Global SoulJah and BBE Records Radio Show October 31, 2009

Rejoice, all the albums Fela Kuti ever recorded are being re-issued by Knitting Factory records and let's face it you can't have enough Fela so to celebrate I play the whole 11 minutes of Water Get No Enemy one of my favourite Fela tracks. King Cannibal has finally released his album on Ninja Tune, a multi-genre specialist he revels in perverting accepted notions of genres and twisting them in his own image, usually taking them to darker realms - watch out for him, this is just the start. On another Afrobeat tip Jimi Tenor has teamed up with Tony Allen and they've brought out the best in each other, Allen reveling in the deeper Avant-Garde world of the maverick Tenor and the deeper jazz flavours - this album is the best of Tony Allens many projects this year.

Percussion master Trilok Gurtu is always doing something interesting and I'm particularly liking the Indian Middle Eastern fusion of Dive In. Lloyd Miller is an amazing jazz ethnologist and his constant experimentation with jazz and Eastern styles is being celebrated by a wonderfully selected Jazzman compilation. I had to drop another Reason or Romanza track from their forthcoming Civil Music EP, they really are that good and the same with Trus'me as I give you another taste of his new album on Fat City Records which segues perfectly into a slice of new old style house music courtesy of SE62. Boddhi Satva has given George Levin the remix he needed and turned his soulful vocal track The Better Life into an excellent slice of deep deep afrocentric house music.

A Mountain Of One are producing some great balearic prog/kraut rock cosmic mash up type of stuff and I'm particularly liking the Sky Is Folding from their recent album. To finish the show I had to drop a track from the latest Matthew Halsall album another great slice of modern jazz from this Manchester youngster who is punching well above his years with both his music and the fact he is self releasing his music on his own excellent Gondwana label which he is also using as a vehicle for some other excellent British players notably Nat Birchall and his amazing recent spiritual jazz album

Fela Kuti - Water No Get Enemy (Knitting Factory Records promo)
King Cannibal - Virgo feat Face-A-Face (Ninja Tune)
Jimi Tenor/Tony Allen - Ceila's Walk (Strut promo)
Trilok Gurtu - Dive In
Lloyd Miller - Hue Wail (Jazzman Records)
Reason or Romanza - Seven Uses Of Difference (Civil Music promo)
Trus'me - Pretend (Fat City promo)
SE62 - Wall Ride, Eddie C rmx (Home Taping Is Killing Music promo)
George Levin - The Better Life ft Clara Hill, Boddhi Satva Ancelstral Soul rmx (BBE promo)
A Mountain Of One - Sky Is Folding (
Matthew Halsall - Colour Yes (Gondwana promo)

Check Lloyd Miller live back in the day:

Global SoulJah and BBE Records Radio Show October 24, 2009

The Life Force Trio start procedings this week with a great slice of musical spirituality which was taken from the excellent Echo Expansion records compilation featuring a roster of 'who's who' and 'who's about to be'in the world of quality underground leftfield music. I then steal a Milt Jackson track from a possibly even better compilation, Peter Kruder's Private Collection one of the nicest selections I've heard in a while - essential purchase and the Portico Quartet have been given a great sympathetic dubstep remix from Sbtrk who beefs up the bottom end but keeps the musicality, great job.

Eskmo goes to show that not all dubstep comes from small bedrooms in South London as Planet Mu kindly showcase this great producer from San Francisco and Gang Gang Dance are given a nice remix by Dj Rupture and Matt Shadatek which has been lifted from their new mix CD - Solar Life Raft. Civil Music have come up trumps again with Reason or Romanza who are about to release their EP full of great original tracks and some excellent remixes - watch out for these boys and always keep an eye on what Civil Music are putting out.

Chickenwing All Stars are a South London reggae dub collective under the leadership of Anderson and Craig Tamlin, percussionist with Anthony Joseph & the Spasm band and their debut is a nice deep reggae cover of the classic Gary Bartz track Celestial Blues. Lambent is a hot Japanese producer now resident in Berlin who has just released an album of his mellower offerings on the always interesting Project Moon Circle and Eglo come through yet again this time courtesy of progressive soul boy Funkineven and a great slice of future boogie feat Fatima.

