THE WORLD'S BEST NEW ALBUMS: UPDATED DAILY
MADE BY HAND - NOT BY ALGORITHM
2025 June Best Albums
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Paper Can't Wrap Fire
DON GLORI
Released 16 May 2025
****-
Don Glori ignites a genre-blending journey - where jazz, soul, and funk converge in a blaze of rhythmic brilliance.
Paper Can’t Wrap Fire is the third album from Naarm/Melbourne-born, London-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer Don Glori (born Gordon Li), whose improvisation and groove-centric arrangements feature a vibrant fusion of jazz, funk, soul, R&B, samba and Brazilian.
The album’s title is an old Chinese proverb, roughly translated as 'you can’t deny the truth', it's an assured third release that finds the artist in full flight.
Deftly deploying his talents as a writer and bandleader, Don Dori brings with him a whole host of friends from the creative crossroads that is Naarm. Opening gently with "Disaster," the album sets an early tone of introspection and complexity, with a gorgeous Chet Baker-like trumpet solo. Then a series of tracks - "Brown Eyes", "Flicker" and "Janet" feature guest vocalists ML Hall and Bianca Kyriacou, showcasing Glori's ability to blend soulful vocals with intricate instrumentation.
Instrumental pieces such as "Song for Ants" and "Ron Song" create evocative soundscapes without the need for lyrics, while "Power" and "Precious" delve deeper into funk territories, with grooves that are both infectious and thought-provoking.
The album culminates with "Saturn's Return," a track that encapsulates the album's themes of transformation and self-discovery.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Facebook
Room On The Porch
TAJ MAHAL, KEB' MO'
Released 23 May 2025
****-
Two blues Old Masters sharing the groove, the grit and the grace, from the front porch to the soul.
Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ are towering figures in contemporary blues. Taj’s six-decade career blends Delta traditions with global roots, while Keb’s warm baritone and crossover sensibility have made him a modern blues ambassador. Together, they channel lived experience, deep musicianship and brotherly chemistry into timeless storytelling.
Seven years since their Grammy-winning collaboration TajMo, they return a studio production that feels like a sunset jam between friends. It's intimate, affable, and immaculately crafted, its grooves relaxed, but never lazy.
The title track sets the tone: warm slide guitar, shimmering fiddle, and the gentle insistence that there's “room on the porch for everyone.” Covers like “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” get refreshed treatments—this one led by gospel organ and swing-era strut. But it’s originals like “My Darling, My Dear” and “Better Than Ever” that shine brightest: duets of affection and contentment, not unlike the friendship between these two blues elders.
This isn’t a flashy record - it’s a patient one. Every note is played with intention. It’s blues for backyards, front stoops, and quiet evenings, reaffirming that great musicianship often starts with deep listening and shared joy.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Taj Mahal | Keb' Mo'
Hymns of Bantu
ABEL SELAOCOE
Released 21 February 2025
Warner Classics
*****
Bridging continents and centuries, weaving African traditions with classical mastery in a transcendent musical journey.
Abel Selaocoe is a South African cellist, vocalist, and composer adept at blending classical cello with traditional African music. His innovative style incorporates throat singing and improvisation - a unique fusion that transcends genres. Selaocoe's work celebrates cultural heritage while pushing the boundaries of classical music.
Hymns of Bantu is Abel Selaocoe's sophomore album, following his acclaimed debut Where Is Home (Hae Ke Kae) (2022). This album is a profound exploration of identity, ancestry, and musical fusion. Selaocoe masterfully intertwines South African traditional music with Western classical pieces, creating a tapestry that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.
The album opens with "Tsohle Tsohle," a South African hymn that sets a spiritual tone, inviting listeners into a space of reflection and celebration. Selaocoe's interpretations of classical works, including Bach's Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 6 and Marin Marais's "Les Voix Humaines," are reimagined through his unique lens, incorporating African rhythms and vocal techniques. Original compositions like "Emmanuele" and "Kea Morata" showcase his ability to create music that is both rooted in tradition and forward-looking.
Collaborations with ensembles like the Manchester Collective add depth and texture, blending strings, percussion, and vocals into a cohesive whole. Selaocoe's use of overtone singing and rhythmic complexity challenges and delights, offering a listening experience that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally moving.
