favourite things | 11.21

‘Caminhos’ is a tribute to the late samba singer and composer Sebastião Victorino Teixeira Dos Santos, better known as Catoni. The heavy swinging hip hop track bridges gaps between classic Brazilian samba sounds with hard hitting Dilla-esque grooves, raw funk and boom bap, taking us on a trip to the shores of Rio de Janeiro.
lyrics
Em que linha do horizonte meu olhar se embaraçou
Em que caminho de fonte a minha sede secou
Que estrada que prendeu na poeira os meus passos
Que noite acendeu no meu corpo o cansaço
credits
from Laroyê, track released September 1, 2021
Produced by Szabolcs Bognar aka Àbáse

Guitar & vocals by Catoni

Mixed by Benjamin Thierney
Mastered by Marco Pellegrino

Cover design by Jason Vaz
Cover collage by Exocé Kasongo aka Bantufuturist
Cover painting by Raphael Cruz

Oshu Records 2021

Caminhos (for Catoni)

Miryam Solomon -  To Say All With Very Little

Amateur Dramatics

Men Bearing Lanyards (feat. Tamar Osborn)

Yeti Season

Idhar Udhar (feat. Piya Malik)

Open Arms to Open Us

Ben LaMar Gay - Dress Me in New Love

On November 26th Albert’s Favourites present the new mini album by influential beats purveyor Daedelus and unique poet/MC Joshua Idehen. ‘Holy Water Over Sons’ is a powerful yet vulnerable collection of poems contemplating life as a black man, and protest – made vivid on platforms of otherworldly, future electronics.

‘Holy Water Over Sons’ weaves through a world at extremes, bringing back to light the racial injustices which ignited the Black Lives Matter movement. Its eight tracks of minimal mechanoid lamentation and ethereal, almost dreamlike electro-blues pulsate under meditations of race, depression, identity and grief.

First single, ‘Standing In My Own Way (Part One)’ is a meditation on lost friendship, exposing the impact the supposed qualities that make “a man” can have on destroying even the strongest bonds. 

Joshua’s words step through a delicate landscape that feels almost like a patchwork of memories. Soft, melodic Rhodes, is accompanied with a heart-breaking string arrangement by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.

Daedelus is Alfred Darlington, a prolific mainstay of LA’s Beat Scene who’s renowned for crafting diverse, inventive and playful music for labels including Warp, Ninja Tune and Brainfeeder. Their track ‘Experience’ was sampled on the Madvillain classic ‘Accordion’ (also later used by Drake on ‘The Grind’), with Daedelus again appearing on record alongside Madlib for Dwight Trible & The Life Force Trio’s ‘Waves Of Infinite Harmony’.

Joshua Idehen is a British-born Nigerian based in Sweden. A gifted a spoken word artist and musician, he has contributed poems to Mercury-nominated albums ‘Channel The Spirits’ by The Comet Is Coming and ‘Your Queen Is A Reptile’ by Sons of Kemet. More recently, he formed Calabashed with Alabaster DePlume, a spiritual jazz crew who were recently named a 2021 one-to-watch by NME. He also worked on the most recent Sons Of Kemet album, ‘Black To The Future’.

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson is a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer, producer and music director who carries a dizzying list of credits. His collaborative work includes Cinematic Orchestra, Jessie Ware, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote, Chaka Khan, Dr. Dre, Erykah Badu, Mary J Blige… The list goes on. Even so, possibly most notable is his historic live recording ‘Suite For Ma Dukes’, a generation defining album in tribute to the legendary J Dilla. 

With Daedelus freshly in Boston and Joshua recently in Stockholm, the pair began collaborating remotely in January 2020. Beats and verses were traded online, until the death of George Floyd and the resultant Black Lives Matter protest across the world forced a course correction. “We are living in a dark timeline”, Joshua says. “It felt dishonest not to speak on what I was feeling, watching everything unfold in the UK and US at the time.”

The results capture that darkness and anger, with an uncategorizable record that speaks directly to the times.

Standing In My Own Way (Part One) - Daedelus & Joshua Idehen feat. Miguel Atwood Ferguson

Get On The Otherside

Make Me Believe

6 Visits

L.O.V.E (feat. Rejoicer, Nitai Hershkovits, Amir Bresler & Yonatan Albalak)

* Subscribe for more premieres: https://bit.ly/2igyosu
* Read more: https://boltingbits.com/sean-labrooy-splash-other-joe-arrangement-w-phil-stroud-analogue-attic
* Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kLGZ0hcYBHI
* Pre-order: https://analogueattic.bandcamp.com/album/out-moving-windows

One half of Albrecht La’Brooy and co-founder of Analogue Attic, Sean La’Brooy’, delivers his debut solo album ‘Out Moving Windows’ this October.

