Featured
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Time Capsule
Various – Island Sounds From Japan 2009 - 2016
$45.00
Visit product page →The music on this compilation features a range of modern Japanese musicians who have each sought to expand genre boundaries by fusing different styles. Hailing from different musical backgrounds they are united by a common goal to deliver a distinctly tropical strain of sound, or what Time Capsule label boss and compiler Kay Suzuki refers to as Island Music. ‘Although this collection concentrates mainly on recent bands it doesn’t try to reflect what is currently popular. Instead, each artist has used a mixture of craftsmanship and their own personal experiences to experiment with styles and reshape them into new and unique forms. I feel strongly that they deserve more exposure around the world’ he says.
Speak No Evil are a perfect example of this cross-pollination of musical forms. Led by musician Akira Tatsumi, a veteran of Osaka’s verdant ska and calypso scenes, the band was formed from a regular jam session between the city’s reggae and jazz musicians to see what they might be able to create with combined forces. Their version of the same-titled classic by legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter transports the jazz classic into new pastures, as the band takes Shorter’s sweet refrain on a reggae trip, the track finds a natural meeting point between the two genres, adding snappy riddims to jazz’s innate sense of swing. – Bandcamp
Label: Time Capsule (4) – TIME007
Format: Vinyl, LP, 45 RPM, Compilation, 180gr
Country: UK
Released: Jul 2020
Genre: Electronic, Jazz, Reggae, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Dub, Afrobeat, Reggae, Hawaiian, Nu-Disco
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PAN
Still - I
$39.00
Visit product page →Shapeshifting through his vernacular worlds of sound and imagery, Milan artist and musician STILL (Simone Trabucchi)’s practice is defined by a unique, nomadic approach.
Previously known as Dracula Lewis, a project developing his personal take on ‘folk’ music, he has accumulated a number of releases on various seminal labels, alongside running Hundebiss Records. His new moniker, STILL, follows the unearthing of the histories that connect his hometown of Vernasca to Ethiopia and Jamaica, explored under his visual arts project Invernomuto as an in-depth fieldwork lead to ‘Negus’: a series of sculptures, installations, a book, and a long-feature experimental documentary, screened at Unsound 2016.
‘Negus’ revolves around a cleansing counter-ritual performed by Lee “Scratch” Perry in the Vernasca square where 80 years earlier, an effigy of Haile Selassie I was burned. The documentary then follows a trajectory connecting Italy’s overlooked colonial past seen through personal history to a reverberation of symbols in Ethiopia and Jamaica. Within STILL, he connects these research threads, evolving their sonic and linguistic aspects further, where ‘computerized riddims’ sustain a shared gospel channelled through a polyphony of voices. - PANLabel: Pan (3) – PAN 80
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Germany
Released: 21 Sep 2017
Genre: Electronic, Reggae
Style: Experimental, Dub, Dancehall
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!K7 Records
Mr. Scruff – DJ-Kicks
$45.00
Visit product page →A great Mr. Scruff set is like a living, dancing history of black music from around the world, from jazz to techno and beyond, with any number of stops in between. The length—the immersion, the trust—is part of the satisfaction of a great Mr. Scruff set.
Not so on this great Mr. Scruff set. Concentrating 31 tracks into 73 minutes, his DJ-Kicks installation forgoes sonic stamina for condensed power. Many tracks were short to begin with—Rosa Maria’s three-minute froth bomb “Samba Maneiro” is just one delightful example—but the groove he builds has a coiled power that’s unusual for him. It can make you move a dozen different ways, but it feels aimed at the ear specifically. (The release’s timing is sadly appropriate on that front.)
If anything, this is a left field showcase, right from the start—the mix’s opening roundelay is mostly newer tracks with a freewheeling sense of auditory trickery, from Iona Fortune’s springy ambient to Sudan Archives’ plucked-string meditation. Another highlight, Archie Pelago’s “Brown Oxford,” reconfigures a walking stand-up bass and smeared brass as the basis of a trick-heavy house track that disguises its deeply psychedelic properties with a straight face. Remember the old term, “home listening album”? That’s what Mr. Scruff has made here. – Bandcamp DailyLabel: !K7 Records – K7387LP
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Released: 27 Mar 2020
Genre: Electronic, Reggae, Folk, World, & Country
