Late seventies; Channel One.

‘A psychoacoustic odyssey through the American South, influenced as much by Dock Boggs as by Luc Ferrari. This isn’t ‘avant-folk’ as per, but more expansive avant-garde compositions using components of traditional music as tools for storytelling. There are banjos, but they bounce around the stereo field in hypnotic patterns; there are autoharps, but they’re bowed, left detuned by time and humidity, and augmented with sounds of screeching cicadas.
‘Check out the haunted, ambient interpretation of the murder ballad Omie Wise, featuring fourteen different versions of the song time-stretched and overlaid with pedal steel by Tongue Depressor’s Henry Birdsey. It’s a wild listen!’

A welcome reissue of this 2013 collaboration between Onra — the Chinoiseries producer — and Buddy Sativa. Deep, spiritual jazz from the heart. Lonnie Liston Smith is a guiding light.

This is ace.
Sweet harmonies; a majestic, more-ish rhythm, with a touch of the natural mystic. A lover’s open-hearted overture without the usual screwface braggadocio: ‘Me look like a lion but me humble like a lamb.’
An under-stated classic by the Indian-Jamaican Silpatt brothers.

‘Bubbling tones, processed field recordings, and shifting electronic layers evoke the rhythms of atoms, molecules, and micro-organisms.
‘While grounded in experimental technique, The Vertical Luminous avoids the academic or austere, instead embracing a mischievous sense of melody and curiosity - a reminder that exploration and joy can coexist in sound.
‘A record that is both meditative and playful, equally suited to deep listening or casual drift.’

Mental baile future-funk.
Impossibly, round two ratchets through higher gears than round one. The cutting and scratching skills are brutally imperious, by turn eviscerating in split seconds a trembling flock of far-flung musical prey. Out of the wreckage looms the apotheosis of apocalyptic Techno Scratch terror; the ebulliently vengeful prophesy of forebears like Grand Wizzard Theodore and the Knights of the Turntable.
Blisteringly hot.

‘Rawly compelling compressions of techno, grime, dub and industrial into something taut, elemental, and essential.’

Knockout Larry Heard; deep and soulful. It carries you back through the years… and away.

Outsider, casio versions of the Electric Prunes, Ramones and co, al fresco in early-eighties San Francisco.

A compilation of the deepest and most affecting songs by The Philosophers National from Nigeria, beginning in the 1970s. Lilting, multi-layered, pulsing music, with muted trumpet solos, mesmerising guitar runs, driving percussion, and concise and clear-eyed lyrics sung so beautifully by Celestine Ukwu.
‘Celestine ditched the jaunty dance rhythms and relatively facile lyrics typical of the reigning highlife tunes, and ignoring the soul music tropes most of the highlife bandleaders were appropriating in an effort to inject new life to their ailing format. Instead Celestine concocted a new highlife style that was more contemplative and lumbering; with the layering of Afro-Cuban ostinato basslines and repetitive rhythm patterns that interlocked to create an effect that was hypnotic, virtually transcendental. Meanwhile, Celestine himself sang as he stood coolly onstage in a black turtleneck and a sportscoat, looking like a university professor. The message was clear: this was not necessarily music for dancing—even though the rhythms were compelling enough. This was music for the thinkers’ (Uchenna Ikonne).

‘All is Sound could not be a more apt title for this,’ says Mississippi. ‘Through saxophone, cello, piano, and flutes The Cosmic Tones Research Trio created a truly beautiful record. All is Sound breaks new ground. At its heart, it’s healing/meditation music, but the Gospel and Blues roots are in there too…as well as hints of forward-looking Spiritual jazz.
‘Delicate, profound melodies create peaceful, immersive soundscapes, which the group develops through their combined background in acoustic ecology, sound meditation, mindfulness, and active community involvement.
‘Following the steps of musicians such as Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders, The Cosmic Tones Research Trio delivers music that is both restorative and sonically rich—each tone falling into a perfect place, as if by magic.
‘As sincere a record as you could ever hope for. Music is indeed the healing force of the universe.’

‘The deeply moving second LP by Portland’s The Cosmic Tones Research Trio. A follow up to last year’s beloved All Is Sound, this one sees the Tones adding more percussive elements and pushing their sound into more melodic song-based territory while keeping the ambient / spiritual effect. It’s pretty amazing.
‘Blending cello, alto sax, piano, flutes, and an eclectic palette of textures and percussions, the album channels a sacred energy that feels both ancient and forward-reaching. It is music for reflection, for movement, and for inner travel. Tracks unfold with patient grace, yet pulse with deliberate rhythms that ground the listener—echoing the ceremonial spirit of cosmic jazz and deep improvisational traditions.
‘This is not background music—it’s an invitation to engage fully, to breathe with the instruments, and to explore the liminal space where sound becomes prayer. With The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, Norfleet, Silverman, and Verrett continue to map sonic territories where the mystical and the musical converge.’