The heaviest Cool Ruler of them all; the heaviest Joe Gibbs / Errol T dub. Murder, she wrote.

‘Back to the core formation of Lisa Alvarado on harmonium, Mikel Patrick Avery on drums, Jason Stein on bass clarinet, and composer/multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams on guimbri, for one continuous 37 minute composition across a single LP.
‘This time around, Abrams has pushed post production techniques found only sporadically on earlier NIS records deep into the heart of the music, distorting and reshaping instruments to mutate timbre and texture, color and time.
‘Refracting the band’s signature mesmerizing chains of overlapping rhythmic patterns through the sonic funhouse of dub makes Perseverance Flow the most formally experimental NIS album to date.’

“I imagine Perseverance Flow like a live extended realization of a Jaylib lost instrumental as remixed by Kevin Shields,” says Abrams. “Or vice versa. I also think it has sympathies with some of the more rhythmically intricate dance musics out of Chicago and Lisbon… Perseverance Flow is skipping rope in slo-mo. A dance of co-operation to rally guts and humors and keep marching through pouring tears.”

Ruggedly funky, tantalisingly rare do-over of Sly & The Family Stone, by Jackie Mittoo and the crew.

Leroy Brown’s killer detournement of Bobby Bland’s classic Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City, plus Clint Eastwood’s storming deejay excursion.
It’s a shame there’s no room for the stunning dub on the original Stagesound release of the Clint, but you can’t have everything.
It’s a must.

CD from Soul Brother.

‘Classic vinyl series.’

‘The groundbreaking debut album by legendary Nigerian percussionist Gasper Lawal, originally released in 1980 on his own label CAP.
‘Lawal meticulously self-produced, composed, and overdubbed the album over four years, assembling an elite group of musicians from both Nigeria and the UK. Several of he instruments used were hand-built, including a powerful one-of-a-kind drum carved deep in the Nigerian bush. “This music is not about trends, about what is commercial or a “sound” of a particular moment,” explains Lawal, “it is about music to be felt, that gives pleasure. It is nurturing and meditative.”
‘Spiritually resonant, rhythmically rich and genre-defying,’

Blaxploitation from the Staples and Curtis Mayfield. The title track is all-time knockout soul music: Mavis is startlingly randy, over a masterful, sinuous rhythm. Goddess. New Orleans winningly sublimates I Heard It On The Grapevine; I Want To Thank You is decent, too; Curtis throws in a few Shaft-style instrumentals.
That title track, though.

Classic Brazilian boogie, from 1983; including a killer version of Tania Maria’s Come With Me — Vem Menina — and the dancefloor smash O Amigo De Nova York.