Currently based in New York, La'Brooy presents an emotional and contemplative record that leans on acoustic instrumentation, drawing on collaborations with a range of New York and Melbourne based jazz musicians, and a remix from Other Joe. Those familiar with the nine records released under Albrecht La'Brooy will recognise the expressive piano and synth lines that feature. Here, the piano Jazz and Improvisation graduate creates space for long-form solos from himself and featuring instrumentalists.

True to what we expect from the ever-maturing Analogue Attic, this is a listening album; orchestrated pads with dance-leaning rhythms meet piano chords, guitar and brass melodies. Arranged with the idea of the contemplative state experienced during a solo commute, as the name Out Moving Windows alludes to.

Sean La'Brooy - Out Moving Windows LP

PREMIERE: Sean La'Brooy - Splash [Other Joe Arrangement w. Phil Stroud]

Self Koma

Petter Eldh & Koma Saxo - Self Koma

Nothing Feels Like Everything

Heron feat. Miryam Solomon

Suffolk

Jeff Parker - Suffolk

We're kicking off our day with some family vibes as Clive Bell and Betamax drop some father and son aural goodness. Read more@ https://wp.me/p471L0-d4i

Beatamax Vs Clive Bell - The Cylinder (TS Premiere)

A modern day love story might go as follows: Lukas and Jonathan, two brothers running Berlin-based label Kommerz Records, started connecting with their favorite new jazz combo Triorität via IG without any business in mind, just to find out that they grew up in the same place – often overlooked, but damn cute city of Darmstadt. 
So why not just meet up during winter holidays in their parent’s garden (social distancing was still a thing in winter 2020) to sit around a fireplace and drink wine from daddy’s stack? A perfect start for a new friendship.

Noa Erni’s extraordinary debut “The Mental Traveller” hadn’t been released at that time, but the trinity of Triorität was immediately caught by Noa’s unpretentious chord play and the idea was born to create some live interpretations of his compositions. The Swiss-born producer and wine merchant (meet him at Friedenauer Weinhandlung) produced his obscure jazz and hip-hop atmospheres as a one man band hidden away in his home studio in Berlin. Childhood friends Triorität, on the contrary, developed their “dancefloor jazz” on stage and in the rehearsal room, finessing their very own melange of 70s fusion, disco as well as modern electronics and hip-hop. With their 2020 masterpiece “ALG0” they perfectly captured the stage powerplay on a 12” record, awarded with a co-sign by Gilles Peterson.

Fast forward into 2021: Ouvo Records, the imprint run by Triorität and DJ Ion, and Kommerz Records are best label buddies and their collaboration “The Mental Traveller - Triorität Session” came to life. Three songs of Noa Erni revisited by Triorität’s Alexander Hoffmann (drums), Gerrit Ebeling (keys) and Grégoire Pignède (bass) in their very own jazz fusion madness. Recorded in summer 2021 at Il Civetto studios in Berlin-Lichtenberg by Christ Hentz a.k.a. Hentzup and mastered by Mark Pfurtscheller, the full EP will be available on all digital platforms November 19th alongside a live video of the session.

Composed by Noa Erni
Arranged and performed by Triorität

Triorität are:
Alexander Hoffmann (Drums)
Gerrit Ebeling (Keys)
Grégoire Pignède (Bass)

Recorded and mixed by Chris Hentz aka Hentzup at Il Civetto Studio
Mastered by Mark Pfurtscheller at Chin Chat Studio

Artwork by Benedikt Luft, Dominik Keller and Luca Christakopoulos aka mesobroke

Brought to you by Kommerz Records and Ouvo Records

Noa Erni - Train Ride (Triorität Session)

The Brkn Record is a new project led and produced by Jake Ferguson, the co-founder and bass player for the UK’s foundational deep jazz outfit the Heliocentrics. With fellow Heliocentrics co-founder and legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has been a regular collaborator with globally recognised artists including Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, Melvin Van Peebles, Orlando Julius and many others.

The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 represents Ferguson’s debut as a bandleader and orchestrator, and manifests as a committed and soulful response to ongoing and systemic anti-black racism, social oppression and state violence both at home in London and across the globe. Combining poetry, testimony and song with rich and cinematic backdrops, Ferguson has produced a sui generis sound that conjures flavours of Arthur Verocai, Ennio Morricone, classic library productions, Madlib-style deep-jazz beat science, and psychedelic soul. With bandmate Malcolm Catto on drums, Ferguson draws on their long years of collaborative experience in the Heliocentrics to build an album of striking texture and depth. 

But the album does not only reflect Ferguson’s full-spectrum musical prowess, experience and vision. It is equally a manifestation of his longstanding and high-profile work as a frontline activist for racial justice and social equity in London and beyond.

