Nana Nelson Angelo Novelli
Nana, Nelson Angelo, Novelli

Almost 2 years after the success of the album THE TONY ALLEN EXPERIMENTS and a few months after the release of the 7inch AMORE, Nu Guinea return to the scene with a new LP published by their newborn label NG RECORDS.After touring the world looking for sounds suitable for their vibrations, NU GUINEA decided to go back to square one, Napoli, where Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina were born and raised. They watched their city from a distance reconstructing its energy from their studio in Berlin, calibrating the synths on the meridian of Vesuvius, the volcano that has always protected and threatened Napoli.NUOVA NAPOLI is the result of a long musical research that has become a historical investigation on the sound that shaped Napoli during the ‘70s and ‘80s, starting from the contamination of genres (disco, jazz-funk, African rhythms) which ended up in Nu Guinea’s DNA.In this album the synthesizers fill the spaces between the past and the future, tightening in a single body acoustic instruments, electronics and voices in Neapolitan dialect. It is the first time that the duo has worked with such a large group of musicians, some of whom are exponents of the contemporary Neapolitan scene.WARNING: We recommend listening to Nuova Napoli while walking in the alleys of Napoli’s historic center, around wet clothes hanging and street vendors on tiny three-wheelers.

A solid example of Japanese city pop blended with folk and jazz fusion, 'Seychelles' is guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka's debut album. Known for his shades-and-blazers onstage fashion and indisputably funky playing, this album is an optimistic dream-disco slinker of the utmost quality. Terns fly across its cover, representing the boundless sense of freedom offered by virtuosic rhythm and lead guitar talent.

Funky Mother is Analog Son's fourth full-length album. Produced and mixed by Eddie Roberts (Guitarist for The New Mastersounds) is their most robust effort yet with a 12-song collection of instant classics composed by co-founders and longtime musical collaborators, Jordan Linit and Josh Fairman.This album differs in a couple of key manners. For one, Linit and Fairman have cultivated a steadfast crew of top-call musicians to round out their roster as opposed to the “Steely Dan” format the group has used with a rotating studio cast on the prior three albums. In addition to Linit on guitar and Fairman on bass, these musicians include: Devon Parker & Ashley Niven (vocals), Eric Luba (keyboards), George Horn (drums), Will Trask (percussion), Mike Chiesa (tenor saxophone), and Gabe Mervine (trumpet).

Bassist & composer Joshua Abrams has been in the thick of Chicago's vibrant music scene for fifteen years. Big.Playing & recording as leader & sideman in projects across the genres. he co-founded the "back porch minimalist" band town & country (thrill jockey/box media) & with matana roberts & chad taylor the trio sticks & stones (thrill jockety/482 music). he has released four records under his own name as well as two under the moniker "reminder" that navigate the realms of jazz & improvisation, electro-acoustic composition, beatmaking, minimalism and field recordings (eremite/delmark/eastern developments/lucky kitchen). he has appeared on over 50 recordings including records by fred anderson, hamid drake & bindu, bonny "prince" billy, nicole mitchell black earth ensemble and black earth strings, sam prekop, mike reed's loose assembly, ernest dawkins chicago 12, savath & savalis, prefuse 73, rhys chatham, rob mazurek, tortoise, the roots, edith frost, mia doi todd, matana roberts, diverse, joan of arc, lorren mazzacane connors, david grubbs, david boykin, chris conelly, & the cairo gang. he has performed with roscoe mitchell, bill dixon, von freeman, fred anderson trio, john tchicai, the exploding star orchestra, henry grimes, axel dorner, fred lonberg-holm, peter evans, damo suzuki, wilbert de joode, jandek, walter wierbos, tony conrad, bobby broom, sean bergin, nate wooley, craig taborn, david stakenas, fred hopkins, rhys chatham, kurt rosenwinkel, neil michael hagerty, lin halliday, raymond strid, douglas ewart, toumani diabate, the chicago underground orchestra, ron dewar, baby d, kevin drumm, terry x, frederick lvunquist, the roots, jim o'rourke, kurt vonnegut, & earle brown. when in chicago he plays weekly with jeff parker and john herndon.

“Time is just the difference between knowing now and knowing nothing. Because if you know now fully, it’s past, present, and future.”— Mattie Humphries, 1968Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble’s new album "NOW" was created in the final throes of Summer 2020, following months of pandemic-induced fear & isolation, the explosion of social unrest, struggle & violence in the streets, and as the certain presence of a new reality had fully settled in. Set up safely in the garden behind Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio, the music was recorded in only a few takes, capturing the first times members of BME had ever played or sang the tunes. For Locks, the impetus was more about getting together to commune and make art than it was about producing an album. In his words: “It was about offering a new thought. It was about resisting the darkness. It was about expressing possibility. It was about asking the question, ‘Since the future has unfolded and taken a new and dangerous shape... what happens NOW?’”