Don’t miss the rocking steady Bacharach & David on the flip.

The Equals, The Dirtbombs, Turkish Rock, Black Merda, Dave Bartholomew, Elvis…

Nas, Kurtis Blow, Danny Brown, Shabazz Palaces, The Roots, El-P, Robert Glasper, No Limit…

Killer EP. Next-level Shackleton.
Taking off from Beaugars Seck’s foundational sabar drum rhythms — recorded by Sam in Dakar in February 2020 — Shackleton has constructed a trio of intricately layered, luminous, enchanted, epic excursions. The second is more dazzled and meandering, with jellied bass, insectile detail, and discombobulated jabbering; the third is more liquid, fleet of foot, and psychedelic, with a grooving b-line and funky keyboard stabs, scrambled eastern strings and hypnotic vocalese.
The harmonium in The Overwhelming Yes sounds like Nico blowing in chillily from up the desert shore.
The overall mood is wondrous, twinkling with light, onwards-and-upwards; an uncanny, dubwise mix of the ancient and the futuristic.
Mark Ernestus’ Version is stripped, trepidatious, mystical, and stranger still, with just a snatch of the original melody, extra distortion and delay, and crystal-clear drum sound.

So… Twenty minutes of startlingly original music, with Shackleton the maestro at the top of his game, and a characteristically evilous dub by Mark Ernestus. Mastered by Rashad Becker; handsomely sleeved.
Sick to the nth. Love 4 Ever.

‘Verve By Request.’

With rare live tracks and demos.

Street pranks and put-ons — ‘terrorizations’ — from early sixties San Francisco; also a DVD of the pair’s The Impostors TV show, too far ahead of its time to get past this ‘64 pilot.

Ace vocal excursion on Augustus Pablo’s monumental 555 Crown Street rhythm, from 1979.
Notwithstanding his unforgettable Fuckerys A Gwaan, that’s gotta be Jah Bull’s finest moment, on the flip.

The Afrotone’s beautiful, sad excoriation of war, militarism and stock notions of military heroism.
Scars of war? Me no want.
Originally out in 1983 on Vin Hur. With the High Times Players.

Can’t bubble, can’t cook, can’t even dress properly.