All Categories — LPs  

A mindblower from Menagerie – yet another deep musical chapter in the rich career of Lance Ferguson – an artist we loved for his early club work, then dug as a funk maestro with The Bamboos, now able to hit spiritual jazz sounds with this wonderful new group! The set's got a feel that's more in the Build An Ark/Carlos Nino camp than anything else we've heard on the Tru Thoughts label – and Menagerie's a very cool ensemble with Ferguson on guitar, plus tenor, flute, trumpet, soprano sax, Fender Rhodes, and lots of percussion – and added vibes from Roy Ayers on one key track! Vocals are great – sung by Lance and female singers together, in a mode that recalls some of Ayers' more righteous moments of the 70s – and the album's a stunner all the way through – way deeper than we were expecting. Titles include "They Shall Inherit", "The Chosen", "Jamahlia", "Leroy & The Lion", "The Quietening", and "There Will Come Soft Rains".

Dusty grooves from Alice Russell – a set that's steeped in heavy soul influences all the way through – from her great vocals on the top, to the tight instrumentation in the middle, to all the heavy drums that keep things kicking on the bottom! The album may well be Russell's tightest outing to day – and a set that's done in close collaboration with Alex Cowan – who really helps move Alice's music forward strongly with some new elements that never appeared in previous outings! There's some cool little twists and turns in the music – slight use of contemporary keys and electronics alongside the live funk elements – blended in nicely, without any sense of gimmick at all – and really helping bridge the space between the deep funk underground where Russell's worked strongly for years, and the bigger soul mainstream she could well dominate in the future. Titles include "Twin Peaks", "I Loved You", Citizens", "To Dust", "Hard & Strong", "For A While", "A To Z", and "Let Go". Features bonus track "Different".

Mindblowing stuff – maybe the deepest album we've heard so far from Quantic, and a great step forward for Alice Russell too! After years of working in some of the best contemporary funk modes around, Quantic really expands his vision here – hitting a level of maturity that brings in richer arrangements with bits of strings and other righteous touches – all in a vibe that feels just like the Cadet studios at the end of the 60s! The approach is great – because at the bottom, Quantic's still got all his sharp funky edges intact – mixed in with these swirling soulful arrangements that Charles Stepney would have been proud of – all coming together in a mode that unlocks this whole new side in Alice Russell too – a vibe that's almost Stevie Wonder-ish at times, which really fits perfectly with the grooves. Sublime sounds throughout – a true instant classic – with titles that include "Magdalena", "Here Again", "Travelling Song", "I'll Keep A Light In My Window", "Look Around The Corner", "Su Suzy", "Boogaloo 33", "Road To Islay", and "Similau".

Solid material from UK hip hop veteran Ty – on a tight 10-inch EP from Record Breakin and Tru Thoughts! Rhymer Ty and producer partner Drew Horley have been working together for quite a while now, and they're as strong as ever production wise – with beats and scratches that show love for classic hip hop – and they bring quite a bit of live instrumentation into the mix , too. Synth, keys and piano by Drew, plus live drums, some horns and other live instrumental flourishes (including clavinet by Amp Fiddler) – along with some soulful backing vocals on the hooks. Ty's lyrics are strong on both the self-reflection and social commentary tips. Good stuff! Tracks include "Lets's Start", "Like You Never", "Knock Knock" and "Well Well Well".

They're billed as an "orchestra", and have a sound to match – but the group's mostly a quartet on this sweet little outing – with added help from guest players on different tracks! The sound here is every bit as great as the previous Hidden Orchestra outing – an evocative blend of acoustic instruments and sound slices that seem to have a very organic nature – billed in the notes as "field recordings" by leader Joe Acheson, and used here in these really painterly ways, very much in keeping with the cover! Things are never too processed – and really the music seems to originate from the group's strings, piano, percussion, and horns – then get filled in and expanded by these field recordings, and by other cool acoustic instruments that bubble forth in the mix. There's a majesty to the music that's right up there with Nostalgia 77 or Cinematic Orchestra – and titles include "Vorka", "Flight", "Spoken", "Disquiet", "Seven Hunters", and "Reminder".

Alice Russell w/ Darondo, Hot 8 Brass Band and more!

