Friday, February 27, 2015

NEW RELEASES: THE MIGHTY SCEPTRES! – ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY SCEPTRES!; BABA COMMANDANT & THE MANDINGO BAND - JUGUYA; THE RONGETZ FOUNDATION - KISS KISS DOUBLE JAB

THE MIGHTY SCEPTRES! – ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY SCEPTRES!

A brilliant take on vintage sounds by Cornwall combo The Mighty Sceptres – seamlessly mixing vintage funky group soul styles! As much as we dug their earlier 7-inch on Ubiquity, we're pretty much floored by how much deeper this excellent full length cuts! Singer Angeline Morrison has a way of bringing in a soulful warmth with laidback charm – and the band brings a lot of different styles into play, without going too far out of the old school comfort zone. Drums, Rhodes and horns are prominent, but there's some more orchestral string touches, glockenspiel, harmonica and other elements that really take it to another level. All Hail, indeed! Includes "Siren Call", "I Found The Letter", "Just Didn't Mean It", "Sting Like A Bee", "Nothing Seems To Work Right", "Land Of Green Ginger", "We Got A Problem", "Gentle Refrain", "Nothing But A Pack Of Cards", "Krazy Kat" with guest vocals by Ian Dunlop, "That Ol' Feelin'" and more. 13 tracks in all.  ~ Dusty Groove

BABA COMMANDANT & THE MANDINGO BAND - JUGUYA

One of the most solid albums we've ever heard on the Sublime Frequencies label – a studio recording by a group with a really great approach to their music – a style that mixes classic Afro Funk elements with rootsier elements on the instrumentation! The grooves are tight, but the sound has some nice earthy qualities at times – especially in Baba Commandant's use of ngoni, which rings out in a way that's both melodic and rhythmic at the same time – echoing an older mandingo tradition, but coming across with a lot of punch! Other instrumentation includes lots of percussion, fuzzy guitars, and balafon too – and most of the vocals have a call/response style, in which other singers call out alongside Baba's lead. Really great stuff – with titles that include "Tile", "Folon", "Wasso", "Juguya", "Siguisso", and "Ntijiguimorola".  ~ Dusty Groove

THE RONGETZ FOUNDATION - KISS KISS DOUBLE JAB

An even hipper album than the first Rongetz Foundation outing – which we totally loved – thanks to work from classic musicians who include Gary Bartz on alto, Steve Turre on trombone, and Monnette Sudler on guitar! The music is a great blend of bass-heavy rhythms (acoustic bass, that is), jazzy flourishes, and these excellent vocals from Lilli Cooper – an artist we don't know at all, but who brings a real underground soul vibe to the whole thing – with an old school approach that really lives up to the instrumentation! The album already won us over by including one of our favorite Charles Earland tunes ever – the sublime "Murilley", a lost gem from his late 70s years, given a great vocal reading for the set – and other titles are all original, and include "Cab Samba", "Kiss Kiss Double Jab", "Marshmallow Throne", "Such A Morning Person", and "Sonia Poem", which features a recitation from Sonia Sanchez.  ~ Dusty Groove


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