Happy Days - Trus'me is back with a new album after his acclaimed debut and you wont be disapointed, just wait till you hear it and look out for some great guests as well. Moonstar is still whacking out the fresh jazz beats in his inimitable style this time with the help of some crazy keys from Tony Ezzy and there's a great compilation coming out on Tirk of some of Greg Wilson's finest edits - you know that's essential. Keeping on the compilation tip, the disco compilation kings BBE are coming through soon with a DJ Spinna compiled disco selection and the Jan Leslie Holmes track is just a taster of the aural delights to come.

The Life Force Trio - Alice! Live At The Natural History Museum (Porter Records)
Milt Jackson With The Ray Brown Big Band - Enchanted Lady (G-Stone)
Portico Quartet - Lines, Sbtrk More Hang Mix (Real World Records promo)
Eskmo - Let Them Sing (Planet Mu Promo)
Gang Gang Dance - Bebey, DJ Rupture & Matt Shadatek rmx (The Agriculture Promo)
Reason or Romanza - Two Times Three Times (Civil Music promo)
Chickenwing All Stars - Celestial Bingi, Find Yourself version (Heavenly Sweetness)
Lambent - After All (Project Moon Circle)
Funkineven 1956 - Kleer feat Fatima (Eglo promo)
Trus'me - Put It On Me (Fat City promo)
Moonstar - Laham Baagine feat Tony Ezzy (PTR promo)
Klein & MBO - Dirty Talk, Greg Wilson edit (Tirk promo)
Jan Leslie Holmes - I'm Your Superman (BBE promo)

Reason or Romanza also do a nice line in videos as well as great music - check it:

Global SoulJah and BBE Records Radio Show October 17, 2009

Kicking off this week with some deep dub techno hybrid late night lushness courtesy of Rooflight, a promising talent if ever there was one. Tony Allen drops a raw percussive, surprisingly non Afrobeat, gem and Gamal Goma show that it's not just the Africans who do amazing percussion. Mordant Music provide a slice of mesmerising, leftfield, boundary pushing house music that you wouldn't know which section of the record shop to put it in.

The forthcoming Ogris Debris ep is so good that I drop the original late night floor destroying cut after dropping the more cerebral Dorian Concept mix last week. Troy and Shea Soul show that UK Funky can be well produced and super soulful and I also drop another track from the excellent new Paten Locke album, just how hip hop should be sounding.

DJ Devastate provides another slice of deep lazy jazzy hip hop taken from his excellent forthcoming album on BBE Records, all you beat heads looking for some chilled beats watch out for that one. To be honest I'm having trouble telling a lot of the Dam Funk tracks apart, as much as I like his sound but he's hit 'kick back with your girl' gold with the super mellow 10 West, pure easyness. The new Impossible Ark compilation of jazz covers is a wonderful thing as The Fiction Trio tune ably demonstrates, France's finest Afrobeat boys Fanga come up trumps yet again as do the ever excellent Soundway boys as I play a track from their incredible Panama II compilation - look out for Volume 3 coming soon, you know it's going to be essential..

Rooflight - In Your Hands (Styrax)
Tony Allen - Gbedu (Honest Jons)
Gamal Goma - Shara Saidi (Pirhana)
Mordant Music - Symptoms, Version (Mordant Music)
Ogris Debris - Raid The Itch (Compost Black Promo)
Troy and Shea Soul - Fools Gold (Broadcite Promo)
Paten Locke - Just Me (Tres Records)
DJ Devastate - Don't Stop (Tres Records)
Dam Funk - 10 West (Stonesthrow)
The Fiction Trio - Haitian Fight Song (Impossible Ark)
Fanga - Ni I Ma Toro (World Music Network)
Chilo Pitty - Piculina (Soundway Records)

Check a bit of the multi talented Paten Locke below, some proper hip hop in these troubled times for the genre.

Global SoulJah and BBE Records Radio Show October 10, 2009

No rundown this week as I've been on holiday and I'm catching up on a million things, just a list of good tunes and links so you can do your own research on the artists and record labels involved.

