Three brilliant re-routings of Detroit machine funk — Moodymann in particular — into deep mid-Atlantic co-minglings with raw, old-school hiphop and house.
Str8 Crooked is clattering, chugging jack, holding something like Paisley soul under the water; Build Back Better Sweatshops is more driving, riven with breakdowns and horror-show vocal samples. With an uptempo downbeat which nonetheless sounds like a tolling bell, the epic, immersive, sixteen-minutes-plus Episcopi Vagantes pulls off the deadly combination of a kind of stifled, timeworn, melodic wistfulness and percussively restless, passing-through urgency.
This is killer dance music, run through with swingeing, parping bass and ruff b-boy drum-machine rhythms: encrusted and detailed, mangled and nervy, but intensely hard-grooving; wired with punk insouciance, edginess, and free spirit.
Bim bim bim.

Visceral, elemental, electronic funk, conjured from scraps of sound, breath, mutterings, dubwise remembrances, scuffling, sweat and blood, thin air — ‘crawled out of the slime’, as the opener puts it, self-engendering like the baddie in Terminator — all harnessed to cruelly grooving earthquake bass and b-boy drum science.
Rhythmically it has ants in its pants and it needs to dance, with an improvisatory, streetwise nervous energy and uninhibited, purposeful rapture — akin to this guy, say, eighteen minutes in — crossed with on-song Pepe Bradock and stripped-to-the-bone, mongrel hip-hop.
It’s unruly and edgy, a bit off its rocker, emotionally ranging — typically anxious, often nostalgic — and riveting dance music.
Judge-dread mastering by D&M; first-class Pallas pressing; stunning gatefold artwork by Will Bankhead.
Ruff ruff ruff.

‘The opener Cans People is an archaic rave monster, To Know Those Who is non-linear dub techno, Nocturnal Palates expands the filter-house universe, and Rave Nite Itz All Right hits you hard and strange, kind of subtly.
‘The last two tracks really let loose. Madteo manipulates time, space and sounds to create the psychedelic secrets of Luglio Ottantotto. And Emo G (Sticky Wicket) explores the outskirts not only of House or Techno or whatever but music in general: a fifteen-minute trip through the low frequencies, the rumble, the dark hearts, and the enchantment. Breathtaking.’

Fine roots from 1986, with a dose of Burning Spear in the singing. Produced by the Blackheart Man, favoured by Shaka.

A stunning new production by the Rhythm And Sound ace, drawn from his recording sessions with a griot clan of Sabar drummers from Kaolack, led by Bakane Seck, with guest players and vocalists.

A next-level three-tracker, intense and roiling, featuring a mesmeric six-minute instrumental, with Thierno Sarr grooving out on the top string of his bass, adding an elusive Manding flavour to the deep Mbalax mix.

A traditional Jola rhythm, with tuned, talking and kit drums swarming across scraps of guitar and the Mboups singing; then a more deeply dug-in, spaced-out funk, spun from a Serer rhythm. With full instrumentals.

Rock-steady, slow-burning, hard funk, a kind of fatback Mbalax, in no mood to be messed with, with full vocal and instrumental versions; plus two vivid sketches, talking drums to the fore.

A rolling, resplendent tribute to griot life — ‘gawlo’, Fula for ‘griot’ — spear-headed by none other than Baaba Maal. Expressive interjections by a trio of talking drums are especially lucid on the instrumental.

The dramatic, rough-hewn, brilliant debut recordings of the Quintet from 1961. Two original LPs — the first mostly AP arrangements, the second mostly his compositions, including Adios Nonino, on his dad’s death.

All his records, from his 1958 debut through to 1964, when he withdrew from performing to concentrate on writing songs for the Supremes, the Vandellas, the Four Tops etc, with his bro Brian and Lamont Dozier.

Impeccable, lovely, gal-trio soul, from mid-sixties New York City, including early sides as the Lovejoys — take it easy, Wackies fans — solo recordings by lead singer Leola Jiles, and several fine unissued sides.

Regal rhythm and blues, rock and roll, big-band funk and the rest from this amazing man, with his son Shuggie just coming into view.

Superb, sombre, tautly grooving sufferers, produced by George Woodhouse.
Same singer as Reward, on Channel One. Twin, dread killers.

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.’