Read more ... Warner Records | Abel Selaocoe
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Chet Baker Re:imagined
VARIUOS BLUE NOTE ARTISTS
Released 21 May 2025
****-
Chet Baker gets a glow-up - and a new audience - in this genre-hopping tribute
Chet Baker Re:imagined is what happens when legends meet lo-fi playlists, bedroom pop, and bold new voices. To mark 70 years since Chet Baker Sings, Blue Note and Decca pulled together a seriously stacked lineup — Joel Culpepper, Dodie, Matt Maltese, mxmtoon and more and let them loose on the Baker songbook. The result? A double album that feels more like a curated mixtape than a dusty tribute. It's half nostalgia, half reinvention.
Joel Culpepper kicks things off with “Silver Lining,” flipping it into a groovy, piano-led bounce that’s totally his own. Dodie’s “Old Devil Moon” is unexpected in the best way - soft samba vibes and a wink of jazz-club mystery. Matt Maltese turns “My Funny Valentine” into a slow burn with shimmering guitars and heartbreak in every breath.
One of the biggest standouts is Ife Ogunjobi’s “Speak Low” rich, bass-heavy, and laced with Afrobeat swagger. Not every experiment lands, though. mxmtoon’s “I Fall In Love Too Easily” feels a little undercooked (sweet, but missing the ache that made the original so iconic).
That said, the whole thing is guided by the clear vision of Blue Note maestro Don Was, who has ensured a balance of reverence and risk. It’s not just a tribute; it’s a refresh. For anyone who thought Chet Baker was just background jazz, this album proves his songs still hit - this time around with new textures, new voices and a fresh coat of soul.
Read more ... Blue Note
![Mourning [A] BLKstar – Flowers For The Living](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/271e31_9c0083fe4e7145cc8f691ad676502a59~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_300,h_300,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Mourning%20%5BA%5D%20BLKstar%20%E2%80%93%20Flowers%20For%20The%20Living.jpg)
Flowers For The Living
MOURNING [A] BLKSTAR
Released 16 May 2025
****-
An Afrofuturist collective's soulful tribute to the living, blending genres and generations in a resonant musical tapestry.
Mourning [A] BLKstar is a Cleveland-based Afrofuturist collective known for their fusion of soul, gospel, hip-hop, and experimental sounds. With a commitment to "spirit work," they create music that honors Black and queer traditions, pushing boundaries while fostering communal expression and resilience.
This release (their fifth in approaching seven years) departs from their previous method of refining songs through live performances. Instead, this album was crafted collaboratively in the studio, resulting in a cohesive and immersive listening experience.
The album's title reflects a poignant message: the importance of expressing love and appreciation to those around us before it's too late. This theme permeates tracks like "Can We?" and "Letter To A Nervous System," which blend soulful melodies with introspective lyrics. Guest appearances by Lee Bains on "Stop Lion 2" and Fatboi Sharif on "Let Em Eat" introduce new textures, expanding the collective's sonic palette.
Instrumentally, the album contains a rich tapestry of sounds: deep basslines, intricate drum patterns, and emotive trumpet lines, that create a dynamic backdrop for the vocal performances.
Flowers For The Living is both a celebration and a call to action, urging listeners to cherish the present and the people within it.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Don Giovani Records
Better Dreaming
TUNE-YARDS
Released 16 May 2025
****-
Tune-Yards ignite funk, protest and playfulness in a joyous revolution to produce their most danceable and daring album yet.
Tune-Yards (aka Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner) are back with Better Dreaming, their sixth album — and it might be their warmest, most wide-open yet. The duo’s always danced on the edge of chaos, blending beat-driven weirdness with raw emotion, but this time around they sound more grounded, more soulful, and honestly, more fun. It's still experimental pop - just filtered through a sunnier, more generous lens.
From the jump, “Heartbreak” sets the tone: a full-bodied, emotional opener that lays it all out without feeling heavy. Tracks like “Limelight” and “Swarm” are straight-up bangers - packed with layered rhythms, sticky hooks, and lyrics that hit harder the more you listen. And yes, that’s their toddler making a cameo on “Limelight,” which somehow works? It’s weirdly moving.
The production’s tight but never sterile — think funk, disco, a bit of West African bounce, all stitched together with Tune-Yards’ signature DIY magic. “How Big Is the Rainbow” and “Sanctuary” especially shine, marrying introspective vibes with beats that make you want to dance it out in your kitchen.
