Straight out from the green hills of the Welsh countryside comes Jeb Loy Nichols, the newest sensation in Timmion's growing roster of soul-fuelled vocalists. And we certainly have a double sider of the highest calibre on offer. A seasoned and versatile music scene veteran with a major label past, Jeb has everything it takes to polish Cold Diamond & Mink's rough grooves into shining gems.

The A side gives us a rolling southern-style soul banger, which the Wyoming-born singer attacks effortlessly with his praise for an honest dance. Jeb's talent for clever song writing shines through in the lyrics which connect to our current reality, where truth has become an endangered species. The slower flip side kicks off with a Sunday afternoon worthy duo of organ and acoustic guitar before Jeb shows us how a story is weaved from minimalistic ingredients. From the rural beginnings to pastoral hardships, he lays it all bare for the listener.

In addition to this single, Jeb and Cold Diamond & Mink have a whole album of soulful gold dropping later this year. Make sure to be there to catch it when it drops.

Can't Cheat The Dance

Can't Cheat The Dance - Jeb Loy Nichols

The Witness

Third Stream

Evelyn

Celebrating 10 years of Fold

It’s been a decade since we first got the band together and released Mr President, We’re In Trouble. It’s been one hell of a journey. We looked back at all of the voices on our records and realised that two people have left us in that time: bell hooks (she insisted on lowercase) and Michael Ruppert.

Although they may seem an unlikely pairing, their solution for our troubled world was the same: communities sustain life. This was also our most important learning in all that time.

And so with joy and hope for the future we celebrate the lives and learnings of bell hooks and Mike Ruppert along with our own 10 year voyage. With elements of funk, dancehall and hip hop Sustain also sneakily incorporates bits from previous Fold tracks (for super fans only).

Lyrics

This is my answer to the question
Of why choose love?
Communities sustain life
Communities sustain life

Within a loving community
We sustain ties
By being compassionate
And forgiving
There is no better place
To learn the art of loving
Than in community

Marvellous, marvellous
Community
Marvellous, marvellous
Communities sustain life
Communities sustain life
Not nuclear families
Not the couple
And certainly not
The rugged individualist

Community
Is what will save us
You’re gonna have to do it
In conjunction with your neighbours
And your family
And the people around you
You will fail as a rugged individual
You will survive
As a member of a tribe
Or a family

When we do not choose love
It does not change the fact
That our existence on this planet
Is one of interdependency

What we spend
So much of our time doing
Is violating that interdependency

Communities sustain life
Community
Communities sustain life
Is what will save us
There is no better place
To learn the art of loving
Than in community

Sustain

De Mi Caballo, Como Su Carne

Fave tune is Me and You. I love it! - Gilles Peterson (6 Music)

PERPETUAL EP 1. Me and You
Co-Produced by STAC & Memotone	2. Perpetual
Released on 28th April 2017 3. Hippo Love	
2 Points Records 4. Harp
5. Hippo Love – Blue Daisy Rmx

The EP is B E A U T I F U L - MYYYYYY GOODNESSSSSS - Julie Adenuga (Beats 1)

Having released her debut album on WahWah45s in 2010, 2017 sees STAC write, record, co-produce and self release her follow up EP. Perpetual delivers timeless, compelling songwriting and combines achingly beautiful melodies with Badu-esq cool. Compared by Mark Ronson to a young Minnie Ripperton, in a world saturated by the ‘Indie Girl’ vocal, her voice cuts effortlessly through.

This is beautiful. All tracks are so good. - Nick Luscombe (Radio 3)

Produced with the help of Memotone (William Yates), Perpetual is an idiosyncratic mix of live and electronic sounds, which is immediately evident in the glorious opener Me and You, a song that begins simply with pianette and vocals and crescendos into a concoction of brass, strings, vocal harmonies, drum pads, electronic samples and a helicopter. 
The rather perky Perpetual is an uplifting instant classic that you are sure you heard that time you travelled back to 1956 on your gap year - but definitely didn’t. 
The laid back Hippo Love is a dreamy jazz tinged invitation for a lover to make up their bloody mind. 
And lastly, Harp has reduced many a stone-hearted goblin-troll to tears. 
Throw Blue Daisy’s Hawaiian Bass* remix of Hippo Love into the mix and you have a startlingly original EP.

Released by:
2 Points Records
Release date:
28 April 2017

Perpetual

A window into the full-blooded, captivating spirit of music from the Andes, ANDINA shines a fresh perspective on Peru’s multifaceted heritage. A co-release between @tigers-milk-records and @Strut Records, the album is selected from records originally released between '68 and ‘78, upending clichéd ideas of Andean music and bringing to light the divergent, exciting traditions to have emerged from Peru’s strip of the iconic mountain range. Encompassing steady-grooving, Peruvian cumbia rhythms, transcendent folkloric harp recordings and Lima big band groups taking influence from their highland neighbours, it boasts a diversity that will appeal to fans of jazz and Latin as well as tropical-minded DJs and deep-digging collectors.