VoicesVoices - Flulyk (Manimal Vinyl)
Collage - Ehted Kadunud (Wool Recordings)
Calima - Lunita (Putumayo promo)
DJ Devastate - Spoken (BBE promo)
Andreya Triana - Lost Where I Belong (Ninja Tune Promo)
Paten Locke - Auto Reverse (Tres Records)
Shed - Estrange (Ostgut)
Joy Rose - Waiting (Broadcite promo)
David Baxter - All This Broken Lushness (Unreleased)
Ogris Debris - G-Thong, Dorian Concept Restring (Compost Black promo)
Gold Panda - Back Home (Various Production)
Knalpot - AV 1 (Eat Concrete Records)
Talen - Sniper Sniper, A Cutty Ranks Tale (Mouthwatering Records)
The Very Best - De Cuba (Green Owl)
Ruth Tafebe And The Afrorockerz - De Cuba (World Music Network)

Global SoulJah and BBE Records Radio Show October 3, 2009

Not a show this week for people with attention defecit disorder as I cut down the track count and get into some longer grooves kicking off with a slice of new tango with an electronic jazzy twist from UK outfit Tango Siempre. Grackle have been one of my discoveries of the week and I'm liking the mish mash of styles from this US duo, friends since childhood. Nancy Elisabeth is producing a fine blend of folktronica from her Manchester base and Virgil Howe is a talented multi-instrumentalist who is making interesting music as befits the son of a member of prog rock outfit Yes.

Julien Dyne is a hot new producer coming through with a deep blend of soul and jazz inspired beats and probably the best thing to come out of New Zealand since The Lord Of The Rings, look out for his album on BBE coming out this autumn. Floating Points has just released a great EP on his own Eglo imprint and is finishing off the year how he started it - STRONG. Zwicker is a Swiss based deep house bod and the John Talabot remix has taken his 'Oddity' track into wonderful deep disco house territory.

The Revenge are just about to release some singles influenced by some of the classic sounds of years gone by aptly summed up by the title 'Forever In Their Debt'. The Bulgarian public voted for some of their favourite pop songs in a big public contest and the winners, in a fit of inter country collaboration, were given to some UK producers to remix. I don't know what they were expecting but Ramadanman has chopped up the catchily titled 'A Nie Dvamata S Bobi Piem Kafe' track from ska popsters Wickeda into an amazing broken percussive dubstep joint - tune! Still on the dubstep track I also throw in another more techno inspired cut from the new 2562 album and then finish with some Cuban inspired Congolese Rumba from Papa Noel just to give you a little warm feeling on these cooler autumnal nights.

Tango Siempre - Triphop & Fugue (Rough Guide promo)
Grackle - We Are It (Supersoul)
Nancy Elizabeth - Feet Of Courage (Leaf Recordings)
Virgil Howe - Someday (3 Bar Fire promo)
Julien Dyne - Fallin' Down ft Parks (BBE promo)
Floating Points - Argonaut (Eglo)
Zwicker - Oddity, John Talabot Dub (Compost Black promo)
The Revenge - Forever In Their Debt, Red Rack'em Remix (White)
Wickeda - A Nie Dvamata S Bobi Piem Kafe, Ramadanman Refix (White)
2562 - Love In Outer Space (Techtonic)
Papa Noel - Kin Havane (Tumi Music)

Here's a little video taster of Julien Dyne live in session with some mates at The Red Bull Academy in Auckland - I'm telling you LOOK out for this boy!

Tru-Thoughts 10th Anniversary – Various Artists. (Tru-Thoughts)

Happy Birthday to Tru-Thoughts, 10 years young, a major achievement for any independent record label especially in these turbulent time of falling record sales, thoughtless free loaders/uploaders and distributors going bust (which happened to the label last year).

To celebrate this milestone the label is releasing a 2 CD best of with CD1 focussing on the mellower side and CD2 on the arse shakers. The first CD kicks off with the gentle strains of a pre-Ninja Tune Bonobo closely followed by Nostalgia 77 who utilises the sweet vocals of Beth Rowley on a mellow jazz number that segues nicely into one of the UK’s finest soul voices, Alice Russell and the old time soul of ‘Hurry On’.