In short: Better Dreaming feels like a gift — a reminder that even in the mess, we can still find joy, connection, and a beat that makes everything feel a little more bearable.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Tune-Yards
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Le Vā
LADI6
Released 1 June 2025
****-
A deeply personal and gracefully understated return from one of Aotearoa’s finest. This is soul music as healing practice.
Ladi6, born Karoline Fuarosa Tamati in Christchurch, New Zealand, is a groundbreaking soul, hip-hop, and R&B artist of Samoan descent. Starting out in the late '90s with all-female hip-hop crew Sheelahroc, she rose to prominence for her smooth, conscious vocals and genre-blending sound. With long-time collaborator Parks handling production, she’s become a mainstay in Aotearoa music, celebrated for both her stage presence and artistic integrity. Following her acclaimed 2013 album Automatic, Ladi6 took a seven-year break to focus on healing and family, especially after the loss of her mother — a transformative period that directly shaped her new album Le Vā.
After a seven-year absence, Ladi6 returns not with fireworks, but with something far rarer — stillness, soul, and spiritual clarity. Le Vā, named after the Samoan concept of the sacred relational space, is both a tribute and a transmission. Opening with Intro and Fuarosa (named for her late mother), the album sets a tone of reverence and restraint. The grooves are subtle, the beats minimal, but the emotional resonance is massive.
“Fractions” and “BBZ” ride low-lit funk lines, while “LightBulb” glows with personal insight — Ladi’s voice sounding more vulnerable, more present than ever. The B-side leans deeper into the vā: “Under It” is introspective and grounded, while “Alofa” radiates quiet power and cultural pride. “Zoom” and “Guru” stretch the sonic palette without overreaching — every element feels earned.
Produced by Parks and handled entirely in-house, Le Vā is an album of purpose, space, and intention. It’s not trying to dominate the room — it’s trying to honour it. For Ladi6, this isn’t about reclaiming a spotlight; it’s about creating space to heal, to reflect, and to groove gently forward. It’s grown, gracious, and quietly glorious.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Ladi6 Website
Solina
JOY, SPHERES, REES
Released 23 May 2025
****-
A genre-defying collaboration of electronic, soul and jazz - cohesive and emotionally rich.
Joy Spheres Rees is the collaborative project of three innovative artists: Manchester-based producer Hidden Spheres (Tom Harris), Melbourne vocalist Allysha Joy, and Finn Rees. Together, they blend elements of Balearic house, street soul, alternative R&B, and jazz to create a unique sonic landscape. Their debut album, Solina, taps the synergy of their combined talents and what emerges is a meditative and immersive set that defies genres and geographies: a captivating fusion of diverse influences.
From the opening track, "Caught in a Wind," a warm, atmospheric soundscape envelopes the listener, seamlessly blending electronic beats with soulful melodies. Allysha Joy's distinctive, honeyed vocals flow throughout, delivering introspective lyrics with sincerity and depth.
"Trust the Feeling" and "Cave Sands" follow, exemplifying the trio's ability to craft grooves that are both danceable and contemplative, while "Surrender Love" (and its reprise, which ends the album) silkily navigate themes of vulnerability and connection.
The album's strength lies in its ability to maintain a consistent mood while exploring a variety of sonic territories. Whether it's the smooth-jazz inflected rhythms of "Delta Spirit" or the spoken-word-over-ambient layering of "Always Leaving," Solina invites repeated listens, each revealing new details and emotional nuances.
Read more ... Bandcamp | BBE Music
Lotus
LITTLE SIMZ
Released 6 June 2025
*****
Delving deep into personal strife and raw emotion to craft a potent narrative of resilience and growth.
Born Simbiatu Ajikawo in North London, Little Simz has carved a distinctive path in UK hip-hop over the past decade. Her six critically acclaimed studio albums, including standouts Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (2021) and No Thank You (2022), feature her distinctive mix of introspective lyrics and genre-extending sound collages.
Lotus arises from a period of personal and professional upheaval for Simz, including a legal dispute with longtime collaborator Inflo. But in the face of challenges, Simz continues to evolve artistically, exploring new sonic landscapes and emotional depths. Beyond music, she is also building a reputation for acting and contributions to the arts.