ANDINA was never intended to be a definitive overview of Andean music.The selection sees the debut release of many tracks (since their original vinyl release on Peruvian labels like Iempsa, Sono Radio and El Virrey) and reflects, what we think are, the most exciting insights into Andean musical culture. Not restricted to bands based in the Andes, there are entries from outsiders, in particular from the coastal city of Lima, artists who took cues from their compatriots in the mountains. The sound most represented is that of Peruvian cumbia where groups imbued a tropical, Colombian style with Andean huayno rhythms and rock-influenced electric guitars. The album also reflects the huge numbers of traditional folk records released during this era that left a bounty of atmospheric, harp-plucked huayno and carnaval to be discovered.

An avid DJ and record collector, Martin Morales (Ceviche/Andina) has once again teamed up with Tiger’s Milk co-founder Duncan Ballantyne (former Soundway label manager) and Peruvian crate digger Andres Tapia del Rio to create a series which starts with ANDINA but will later include discoveries from the Amazon and the coast of Peru.

Reflecting on his connection to the Andes, Martin Morales remembers: “Growing up in the coastal city of Lima, it was my grandmother who kept our family’s connection to the mountains alive. Our visits to her home high up in the Andes in the province of La Libertad and the fascinating 18 hour trips we made to reach her passing through villages and towns, sounds and flavours, imparted in me a strong sense of the Andes’ traditions, creativity and rich artistic textures.” The Andes’ different cultures have resulted in a myriad of ever-evolving hybrids as shown by this collection, which opens the door onto just a few of its most fascinating musical examples.

@tigers-milk-records is part of Ceviche and Andina, launched by award-winning Peruvian chef, DJ, music and art collector and restaurateur Martin Morales in 2012. It encompasses 4 award-winning London restaurants, a record label, an art gallery and works alongside a charity called Amantani.

In October 2017 Quadrille will publish the cookbook ANDINA: The Heart of Peruvian Food, by Martin Morales:

www.hyperurl.co/AndinaCookbook

Andina

Preorder Album

Exclusive Premiere: Lucho Neves y su Orquesta "Caymenita" (Tiger's Milk Records)

L'Eclair, a beautiful soundtrack to your groovy life..

Buy the album --->https://rockthistownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/rttr002-cruise-control-by-leclair

L'Internationale Prog

Funky Splash

"I love The Expansions their futuristic leanings inject new life into the form. Fresh material!" Ian Merchant (Black Acre)

“Exudes all the qualities I cherish most in music, warmth, integrity and a dedication to the groove… it’s a hard road to travel when you step in the footprints of giants, The Expansions are treading that path with ease and assurance.” Patrick Forge
=========
When The Expansions self released their first single in 2013, the laid-back jazz funk of Lavender, it quickly gained strong support from soul and rare-groove aficionados including Kenny Dope, Dom Servini, Patrick Forge and Andy Smith. A run of shows followed and before long, when someone was asking if there was a soul-jazz band around to play with, “The Expansions” was the answer. 

Although this popularity meant a hiatus in releasing music, the band have been constantly busy, playing around Europe with legendary British-Ghanaian soul singer, Andrew Ashong and the exceptional, upcoming talent Connie Constance. 

But always, The Expansions has remained a central focus and the true home of these four jazz and soul lovers, with occasional trips out to the country to form ideas and practice new music for the eventual album. 

Murmuration, recorded over three days at Big Noise in Southend, is constructed of single takes, with minimal overdubs, as the band attempt to capture the feeling and energy they create live. 

Debut single Breakthrough introduced the insanely catchy but deeply soulful blend of synths and groove, but here on the album that is explored to the fullest with longer breakdowns and more expansive, experimental solos. Pocket 5 displays the, possibly unexpected, influences of broken beat and almost combative rhythm playing – particularly in the complex guitar and keys breakdown where Koor and O’Keefe layer conflicting time signatures and battle to ride it out to the heavy drum return. 

Cannonball brings warm mellowness that delicately evolves through beats, touching on bossas alongside their fundamental hip-hop sensibilities. But even here there is a raucous zenith before the band sublimely recede into the silence of the a-side ending. 

Colossal album highlight Ivory Mountain is truly an epic. Evoking moments of 4Hero, there is a lightness of groove in the first half of this soulful exploration. But at the halfway point, all restraint is let go as a live string section joins the four quarters of the band for three glorious minutes of soulful disco. Evoking sounds of Quincy Jones, George Benson and Johnny Hammond, all the way through to a beautifully cacophonous finale. 

Dragonfly undoubtedly reflects on the work of Herbie Hancock and is the most direct throwback to the band’s earlier work, which is a welcome marker of how far they have come. A quintessential jazz funker. 

The album closes with the thoughtful and introverted shuffle of Miles Away. In the final eight minutes of Murmuration, The Expansions allow space and time to take precedence, with once-more-restrained peaks and developments. It becomes clear though, that the band cannot resist one last explosive finale, as they rise with screeching synths, strings and dubs for a perfect race to the finish line. 

You can hear the influences of Idris Muhammad, Grover Washington, even parallels with South London peers Yussef Kamaal and Ruby Rushton. But The Expansions have tirelessly worked to create a sound of their own and are very proud, along with label Albert’s Favourites, to finally share it.