Francis Bebey
Rire Africain

Shawn Lee's country-soul solo album Rides Again in 2019 was a fascinating one that picked up, rightly, plenty of plaudits. Now he returns with follow up long player Rides Yet again on Germany's Legere Recordings. He is in a more personal and reflective mode than before with an intriguing set of songs. US born but London based he is a prolific singer, songwriter, musician, producer, arranger, filmmaker and author so this album has a strong narrative arc running all throughout it. Soulful but with hints of Americana, it's a unique proposition.

Brij Bhushan KABRABrij Bhushan KabraGramophone Company Of India

In the liner notes for Jazzamatazz, Guru explained, "jazz's mellow tracks, along with the haerd rap beat, go hand-in-glove with my voice." Truer words were never said, and in 1993 the Gang Starr legend proved the point by releasing one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. The link between hip-hop and jazz was already in the air, but Guru crystalised it in no uncertain terms, pulling in a heavyweight list of singers and players like N'Dea Davenport, Donald Byrd, Courtney Pine, Lonnie Liston Smith and more besides to realise his vision. Guru's sultry tone sits in the bed of warm musicianship like butter on toast, and this reissue means you can pick it up in pristine condition and hear it pouring out of those grooves. If ever an album was made for vinyl, this would be it.

Classic Patrick Adams & Leroy Burgess joint! NYC disco classic!

Tip! Tryghed is the debut album from Franciska, the alias of the now Copenhagen-based artist Jonas Torstensson. As one of the key figures in the young, vivid scene around the Forlaget Kornmod imprint, Jonas has released a good deal of music under different names during the last few years, often in very limited cassette editions with barely no distribution. In many ways, Franciska pretty much captures the very essence of the sound world their label now is associated with: melancholic and rather loose tape compositions made with a hands-on approach, usually performed on organ, piano, synthesizers and acoustic instruments and often room recorded with environmental sounds leaking in.Truly DIY ambient music, closely connected in spirit with some of the more melodic Förlag För Fri Musik moments, Astrid Øster Mortensen etc. With crude stop/rec editing, sizzling magnetism and tape scuffs left intact, the A-side consists mainly of piano recordings made while on break from classical music rehearsals in school, while the B-side incorporates more electronics and field recordings though still having the piano as the focal point. Wintery minimalism at its very best. Mastered by Joakim Karlsson. Edition of 750 copies. Discreet Music 12