Musically, Lotus showcases Simz's versatility, blending elements of rap, soul, contemporary jazz and experimental sounds. Opening track "Thief," delves into themes of betrayal, likely referencing her legal dispute with Inflo and throughout the record, Simz navigates a spectrum of emotions, from anger to acceptance, crafting a narrative that is both personal and universally relatable. "Blood," featuring Wretch 32, and "Lion," with its Afrobeat influences, highlight her ability to fuse genres seamlessly. The album's production, while echoing past collaborations, introduces fresh textures that complement Simz's lyrical depth. Collaborators this time out include a assembly of London jazz progressives - Moses Sumney, Michael Kiwanuka, Yussef Dayes and Sampha, among others.
While the album's consistent focus on personal grievances occasionally detracts from its musical strengths, Lotus is nevertheless a milestone in Simz's personal evolution and maintains her continued relevance in the contemporary music landscape.
Read more ... Little Simz
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Nilam
GANAVYA
Released 23 May 2025
*****
A meditative journey through Tamil spiritual traditions and ambient minimalism.
Ganavya Doraiswamy is a New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised vocalist and transdisciplinary artist whose work bridges South Indian classical traditions, spiritual jazz, and ambient minimalism. A Fulbright scholar and Berklee-trained musician, she has collaborated with artists like Shabaka Hutchings, Floating Points, and Sault. Her 2024 album Daughter of a Temple was named one of The Guardian’s Top 10 Global Albums, praised for its communal resonance and spiritual depth. Ganavya’s music often draws from Tamil devotional forms, such as abhangs and bhajans, reinterpreted through contemporary experimental frameworks. Her voice—described by The New York Times as “prayerful”—anchors her genre-defying explorations of identity, grief, and transcendence.
Nilam, meaning “land” in Tamil, is Ganavya’s most intimate and elemental work to date. Co-produced with Nils Frahm at Berlin’s Funkhaus, the album emerged serendipitously during a brief pause between tour dates. The result is a meditative suite that feels both grounded and otherworldly, a sonic space where stillness becomes a form of resistance.
The album opens with “Land,” a sparse invocation that sets the tone for what follows: songs that unfold like prayers, rooted in Tamil spiritual traditions yet filtered through ambient minimalism. “Pasayadan,” an abhang from the pilgrimage tradition, is reimagined as a hymn for collective healing, while “Nine Jeweled Prayer,” featuring her parents, stretches into a nearly ten-minute meditation on ancestral memory.
Ganavya’s voice is the album’s anchor—soft yet unyielding, intimate yet expansive. Tracks like “Sees Fire,” inspired by her social media ban for advocating a ceasefire in Gaza, channel political grief into quiet defiance. Throughout, harpist Charles Overton and bassist Max Ridley provide subtle textures that enhance the album’s contemplative mood.
Nilam doesn’t seek to dazzle; it invites listeners into a shared stillness, offering a space for reflection and grounding. It’s a powerful reminder that in a world of noise, silence can be a profound act of presence.
Read more ... Bandcamp | LEITER | Boomkat
Hunter (EP)
ASHKAN SHAFIEI
Released 30 May 2025
*****
Iranian funk communes with Australian jazz in a fusion of tradition and innovation.
Ashkan Shafiei is an Iranian-born, Sydney-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist whose music fuses Persian classical traditions with jazz, funk, and psychedelic influences. Growing up in post-revolution Iran, he discovered the rich musical heritage of the 1960s and ’70s through forbidden cassette tapes, igniting a lifelong passion shaped by both resistance and reverence. Now based in Australia, Ashkan carries the legacy of those silenced or displaced artists, using his music to honour their stories and introduce new audiences to the beauty and depth of this often-overlooked era.
Hunter is a five-track EP that captures the raw spirit of Iranian funk through a uniquely Australian lens. Recorded live with his band, the EP features four original tracks arranged for ensemble, alongside a heartfelt solo cover of “Chi Begam” by the legendary Marzieh. The result is a deeply personal and sonically rich body of work that reflects Ashkan’s journey from Iran to Australia.
The EP opens with the title track, "Hunter," setting the tone with its fusion of Persian melodies and funk rhythms. “Madhouche” and “Parandeh” continue this exploration, blending traditional Iranian instruments like the rubab with contemporary jazz and funk elements. “Camel On Mars” stands out with its psychedelic overtones, showcasing Ashkan’s willingness to push musical boundaries. The closing track, “Chi Begam,” is a poignant solo performance that pays homage to Iranian musical heritage.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Ashkan Shafiei
The Murmur
TAMARA QADDOUMI
Released 25 April 2025
****-
A hauntingly beautiful debut, weaving introspective lyrics with lush soundscapes to explore themes of identity and resilience.
