Ismaïl Sixu Touré
Mandinka Dong

Upsetter - 7"- Words / The Gatherers

Written after a trip home to Swaziland, now known as eSwatini, Sydney recorded the sound of life there after completing studies of sonic signatures and comparison of traditional instruments around the world. When there, the third generation Brownswood Future Bubbler artist hooked up with local man Ralph who took him on some rich journeys and to meet amazing local musicians, all with the aim of making a body of work that used traditional worldly sounds in authentic new ways.“The creative energy in eSwatini is so healthy and powerful that there's too many projects to list, but one that stood out was Mr Freddy, involving Ralph Smitt and Mwesigwa Kisaakye, a mixing bowl of psychedelic world improv which I helped record at Semitone Records, and later was mixed by myself and Louise Grainger and released via Stay Put, a small collective I am part of who run parties in Bristol and host a fortnightly radio show on Noods Radio. The Intro to the Album played by me and Ralph became the intro to this album as we shared the journey!”The richly atmospheric tracks are spiritual, organic affairs with indigenous percussion, tumbling drums and spoken word samples that are beautifully earthy. Broken beats with drifting sax lines, lazy deep house and jazzy hip hop that oozes soul all feature and make this record a perfectly escapist and immersive listen.

Rare dancehall from La Barbade. Splashband Conscious 1992

Having already released a handful of singles on NICE UP! it seemed like high time for Nottingham's Origin One (aka Kevin Thomson) to step up with his debut album. Written and produced over the space of around 2 years in the artists own Deeper Than Roots studio, the album represents a wider spectrum of roots and reggae influenced music, taking the foundations of this music and applying a modern style and sound to it, traversing dancehall, bashment, grime, jungle and dubstep along the way.