Alongside Malcom Catto, contributors to the album are drawn from the intersecting worlds of community activism, cultural education, politics and music, and include singer and political activist Jermain Jackman, Zara MacFarlane; Chicagoan activist, poet and singer Ugochi Nwaogwugwu; Lee Jasper, longstanding worker for racial justice and former advisor on equalities to the Mayor of London; acclaimed performance poet Dylema; Hackney community leader Janette Collins MBE and Leroy Logan MBE, founder and former chair of the Black Police Association, and the subject of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe episode ‘Red, White and Blue’.

The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 is a singular and urgent chronicle of the black British experience, an upful expression of Pan-African creative unity and community solidarity, and a militant and unbending missive from the frontline in the great tradition of The Impressions’ This Is My Country, Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You?, Max Roach’s We Insist - Freedom Now Suite, or Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Bass Culture.

A broken record repeats itself, and never plays through – the music is interrupted or trapped in a cycle by damage to the grooves. But The Brkn Record is a work of healing and protection, and a chance to let the full story be heard – all the way to the end, no skips.

The Brkn Record - Break The Chains

Two For Mistake

First Light

DISCOVER: @dotkvir
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/dotkvir

The eighth release off of the 10th compilation apart of ELEMENTS, the final installment of the series.

☛ Follow Smile High Club
- Soundcloud: @smilehighclubcommunity
- Twitter: www.Twitter.com/smilehighclubca
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/smilehigh.club
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/smilehighclubcommunity

Cover Art: www.instagram.com/decemblvr

FREE HQ DOWNLOAD

Ka'vierre - Gaia

A decade is a long time in music, but it feels less epic when the music in question is timeless, picturesque and immersive. This is one of the reasons why NuNorthern Soul, a label founded to champion music with feeling – or, if you prefer, “music you can listen to, but in the right context also dance to”, as founder Phil Cooper puts it – arrives at its tenth birthday in ruder health than ever.

4. Ryo Kawasaki - Hawaiian Caravan [Andi Hanley Rework](SAMPLER)

The multi-talented Shay Hazan fuses rubbery North African Gnawa grooves, with haunting jazz horns and hip hop on “Bob Dealer”, his forthcoming single via international groove artisans, Batov Records.  A special taste from his first LP for Batov, ‘Reclusive Rituals’.

Tel-Aviv based musician Shay Hazan is a composer, producer, bassist & bandleader. His versatile bass is frequently heard on national radio, providing the hits of tomorrow with a foundation in groove, and MIMS readers may have heard his bass lines propelling the grooves of Sandman Project’s breakthrough EP, ‘Royal Family’.  Recently, Hazan’s straight jazz project, the Shay Hazan Quintet has been making waves, particularly with the release of a 7” single on Jazzman Records.

Having commenced producing his new album during the first Covid lockdown, his creative process this time was a marked departure from previous projects. Whereas he would normally call and gather his band together to record his new compositions live, Hazan would come up with a groove first before sending the recording parts to a drummer in Berlin or a saxophonist in Tel Aviv to add a complementary rhythm or melody, and then finally editing the results himself. As Hazan puts it, “So technically I had the role of the composer and the producer as well as the guimbri player.”

“I made this album in order to satisfy the inner urge for simple grooves and the search for a different and new sound that draws inspiration from ancient places with great tradition but still corresponds with the world and the period in which I live and the way I express myself.”

Having already mastered the double and electric bass, Hazan learned how to play the three-stringed gimbri: a camel-skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people of North Africa, as heard on their hypnotic music.  Hazan repurposes the unique qualities of the instrument with a jazz approach, no doubt inspired somewhat by his introduction to the instrument: “The truth is that my first acquaintance with the Gimbri was by bassist William Parker, who is not a traditional Gnawan player, but an American musician, identified with jazz and improvised music. that I have been following for years.  Once I saw him play with this thing in a show and my mind exploded, I started researching where it came from and listening to music from Morocco and North Africa”. 

The album title, ‘Reclusive Rituals’, is inspired by a Jean-Michel Basquiat interview from 1985 where he discusses his reclusiveness and the public demand for gossip on well-known figures. In particular how advantageous it can be to stay out of the limelight, as the crowd’s very nature is to eventually turn on their idols. Hazan interpreted this to imply that personal behavioural patterns are significantly affected by the fear of negative responses, often leading them to non-action: “Basquiat's words have been resonating in my head for a long time. I see around me a lot of people who for fear of receiving negative criticism, do not initiate or create anything.

And in a certain place, I'm a little scared to be in this place myself and feel the need to keep searching and creating all the time without being influenced by criticism, for better or worse.”

 "Bob Dealer" sees full digital release on December 3rd, with the album dropping on December 10th, on both vinyl and digital. Pre-order available now.

favourite things | 11.21

bklyn