Ray Williams
Growing Old

Led by producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Mark de Clive Lowe, Tokyo’s Ronin Arkestra brings together some of the most supreme and innovative players in Japan’s Jazz and electronic scene, featuring members of Kyoto Jazz Sextet, WONK, Cro-Magnon, Root Soul, Sleepwalker, Sauce81 and Kyoto Jazz Massive.Formed in 2017, the collective’s debut album ‘Sonkei’, released via Albert’s Favourites, fuses ’60s deep and spiritual jazz with experimental electronica and is mixed by label co-founder Scrimshire. Compositions such as ‘Lullabies of the Lost’ are a deep meditation that transports us simultaneously back hundreds of years into the right here and now, while the horn-heavy, fusion-driven ‘Art of Altercation’, confronts the skill of conflict and confrontation.Elsewhere, the impulsive and free-flowing ‘Cosmic Collisions’ merges raw grooves and electronics – an interstellar configuration of stars, light years from each other, while ‘Circle of Transmigration’ challenges the never ending circle of life, fusing soaring horns and piano-driven melodies.It’s a fascinating evolution that has a parallel to each member in the Ronin Arkestra collective - master musicians from different bands and clans coming together to create a vagabond band of like-minded musicians - weaving the stories of their lives into a collective sound. “The members of Ronin Arkestra are some of my favorite musicians anywhere and the way we all come together in battle formation with so much heart and soul is making magic,” says de Clive Lowe.

Il fut l’un des grands hérauts du Gwo ka Moden dans les années 1970 et 1980. Redécouvert en 2016 par Digger’s Digest et le label Heavenly Sweetness, le Guadeloupéen Edmony Krater revient avec un nouveau disque, An Ka Sonjé, où il explore ses souvenirs d’enfance et de nouvelles inventions musicales.Il aura fallu attendre la réédition de son mythique album Ti jan pou vélo pour que l’on puisse redécouvrir tout le talent que possède Edmony Krater. Surnommé le Sun Ra de la Guadeloupe, le chanteur, percussionniste avant-gardiste et trompettiste (paie ton CV d’enfer) avait collaboré dans le passé avec le regretté Claude Nougaro mais on s’est réellement intéressé à son art grâce au label parisien Heavenly Sweetness qui a eu la brillante idée de le mettre sous un piédestal. Trente ans après son dernier disque, il nous présente son nouvel album intitulé An ka sonjé.Ce que l’on remarque directement chez Edmony Krater, c’est tout simplement le fait qu’il reste attaché à ses traditions gwoka les décennies passantes. An ka sonjé ne déroge pas à la règle et nous embarque les yeux fermés sur l’île de la Guadeloupe avec son mélange de jazz, funk et ragga sur des morceaux vivifiants et exotiques à l’image de « Nou kontan », « A pa jôdi » mais également « Mi yo rivé » et « Lagè » qui sont de purs délices venus d’ailleurs et qui fondent sous la bouche. Avec comme principal moteur le tambour Ka et les harmonies pianistiques de son collaborateur Franck Souriant sans oublier ses cuivres chaleureux et ses basses funky, le musicien guadeloupéen nous étonne et nous évade à coup sûr.

Seven years in the making, the official retrospective of one of Somalia's most famous and beloved private bands, Iftin. Digitized from cassettes recorded between 1982 and 1987 at the legendary Al-Uruba hotel's secret studio and the jams for the masses performed in the basement of Somalia's national theater. Banaadiri rhythms from Somalia's south, Mogadishu's finest vocalists, Dhaanto reggae-like guitar licks, and smoldering brass blend seamlessly with the sounds of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to form one of rawest, most cosmopolitan eras of music anywhere. Iftin's Mogadishu is where the world's sounds begin and end.Fully authorized by the artists featured on each track.

Sometimes it is meant to be. I remember years ago Ian Wright (a notorious 45s collector, not a footballer) played me Marion Javius, it was about $1 at the time. I really love the record, but the "sshumwere" vocal in the chorus and the cha cha at the end of the bars did my head it a little.Roll on 15 years and I was speaking to my record fiend and friend David Haffner who helps with releases on AOTN. It turned out he had been sitting on the multi-track tapes for Marion Javius for some time and was cool with us doing a 45. Having multi-track was an opportunity for me to fix the little bug bears with the OG mix. On first listen, I was delighted to hear a vocal take without the "Shamwooon" on the chorus, so myself and Linkwood got on the case to rebuild an ECLA version without the Game Show bar ends and "Shamons" that had been haunting me for years.So here we are, the ECLA version, with the OG on the flip in case you think I'm talking rubbish.

Brilliant! Soulful alternative pop artist Benny Sings’ 2nd album for Stones Throw. Feat. Mac DeMarco, Tom Misch…