The fourth Snakeoil; the second (following on from 2015’s You’ve Been Watching Me) to feature a quintet line-up adding guitarist Ryan Ferreira to the core lineup of clarinettist Oscar Noriega, pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith.
Reviews seem unanimous that it’s the best yet.
‘Characteristically action-packed in the Berne tradition (following on from AACM and his muse Julius Hemphill): powerful, dynamic, often fast-moving — yet also very clear in all its teeming detail. “We somehow achieved more sonic space by adding another player,” says Berne. It’s an impression maintained even when producer David Torn takes up his own guitar in a cameo at the climax of the modestly-titled Sideshow (in reality a 26-minute epic journey), soloing amid thunderous timpani, over a serpentine melody outlined by sax and clarinet.’

Improvisatory solo piano from 1965 — a trans-Mediterranean crossover based on traditional Algerian song, with roots in Spanish Islamic culture.
Spare, pellucid, and meditative; testing out variations with madcap ivories tickler Johnny Bach at his shoulder.
Hotly recommended.

Uproarious mix-up of Molam pop, Thai acid-rock, Javanese dangdut, default TwoTone and Cambodian instro-drama from the Oakland CA seven-piece including Sublime Frequencies’ Mark Gerghis (with Alan Bishop guesting).

Demdike Stare and Andy Votel.

Terrific roots plodder from 1982, with Bertram Brown and King Tubby at the controls.

Moody, experimental, Ghanaian Afro-Rock — recorded by these teenagers in 1973 for EMI Nigeria, after a run at Fela’s Shrine.

Rudie gone soft. Irresistible love songs — with simmering brass, splashing cymbals on the A; classy sax on the flip.

Pure loveliness from 1967 — with an acappella version.

Sublimely versioning the almighty Curtis anthem; with another rocksteady clarion-call on the flip, brassy and more stern, by The Hamlins.

‘Recorded in mid-1987 by a trio of Blue Notes — Dudu Pukwana, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Chris McGregor — as a memorial to their former bandmate Johnny Dyani, on the group’s twenty-fifth anniversary.
‘The final Blue Notes studio recording, For Johnny shuffles in a considerably broader range of touchstones than For Mongezi, nodding toward the band’s foundations in be-bop and post-bop without forgetting their journey onwards, including modal jazz, and free improvisation.
‘It is a startling creative statement, imbued with a tension that poses an equally radical and sophisticated challenge, like a furious tide masquerading in gentler forms, slowly revealing itself.
‘A celebration and a memorial. Joyous and tragic. A real time resurrection of personal experience, Blue Notes For Johnny dodges, dances, and mutates across its two sides, refusing to be nailed down. As the three musicians push against each other, bristling tonal and rhythmic collisions suggest something is bound to explode, without ever fully letting go.’

Entirely exclusive music, unique to this release, with a radiant silk-screened sleeve: four from The Marble Downs sessions with Will Oldham, a Scott Walker to start; and a side of unaccompanied folk singing.