Tamara Qaddoumi is a Lebanese artist of Kuwaiti, Palestinian, and Scottish heritage, whose work blends dream pop, coldwave, and electronic influences. After series of EPs - Dust Bathing (2018), Soft Glitch (2021), and Sorry Signal (2024), The Murmur, her debut full-length album explores themes of identity, grief, and resilience, set against lush retro-sounding synths and haunting melodies.
Qaddoumi's multicultural background informs her introspective lyrics and atmospheric soundscapes: the result, a distinctive voice in contemporary alternative music.
The Murmur immerses listeners in a world of emotional depth and sonic richness. From the opening track, "Sober," Qaddoumi's beguiling vocals guide us through a rhythmic sonic landscape of swirling synths, fluid bass lines and punchy percussion.
Each song unfolds like a chapter in a personal narrative, with "Vanish" and "River In The Darkness" delving into themes of loss and introspection. Title track, "The Murmur" with its intricate layering and haunting melodies, encapsulates the album's essence of quiet strength amidst turmoil.
While the album's consistent atmosphere is moody and introspective, it is never monotonous. Tracks like "Seasons" and "Stay" vary the pace and offer moments of innovation and depth.
The production is polished yet retains an intimate feel, showcasing Qaddoumi's expressive vocals, drawing listeners into her inner world.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Tamara Qaddoumi
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Chicago Waves (IA11 Edition)
CARLOS NINO
MIGUEL ATWOOD-FERGUSON
Released 10 June 2025
*****
Channelling meditative performance into immersive sonic journeys: an expanded live set of supreme ambient-jazz.
Carlos Niño is a Los Angeles-based producer, percussionist and spiritual jazz catalyst, known for curating open-form collaborations across ambient, improvisational and cosmic traditions. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist and arranger who is celebrated for his string work with progressive major artists like Flying Lotus and Thundercat. Together, they channel meditative performance into immersive sonic journeys.
The IA11 series by International Anthem celebrates the label’s 11th anniversary with expanded reissues, rare live recordings, and archival gems highlighting its genre-blurring, community-driven ethos in experimental jazz and beyond.
Accordingly, IA11 Edition of the pair's 2020 album The Chicago Waves is not just a reissue, it’s a restatement of purpose. Recorded live at Chicago’s Co-Prosperity Sphere in 2019, the performance captured Niño and Atwood-Ferguson at their most attuned: a real-time exchange of vibration, atmosphere, and breath.
This new International Anthem edition expands the set with an additional 14 minutes, deepening the arc from sparse emergence to radiant, resonant stillness. From the opening textures - Niño’s tuned percussion and cymbal washes - to Atwood-Ferguson’s intuitive violin sliding notes (glissandi) and radiant harmonic voicings, every moment feels intentional and fluid. The music breathes in slow cycles, occasionally swelling into near-orchestral beauty, then retreating into near-silence. It resists categorisation: not quite ambient, not exactly jazz, but inhabiting that ecstatic middle ground where feeling supersedes form.
Compared to their studio output, Chicago Waves is rawer, less adorned, more devotional. The extended final movement brings a welcome sense of closure without ever resolving into cliché. For those receptive to the pace, it’s a luminous, near-sacred experience. For others, it may drift too freely, but that’s part of its power. This is music made not to impress but to invite stillness.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Grzyby
BLOTO
Released 6 June 2025
****-
From Poland, a collection of metronomic grooves inspired by fungi
Błoto is a Polish quartet that produces and experimental blend of jazz, hip-hop, and ambient electronica overlaid by social commentary, often from sessions that arise spontaneously of opportunistically. Since their debut in 2020, they’ve built quite a cult following through limited vinyl releases and collaborations. Their aesthetic is raw-edged, beat-driven and politically attuned.
Grzyby (Polish for Mushrooms) finds Błoto leaning deep into metaphor and structure, delivering an album immersive, entertaining and message-laden.
