A testament to the impeccable taste of the greatest soul singer of all time — mostly big names and classics, rounded off by gospel giant Clara Ward, and the song Aretha sang at her funeral.
‘A stunning collection of songs, fusing her distinctive Malian sound and voice with elements of blues, folk and rock – resulting in a timeless body of work, free from borders and genres.
‘Written and recorded in the US during coronavirus lockdowns, the album is the latest chapter in an unparalleled musical epic which has seen an artist born in the poorest districts of Bamako, Mali, become the greatest and most influential African singer alive, as well as a powerful feminist icon.
‘Between the hometown pride exhibited in Wassulu Don, the quiet introspection of Degui N’Kelena, the amorous languor expressed on Kanou, the compassion in Demissimw and the sadness and frustration in Kêlê Magni, many emotions nourish this record, with common threads of courage and optimism woven throughout.’
Two sick techno killers, stalking the perimeters of noise; and generous excerpts from a soundtrack to Dreyer’s Vampyr, with Sun Ra in its marrow, alternately driving and motorik, off-the-wall, lost in space.
Honest Jon’s presents Mark Ernestus from Rhythm And Sound spinning 45s alongside DJ Pete from Substance and Scion Versions, with a live set from Sleeparchive.
RnB from Bristol, freaked, chopped ‘n’ screwed, but with its sensuality and slickness intact, for maximum dancefloor worries.
Four anonymous, strongly individual commissions from around the world: A1 is dubwise; Hit It Tool runs bumping 2step drums into Bmore breaks; B1 floats pitched-up vocal samples and misty-eyed rave chords, up and away; 2ON calls time with a wan club shuffle.
Four more contagiously skewed re-rubs from the mysterious maestros.
Mais Que Amor is a failsafe dancefloor re-animator, slinkily teasing out a screwed trap intro dotted with pitched vocals. Next level Next. Ride With Me is wild and bruk, with dirty south samples. Ize Kashmir keep things rolling for the heads-down crew on the flip, with its dank, bare-bones dub to close.
Another irresistible instalment of reanimations.
Brandy Tool is ambient but hypnotic; Miss You Anymore patches angelic, stone-cold-classic RnB straight through to the G-Phone; Babylon is melancholic, slo-mo grime; the stripped Girls Need Love Too is equal parts sweet and spooky.
A fourth quartet of masked mongrels. First up, a slo-mo heart-melter, spiked with scraps of misty-eyed soul; then Soul Seeker keeps things rolling with swinging 2-step drums and bittersweet vocal snippets. On the flip, the outer limits of the LA beats sound get nasty with foundation dubstep — a mid-tempo slugger from another planet, on a mission to scrunch rude boy’s bass-cones into the dust — before U & I draws the EP to a close, in an anthemic haze of vapour-wave synths and skeletal percussion.
Ghost Phone is back! Blowing in from Bristol with another hand of anonymous aces. Glossy R&B in flagranti and off its tits in a dank, heaving basement session.
The opener Hologram is characteristically greened-out: a 160bpm g-funk odyssey for the autonomic massive. Then it’s back to earth with Want U, a nectar-sweet, stripped-back dancefloor heater, complete with tongue in cheek nods to the Jersey Club sound.
Tough, loose jungle breaks revitalise a 90s classic on the flip, in So Gone; before Darkness Finds Home With U wraps things up with dense, heady atmospherics and ethereal vocals.
Wildly entertaining sixties outsider Americana from this one-man band out of south Georgia. With songs like I’m So Depressed, Cocaine, Vietnam and The Reason Young People Use Drugs.
45s and LPs spanning the period 1964-1973, including his long-lost album debut. The original material here trumps the folk chestnuts. Alasdair Roberts does Lord Randall a lot better, has to be said.