or having two people play the viol simultaneously. He proclaimed his works to be utterly unique, when in fact he wasn't above pinching liberally from other's melodies when the need suited him. He had a knack for idiosyncratic titles and a special affinity for the most interesting of all the humours, melancholy. The pieces of his marked by that characteristic are my favorite, and you can find them in this selection in spades. Jordi Savall is one of the world's greatest living musicians, and though I own at least fifty albums by him, it's his recordings of Tobias Hume I come back to the most. There's just something completely mysterious and incomprehensible about them that I can't get enough of. Hume ended up in the poorhouse having never achieved the level of fame he desired, writing increasingly paranoid letters to the Queen, and foraging in fields to find snails for his dinner. A strange fate to befall the man, but the music he left is absolutely timeless. -Michael Klausman
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