lanky bastards

It’s time for another steaming hot bowl of our freshest of finds. And it might just be me, but, although the genres are all jumbled, this actually makes for a nice diverse playlist.

New Releases

Salah Ragab – Blues Along the Nile

Jazz record with modern and sometimes bluesy versions of songs that Salah played with The Cairo Jazz Band 50 years ago. The piano in Oriental Mood is especially awesome. Also: f l u t e s.

Various Artists – Soul Jazz Records Presents Keith Haring

“In collaboration with Tate Liverpool, Soul Jazz Records are releasing this stunning new collection entitled The World of Keith Haring featuring music influential to the artist Keith Haring including Fab 5 Freddy, Yoko Ono, Gray (Jean-Michel Basquiat’s group), The Jonzun Crew, Larry Levan, Talking Heads, Sylvester, Johnny Dynell and many others.” (from Soul Jazz Records)

Hoggy says: “Great collection of 70s/80s electro/disco – goes well with a speedball”

Àbása – Invocation

Spiritual vibes, jazz, grooves, afrobeat, and floots. A real lankybastard pleaser.

Jitwam – Honeycomb

Soul. And a bit of everything. Some indie vibes, some hiphop vibes, and an overall interesting production.

Various Artists – Sunny Side Up

If you’ve been getting annoyed by me glorifying the UK jazz scene, here’s something new for you. Melbourne has been the breeding ground of some great new music. Be it jazz, soul, R&B, deep house or funk, there is something for everyone. A small selection of this fresh bubbling scene is featured on this compilation put together by Brownswood.

Laura Jurd – Stepping Back, Jumping In

Avant-garde jazz/experimental. This is what happens if you give a musician and creatively adventurous composer 15 professional musicians to write music for. With its exploration of many different sounds, ‘Stepping Back, Jumping In’ really showed me once more how infinite the world of music is. Laura Jurd is also part of the Jazz Quartet ‘Dinosaur’ who put out ‘Wonder Trail’, one of my favourite albums of 2018.

Various Artists – Digital Kabar

Kabar is a electronic genre of Reunion Island. It’s a mix maloya and electronica, one of the better world electronic albums I’ve heard in a minute.

Tristan de Liege – Maisha

Another electronic/world fusion album, at times jazzy, with a Four Tet feel.

Weatherday – Come In

The Lo-Fi Emo album better than Twin Fantasy.

Jesse Fischer – Cross Currents

Very nice jazzy EP.

Cory Wong – Motivational Music For The Syncopated Soul

Innovative artist and funk guitarist Cory Wong has officially released his third studio album, Motivational Music for the Syncopated Soul. With a goal to motivate through his album, Cory explains, “The guiding light is to impart a feeling of joy. I want people to experience instrumental music in a different way. This is hype. It’s more than just guitar.

Benny The Butcher – The Plugs I Met

The short EP from Griselda rapper is what an actual drug dealer would sound like if they were rapping about selling drugs. The whole album has references to life on the street, hustling, cocaine selling, and making money. The features are also great to feature people like Pusha T, Black Thought, and Jadakiss.

Master Holy & Adé Hakim – Blood Brother

Master Holy raps very fun and psychedelic sounding bests provided by SLUMS affiliate Adé Hakim. The album with a short run time of just 23 minutes. The album ranges from slow-paced rap songs to bangers and leaves you wanting more from them.

Fresh Digs

Kunst – Kunst (2017)

Fruit of the the collaboration between Jodey Kendrick and John Cunnane, Kunst has only one release, this one, mixing ambient with crazy drums and bell sounds for more than an hour. Hearing the drum programmation, you think directly to Xploding Plastix, but it is laved with ambient soundscape, and you also have these bells and gongs adding a slightly psychedelic feel. Really great find for its sound, texture, and balance. The only thing you could criticize is that it lasts just a bit too long.

Felbm – Tape 1 & Tape 2 (2018)

If you’re wondering what this SMOTH word is all about, treat yourself with these albums.

Tita Duval Y El Nuevo Ritmo De Bobby Rey – Cumbias Internacionales (2018)

Some international cumbia mixing up some psychedelia and tropical madness all in one record. It’s always a good night when cumbia is involved.

Soundcarriers – Harmonium (2009)

Mellow rock/prog/psych/lil bit of jazzy vibes. Very groovey, organs, flutes, driving rythms. ‘Falling for You’ is my favorite track. Some funky chords. Song structure really portrays the title.

Don Byron – Nu Blaxploitation (1998)

Jazz-funk, spoken word, hip hop. So I have been trying to get into spoken word lately and this album has been one of my highlights so far. I especially like the song ‘Blinky’. Poetry and jazz is a combination I didn’t think I would appreciate this much.