Monday, July 01, 2019

New Music: Shafiq Husayn - Loop; Evan Parker & Kinetics - Chiasm; Under The Influence Vol 7 – A Collection Of Rare Soul & Disco Compiled By Winston


Shafiq Husayn - Loop

It's been many years since Sa-Ra have expanded our minds with their revolutionary blend of hop hop and soul – but fortunately, Shafiq Husayn has carried on the group's legacy – and has reached an even higher plane with music like this! Husayn brings all the fantastic production skills to the album that made Sa-Ra great, but also really opens the door to a much more cosmic soul style of presentation – one that creates a sonic universe that's all his own, but which is big enough to allow for some really great guest work from a lineup that includes Erykah Badu, Hiatus Kaiyote, Anderson.Paak, Robert Glasper, Bilal, Thundercat, and Flying Lotus! Unlike other many-guest records, which sometimes get tipped between the talents from track to track, this album's got a rock-solid core in Shafiq's music – which really unifies the efforts of everyone, and makes the whole thing feel like a wonderfully collaborative effort. Titles include "Message In A Bottle", "Twelve", "Picking Flowers", "May I Assume", "DMT", "Between Us 2", "Cycles", "Hours Away", "Walking Round Town", "On Our Way Home", and "Show Me How You Feel". ~ Dusty Groove

Evan Parker & Kinetics - Chiasm

Saxophonist Evan Parker has always been a wonderfully collaborative talent – fantastic on his own, but also very able to improvise at a fantastic level within any sort of group – so that he never dominates, and instead only seems to act as a force that seems to bring out the best in all around him! That's definitely the case here – in a set of improvisations recorded in London and Copenhagen, with a trio that features Jacob Anderskov on piano, Adam Pultz Melbye on bass, and Anders Vestergaard on drums – all younger musicians that, we think, are new to our ears – but who hit a level of spontaneous creation that's really wonderful alongside Parker's tenor. The set features four long tracks, two from each city. ~ Dusty Groove

Under The Influence Vol 7 – A Collection Of Rare Soul & Disco Compiled By Winston

A great entry in this really fantastic series – one that's turned us on to more rare club cuts than we can count over the years – and which still stands head and shoulders above most other collections of vintage dancefloor grooves! The tracks here are all hand-picked by Winston – and seem even rarer and more obscure than the previous volumes – not that quality is sacrificed for the sake of rarity, just that the tracks are amazingly fresh discoveries even for ears like ours – which have been well-trained on decades of collecting underground soul and disco! Most of these cuts offer up a nice sideways take on popular modes of the time – grooves that can be grittier or more offbeat, but in a really great way – and the 2CD version features 22 titles that include "Dancing" by Mary Gold, "Let's Do It Together" by The GTs, "Do You Like It" by The Olympics, "Can't Stop Dancin" by Jonnie Vibes Lambert, "We Are Steady Rockin" by Al Man Muntzie & The Embraceables, "More People Than Me" by Synergy with Donnell Pitman, "Sugar Daddy (parts 1 & 2)" by Betty Padgett, "I'm Human" by Lord Of Storm, "If There Is No Struggle (long version)" by Are & Be, "Get Up & Dance Now" by Bramsam, and "Build Your Foundation" by Bollyn Thompson. ~ Dusty Groove


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