Recorded during prolific sessions at Studio Pasterka, after a three-year hiatus from releasing new music, the record is split conceptually: the album features fungi with medicinal properties on Side A - but beware of parasites on Side B. These aren’t your typical mushrooms you’d throw in a culinary basket. “Wrośniak” helps fight autoimmune diseases, “Maczużnik” has antibacterial properties, “Chaga” eases digestive issues, and “Soplówka” stimulates the immune system. Side B brings “Pleśniak”, a toxic mold. Poisoning from this fungus can be dangerous, causing damage to the liver, skin, and mucous membranes. Yet, there is a silver lining as it played a key role in the development of penicillin.
The tight interplay between synths, bass, percussion and horn retains the band’s trademark spontaneity, but now feels more focused, each groove dialled into specific emotional and biological frequencies. “Wrośniak” opens with a broken-beat backbone and fuzzed-out synths. “Chaga” and “Soplówka” dig into shorter, dub-inflected miniatures, some of Błoto’s most concise and effective writing to date. But the 10-minute long “Pleśniak” provides the hypnotic centrepiece of the album - a sprawling, metronomic swell that slips from avant-jazz into doom-laden ambient, mirroring its beguiling fungal namesake, poisonous yet pharmaceutically potent.
Read more ... Bandcamp
STARSEED
BLESSED
Released 13 June 2025
Blessed, Playbook Distribution
*****
Arguably, one of the most culturally significant and sonically original voices to emerge from Australia in the past decade.
"Blessed Starseed" is a term associated with New Age beliefs, referring to individuals who believe they are extraterrestrial beings incarnated on Earth to help humanity. So it comes as something of a surprise to hear BLESSED (born Blessed Samuel Joe-Andahis) is a Western Sydney artist of Ghanaian heritage, a multi-instrumentalist, producer, rapper, singer, and iconoclast. Since first gaining traction in the 2010s, he has made a name for himself by dismantling the rigid categories that have long shaped Australia's music scene - racially, stylistically, and spiritually. With deep roots in DIY punk and emo, tempered by a hip-hop sensibility and with Afrofuturist vision, BLESSED is extending what Black artistry can look and sound like in Australia.
BLESSED was first known as Miracle and under that moniker, advanced an individualistic homegrown brand of electro-hip-hop. His 2014 album ‘Mainland’ was an entertaining high-concept album about his diasporic experience.
Subsequently, as BLESSED, further albums followed: "Music is the Medicine" (2020), "Lockdown Tapes Vol. 1" (2021) and "Aussie Blackstar" (2022)
Now, with STARSEED, BLESSED channels multiple genres: emo guitars, trap drums, gospel harmonies, cloud-rap textures and post-punk urgency intermingle freely in this vivid sonic collage. Part prayer, part protest, part self-actualisation, the record is restless and borderless, but never messy. Every track feels personal, intentional, filled with wounded hope and cosmic clarity.
Lyrically, BLESSED interrogates identity, trauma, belonging and power with raw openness. The production turns to massed synths, looping mantras and rough-hewn distortion, journeying through emotional landscapes.
Beyond BLESSED's fusion of styles, his mould-breaking includes his refusal to be boxed-in, despite the Australian mainstream hesitancy in embracing Black diasporic voices of complexity. However, STARSEED asserts itself as a global Black album, rooted in Western Sydney’s multiculturalism and tuned to a higher consciousness.
There’s no other Australian album right now quite like this - ambitious, genre-agnostic, and grounded in a vision that refuses compromise.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Remembering Now
VAN MORRISON
Released 13 June 2025
****-
After bitterness a return to grace. Van reverts t his strengths - songcraft, spirit and swing.
Van Morrison, the Belfast-born troubadour behind Astral Weeks, Moondance, Common One, The Healing Game and dozens more albums, has maintained an idiosyncratic, prolific and spiritually infused musical journey since his beginnings in the early 1960's, singing "Gloria" with "Them". Blending rhythm and blues, Celtic soul and poetic mysticism, Morrison remains one of the most singular and important singer-songwriters in modern music history.
Having followed Van Morrison from Them through 45 solo albums, it’s remarkable to witness such a late-career return to form. Remembering Now may be wrapped in a regrettably generic sleeve, but the music inside is among his most enjoyable in years. Abandoning the rancour of his COVID-era albums, Morrison reclaims his voice as the seeker - not the narrow minded sermoniser. He sings with clarity and feeling, plays piano, sax and guitar throughout and directs a band that grooves without strain.
