YMA Live Badstrasse 8

We know next to nothing about this band, other than they're from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. You might even have guessed that from the distorted thumb pianos which are highly redolent of Kinshasa's most famous recent export, Konono No.1 - but Mbongwana Star (Mbongwana means "change", apparently) are a very different proposition. There's some very strange dubwise production, courtesy of Parisian and sometime Tony Allen collaborator Doctor L, some eerie postpunk-sounding guitar work, and an altogether unique vibe. They're coming to Europe in April and May and there'll be an album on World Circuit around then too. We will be paying close attention.

Mbongwana Star "Malukayi" - Boiler Room Debuts

My Garden

My Garden (Edit)

Putting a fresh spin on two tracks from New Regency Orchestra’s standout debut album, Momoko Gill and Samtheman, step up to the plate on remix duties. Two exciting and innovative names rising out of London’s next generation of artists they’ve reimagined NRO’s Afro-Cuban jazz vibrancy in their own personal and distinctive way. Blurring the lines between remix and new production, Momoko turns ‘Para Los Papines’ into a meditative, transportive, percussive cut laced with her ethereal vocals, as Sam flips ‘Sambaroco’ into an Afro house styled groover with Caique and P Wavey on the mic.

London-based drummer/producer/songwriter and vocalist, Momoko Gill, provides the first of the remixes. With an explorative ear and a rejection for imitation, her unique style has seen her collaborating with artists including Matthew Herbert, Coby Sey, Tirzah and Alabaster DePlume. Nourished by elements of NRO’s take on David Amram’s ‘Para Los Papines’, Momoko’s clever sampling of the bass, percussion and horns melds this track into a new dimension. Drawing from a Buddhist myth, her lyrics and intimate voice provide a celestial, mythological touch to the remix.

Talking on the remix Momoko says: “I wanted to make something that feels more like a recontextualization of the original and a continuation of the conversation. Unlike the original which sounds looser and starts with the more jazzy orchestration, NRO’s version kicks straight into the vamp and has a more linear structure, where the orchestrated bits serve as a release of tension as well as a destination. I enhanced that by making a new line through sampling the double bass which, in retrospect, sounds almost like a line you’d hear in grime and used vocal sampling to drive the groove.”

Next up, Samtheman, co-founder of the label/collective Brighter Days Family, takes on ‘Sambaroco’. Sam’s genre-bending productions are both inspired by, and experimenting with, sounds from around the globe. Reworking the groove into an Afro house rhythm, Sam invites two emerging young artists with ties to Brighter Days Family, Caique and P Wavey, to take to the mic and add a new, vocal-led flavour to the remix. 

Sam mentions, “Together in the studio, we listened to the original version by Tito Puente, Caique came up with a phrase inspired by the name of the tune. “Ela me faz samba roco, Ela me faz samba loco…” Then the rest of the vocal parts started flowing. Continuing to use the name of the original for inspiration, P Wavey begins his verse with, “Sambaroco-ni, now everybody just follow me…” In my mind, the original is a salsa song that is about carnival, or a salsa interpretation of carnival, in particular Brazilian carnival hence the title of the song.”

More than just reworks, these tracks are conversations, between continents, cultures, and genres, through the forward-thinking lens of two of London’s rising stars.


New Regency Orchestra - Para Los Papines (Momoko Gill Remix)

Solace

Hourglass

Escape

RadioActive Set 16.11.25

A-side of the the Blue Gas 7" single, entitled Shadows From Nowhere (1984), originally released in France by Night Records .

Shadows From Nowhere

Blue Gas - Shadows From Nowhere

Ahead of my gig at the Jazz Cafe, I thought i'd make Mother Theresa available as a free download until 25th August. Recorded in Havana, Cuba 2015 and released as part of the Highlife World Series pt 1  :)

"The highlight for us is Auntie Flo’s ‘Mother Theresa’, a lazy track with a free-flowing melody. Subdued compared to the others on the EP, the smoky jazz influence is unexpected, with a wandering trumpet introducing itself halfway through. As the track’s soft pads and percussive textures build, you’re caught up in the spiralling solo and the track’s brassy crescendo."
Stamp The Wax

Vocals – Eric Alejandro
Trumpet – Julio Rigal
Percussion – Yissy
Keys - Jorge Aragon Brito
Production and arrangements - Brian d'Souza/Auntie Flo

Mother Theresa

◉ Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp / Sauvage Formes | BJR017 | April 26, 2018   ◉ 


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November 2016, 10 years of OTPMD. Vincent Bertholet, still resolute, finally realises his old dream of a‘real’ orchestra. And thus was born the project to expand the known horizon. The orchestra became XXL by assembling accomplices from the first hour, who had never really disappeared from view, and an English string section met along the way. From now on, they will be 14 on stage. An anniversary tour, prestigious stages and makeshift squats, unrestrained agitation as in the first days, and a larger chorus, more percussive than ever. The multi-headed Hydra gives voice in concert and the frail stages that host it groan under its weight. Nevertheless, it is in the studio that the foundation of a new adventure is forged. Back to England, in the imposing and magnificent building that houses Real World Studios. After Rotorotor (2014), John Parish is again at the controls. It’s called Sauvage Formes, a shrewd title, because everything here is as geometric as it is organic. The incisive rhythms, doubled in XXL, trademark of the pack, mingle with the unusually melancholy brass. The guitar riffs express themselves inminimalistic cascades, and since the number of strings has tripled, they allowthemselves the luxury of entwining with each other, like a carnal embrace without epilogue. The voices, more numerous than usual, recite, chant, lead the dance and poeticise, sometimes in French, sometimes in English, and, in the same spirit, the chorus takes the opportunity to shape the pediment of hymns to elsewhere. NOn crossing these 8 songs as beautiful as they are adventurous, it seems to be a story of a voyage, a torn logbook. On the horizon however, neither boat, nor rickety plane, neither map nor compass. Is it because the continent that is mentioned in these texts and melodies is not a known place, but rather a dream world, a land of asylum for rebels and the insubordinate, for the daring and the benevolent? The fourth Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp album is like a road, a purpose, an ideal of shared and shareable lives. And the writing of this music is like the defences of an imaginary seafront, like an act witnessing an intertwined destiny, an extraordinary adventure. The story of a chamberless orchestra, a sensitive battalion of unlimited generosity, a wild form that never needed a master to tame its imagination and determination.

Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp - Across The Moor

Track from "Skalpel" album, 2004, Ninja Tune

Escape

Antibalas