A shapely set of grooves from the Tru Thoughts label – and one that also features a fair bit of rare mixes and hard to find tracks! The package is a great way to dip into the richness of the label – one of the few leftfield imprints that are still going strong these days, and continuing to push boundaries with its fresh approach to a 21st Century groove. Creative production and soulful vocals abound – and titles include "Heroine" by Freddie Cruger & Anthony Mills Are Wildcookie, "Sleepwalker (Ambassadeurs rmx)" by Nostalgia 77, "Darkrum" by Anchorsong, "The Why" by Mark De Clive-Lowe, "Swing Samba" by Drumagick, "Big Fat Liar" by Kinny, "Fairplay (Zed Bias old skool mix)" by Zed Bias, "Sleepwalker (Lanu rmx)" by Nostalgia 77, and "Crash & Burn (Hint club mix)" by Hint. 2LP set features 12 tracks – and also includes a CD of the full album, with 29 tracks in all!

Deep deep funk from The Poets Of Rhythm – and a record cut at a time when all the world thought classic funk was dead! Apart from a few revivalist albums by older artists at the time, deep funk was plenty hard to come by at the start of the 90s – and often mis-recorded or badly mixed when it was tracked down. Enter The Poets, one of the first newer groups with a strong ear for the sound of the funky 45 generation – heard here in a rare full length set that presents the group in all their glory! The combo's got an approach to funk that mixes guitar, horns, and heavy drums with some slightly more psychedelic production – sometimes abstracting things slightly, in a mode that would be used much more heavily by the Quantic/Tru Thoughts camp in years to come. Most of the tracks on this set could easily pass for lost 45s from the early 70s – no surprise, given that the group was often putting out "fake" old cuts at the time – but the record proudly presents The Poets at their early best, with a smoking endorsement from Bobby Byrd to boot! Titles include "More Mess On My Thing", "Funky Runthrough (parts 1 & 2)", "Choking On A Piece Of Meat", "Saltin The Soup", "It Came Over Me", "Strokin The Grits", and "North Carolina".

Rhythmic early 60s global grooves from John Berberian – a master of the oud with a great group of players on these oft intense takes traditional Turkish, Armenian and Arabic songs! The melodies and rhythms are pretty impressive – the percussion is particularly heavy and groovy! The oud is out front and supported by lots of clarinet and bongo, hand percussion, guitar, bass and some vocals, too! There's a passion here that easily trumps any initial thoughts that this would be a dry reading of middle-eastern folk material – it's appealing in many of the ways that Salah Ragab's Egyptian jazz material is, without the cosmic funkiness. Players include Souren Baronian on clarinet and bongos, Jack Chalikian on canun, John Valentine on guitar and dudoog, among others. Tracks include "Siseler", "Laz", "Basha Bella", "Whyek", "Taksim", and "Nubar Nubar".

One of the few straight rock records ever issued on the mostly-folk Monitor Records label – a great 60s outing from Freeborne, a group with a sound that's as tripped-out as you might expect from the cover! Instrumentation is heavy on organ and guitars, both acoustic and electric, but there's also some cool percussion too – and interesting use of recorders, in a way that comes across with an ocarina-like charm! Vocals are somewhat soft, but have a dark undercurrent – and there's a really great folk-into-psyche sort of feel to the whole thing. Titles include "Images", "Land Of Diana", "But I Must Return To Frenzy", "Inside People", "Yellow Sky", "Peak Impressions & Thoughts", and "Visions Of My Own".

Hip work from the Polish scene at the start of the 70s – a Hammond-heavy combo with a fair bit of jazz in their grooves – almost a more progressive take on the Brit beat group sound of the 60s, but without all of the progressive modes that other Euro groups were moving into! There's a great blend of basslines, percussion, and organ in the group's approach – and although there's a number of tracks with vocals, there's also others where the instrumentation really dominates, and those are especially appealing to us. Production is cool too – often echoey and effect-heavy – and titles include "A Dream", "Temptation", "The Nerves Of Cities", "Thoughts", "The Hive", and "The Starveling's Dance".

A full-on collaborative album from underground mic legend Freddie Foxxx, aka Bumpy Knuckle, and hip hop heavyweight champion producer DJ Premier! Primo and Bumpy Knuckles go way, way back – and KoleXXXion does a pretty solid job of honoring the legacies of both. This is the 2LP instrumentals, with nothing but Primo production: Includes "My Thoughts", "BAP (Bumpy And Premier)", "We Are At War", "FYPAU", "D'Lah", "Turn Up The Mic" (DJ Premier remix) feat Nas, "The Key", "Ownit", The Gang Starr Bus", "Greatness", "The Life", "More Levels", "Mic & Gun" and more.