Natural Self lays down some soulful drum and bass with ‘The Rising’ before Milez Benjiman gets all big electro bass and fresh beats on us with the nu-soul of ‘Chop That Wood’. The dream team of Quantic and Nickodemus throw some Latin spirit into the mix with the catchy Latin beats of ‘Mi Swing Es Tropical’, which some of you might remember from an Ipod advert a few years ago!

The killer tracks just don’t stop and this is only disc one! Lizzy Parks injects more soul with the jazz flavoured ‘Raise The Roof’, The Hot 8 Brass Band show brass bands aren’t all situated in remote northern colliery towns as they get all funk and jazz on ‘Whats my name’, Flevans adds the disco flavour and Quantic injects some Latin reggae before Kinny adds her vocal prowess to an Afro flavoured slice of quality soul and Freddie Cruger goes all nu-soul to wrap up the first disc.

Disc Two kicks off with some new style samba rock and Quantic’s orchestra get all funky with the swinging ‘Super 8’. The Bamboos add their trademark raw funk and TM Juke goes all nu-jazz with ‘Come Away’ featuring the vocals of Sophie Faricy. Lanu reminds us of the glory days of broken beat with a great jazzy soulful dancefloor winner and that’s before we even get to Belleruche and more Alice Russell and you can’t forget about the soul genius of Kylie Audist and she reminds us why with the modern northern soul classic ‘Community Service Announcement’.

For those of you quick enough there is also a limited 3CD box set with the third disc consisting entirely of un-released material from the label roster but don’t sleep to get your hands on one of those.

Happy birthday Tru-Thoughts, here’s to another ten.

Jazz and Milk Breaks II (Jazz & Milk Records)

Jazz and Milk is now officially THE reliable home of great soul, funk, jazz and Afrolatin breaks and I’m glad to report they are they are back with another welcome compilation full of dancefloor winners for those more groove enlightened dance floors.

The album kicks off with the Envee rework of Pinnawela’s feel good vocal jazz dancer ‘You Can Dance’ before ducking into label boss Dusty’s beat heavy Afro rework of The Boogoo’s ‘The Journey/Ghana 74’ a dancefloor winner for sure. Dusty also throws in ‘Voodoo’ a funky beat excursion from his acclaimed debut album, because he’s nice like that.

Respected Panamanian percussionist Cesar Granados supplies an epic, super caliente version of Dizzy Gillespie’s classic ‘Manteca’, a Latin jazz monster to challenge the best salseros and Barcelona crew The Jivers supply some lively midtempo vocal jazz beats.

One of my favourite party rocking djs, Saffrolla, contributes ‘El Massivo’ a flamenco jazz flavoured party winner replete with some crazy gitano wailings over the top and Javi P3Z closes this excellent compilation with the great jazz rumba beats of ‘De Rhumba’.

Yet another great feel good selection from Jazz and Milk full of soul, jazz, funk and afrolatin flavoured beats and pieces ideal for livening up even the stiffest of parties.

Jeb Loy Nichols – Strange Faith and Practice (Impossible Ark Records)

Jeb Low Nichols is an artist, writer and musician living a sustainable existence in Wales. He’s also just released an incredible album full of moving, delicate, beautifully arranged songs sung in his seductive and distinctive southern American accent.

Hailing from Wyoming he soon outgrew the artistic scenes of his native south and headed for New York art school, immersing himself in it’s creative scene witnessing the emergence of punk, the birth of hip hop and getting down to Larry Levan. London was the next stop where he ended up living in a squat with Adrian Sherwood, Neneh Cherry and Ari Up from the Slits where he pursued his musical career whilst designing prints for Paul Smith, working as the art director for Pressure Sounds and even performing vocals with Groove Armada.

This latest album sees Jeb teaming up with some of London’s best young jazz players including exciting young drum prospect Tim Giles, sax/flute player Mark Hanslip and bassist and arranger Riaan Vosloo who is also the co-founder of Impossible Ark, the exciting new label responsible for this release.

Jennifer Carr’s classical and jazz piano accompanies Jeb’s lyrical journey through these affairs of the heart to great effect and an added string section adds extra emotional depth to this already poignant album.

Highlights abound it really is an all killer no filler affair although the gentle caress of ‘Probably Never stop’ with it’s barely audible drums and carefully arranged strings tugs at my hear every time and the catchy piano line, restrained sax and more strings work wonders on ‘Lake Whitfield’.

Varied this album isn’t but when the vibe and overall feel is this good why change it? Definitely one of my albums of the year.

Mary Anne Hobbs – Wild Angels (Planet Mu)

Mary Anne Hobbs is now officially the queen of the electronic new school with her weekly radio show offering a portal to the freshest electronic experiments and cutting edge urban sounds from across the globe. Wild Angels is her third compilation for the cutting edge Planet Mu label and is another great album showcasing where new electronic music is at in 2009 and beyond.

In true experimental style Mark Pritchard opens proceedings with his catchily entitled ‘?’ in which an electronic drone slowly morphs into a slow atmospheric melodic soundtrack to your favourite sci-fi movie.
Wobbly beat merchant Hudson Mohawke then wakes us from our deep space coma with his trademark messed up future take on hip hop before Dublin’s Mike Slott transports us into an instrumental broken nu-soul wonderland with the excellent ‘Knock Knock’.

Brackles gives your bass bins a medical with the relentless lo-end frequency attack of ‘LHC’ as some nice key work and sampled female vocals add a little light relief. One of the finds of the compilation for me is Gemmy who shows the UK Funky massive they need to up their production standards as he comes through with a deep bassline gem called ‘Rainbow Road’, miles ahead of most of the game.

So far so melodic but like any inner city soundtrack worth it’s salt the compilation is not without it’s darker moments. Untold twists some exotic percussion beyond recognition with the unnervingly entitled ‘Discipine’, Rustie’s ‘Zig Zag’ is an intense rave brain basher – only for the headstrong and Legion of Two hammers the final nails into the coffin of those left standing on the dancefloor with his brooding ‘And Now We Wait’.

Dark Star and Sunken Foal show that musicians can work in harmony with the deep electronic underworld and one of the break though names of 2009, Floating Points also lends his undoubted talents to the comp as do Starkey, Architeq and a host of other pioneering electronic souls.

An essential glimpse into the future of music.

Peter Kruder Private Collection – G-Stone Master Series #1 (G-Stone Recordings)

Peter Kruder is a bit of a compilation king racking up six and seven figure sales with some of his previous outings and once you’ve listened to this album you’ll know why they sold so well. The concept with this private collection is that Peter Kruder invites us into his living room to listen to some of his favourite records. Great! Milk, two sugars, thanks Pete.

Peter Kruder is one half of the legendary production duo Kruder & Dorfmeister as well as the driving force behind The Peace Orchestra and the best thing musically to come out of Austria since yodelling and with 35,000 records in his collection when he puts a compilation together you should really take note.

He kicks off with 80’s pop experimentalists Talk Talk and the deep bluesy electronic pop of ‘The Rainbow’ before post-rock, Chicago dons, Tortoise take up the mantle with the slow, atmospheric, guitar led ‘On The Chin’. Typical of a dj he he only plays a short section of ‘Waste Your Life’ from The Observatory as a bridge into the ever green soulful jazz of ‘Enchanted Lady’ from vibes virtuoso Milt Jackson before he launches into Gong offshoot Pierre Moerten’s Gong and the xylophone jazz fusion of ‘Adrien’ – a track he discovered through a mixtape handed to him by Gilles Peterson in the early 90’s.

House deity Charles Webster contributes one of his rare down tempo experiments, Tom Waits adds his dulcet tones on the leftfield, percussive gem ‘Clap Hands’. Jan Hammer provides some 80’s synth stylings and Kruder throws in a Peace Orchestra track from the next album, whenever that might appear, and an old K&D track called ‘Sleazy Rider’ also makes the cut – well he is the compiler!

The cosmic soul of Stargard rubs shoulders with an instrumental classical piano piece by Massive Attack vocalist Craig Armstrong and 80’s electronic pioneers Japan contribute their classic ‘Ghosts’. American composer, famous for his Hitchcock collaborations, Bernard Hermann pops up alongside fellow film composer and modern producer Jon Brion before versatile French producers Chateau Flight lead us into the album closer from one of my favourite African vocalists Rokia Traore and the beautiful ‘Mariama’

The album start to finish is a musical wonder and best listened to in its entirety preferably in the dark. Thanks Pete, now where’s your bathroom?