The arrangements are elegant: a brass section, the Fews Ensemble’s warm strings under Joanne Quigley’s baton, a soulful chorus, and Celtic fire from Seth Lakeman’s fiddle. Tracks like “All Our Rivers Run” and “Back to the Source” summon the luminous spirit of Hymns to the Silence, while “Never Too Late to Begin” channels the understated optimism of No Guru, No Method, No Teacher.
There’s spiritual searching, romantic longing, and plenty of swing, all delivered with the lived-in ease of an artist whose craft is undiminished.
At 78, Morrison’s phrasing still lifts phrases into flight, his songwriting still carries weight, and his presence remains magnetic.
This is more than just another good Van Morrison album, it’s a reminder of what made him great and notice that he's still going strong.
Read more ... AllMusic
Phantom Island
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD
Released13 June 2025
****-
The Gizz turns out another enchanting musical confection and we're once again asking “What the sweet fandango is this?”
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are Naarm/Melbourne’s shape-shifting psychedelic juggernaut, the city's most idiosyncratic act since Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band. With more than two dozen albums since 2012, they’ve mutated through garage rock, microtonal metal, synth-pop, Turkish psych, jam-band boogie, doom-jazz, eco-thrash, kraut-funk - you name it, they’ve fused it. Their motto might as well be: “One Band Fits All.”
By their standards 2024 was a quiet year, releasing only the single album "Flight b741", but they've set a new bar for themselves in 2025, as they embark on an exhausting worldwide touring schedule that will include performances with a variety of local Sinfonia, Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras in support of the new album, Phantom Island.
As Bandcamp Daily reveals, the band started with a number of left-over songs from their Flight b741 sessions and recruited their friend Chad Kelly - "a keyboardist and musicologist whose past work typically involved performing Baroque compositions on period-accurate harpsichords ... Playing George Martin to King Gizzard’s Beatles, Kelly coats Phantom Island’s already-exuberant jazz rock performances with gleaming layers of brass and strings, resulting in the band’s most celebratory outing yet".
The album reminds us of a Kinks or Who-like operetta (think "Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire", "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia").
It sails through a sea of musical styles, navigating the calms and rapids and on occasion sails right off the edge. Perhaps it's a Broadway musical looking for a cast? Everything breathes, sweats, dissolves, mutates. Although "orchestral" and "soft rock" modes are prominent, there's no lack of rocking-out here either. Our advice - climb aboard, put on headphones and enjoy the journey.
Read more ... Bandcamp Daily
Off The Grid
JJ WHITEFIELD
Released 13 June 2025
****-
Stripping things back to their most elemental - breakbeats, heavy fuzz, minimalist keyboards and modal guitar lines drift through a murky haze of analog reverb.
JJ Whitefield is a Munich-based guitarist, producer and bandleader known for founding The Poets of Rhythm and Karl Hector & the Malcouns. Blending Afrobeat, psych-rock, and funk, he’s been a crucial force in Germany’s analog groove underground. His solo work pushes boundaries with raw, instrumental explorations rooted in global rhythm traditions. On Off The Grid, he’s joined by fellow Poets of Rhythm co-founder Jan Weissenfeldt - drummer, multi-instrumentalist and deep crate-digging producer.
A master of minimalist groove and analogue texture, Weissenfeldt’s taut, bone-dry rhythms are the backbone of this session. His contributions on drums, bass and percussion lend the album its signature pulse and organic forward motion.
The album’s rawness is part of its aesthetic. Drum sounds are dry and direct, often looped in krautrock-style repetition. “Freecell” and “Sinus Pressure”, throbbing with tension, are anchored by fractured riffs and organ stabs that recall more skeletal editions of Can or early Funkadelic. Instead of building toward crescendos, most cuts explore a hypnotic groove and then exit without resolution.
Whitefield’s guitar work, often treated or filtered, is bluesy and angular, echoing Saharan psych and Ethio-jazz while resisting virtuosity. Synths bubble up like malfunctioning machines. There’s little ornamentation, no vocal distraction, and no attempt at commercial appeal. The result feels purposefully anti-digital: messy, analog, unpredictable.
While the record occasionally drifts too far into jam-band territory, its sense of mood and commitment to a lo-fi funk futurism makes it a worthwhile listen - and a potent document of two groove experimentalists working completely in the pocket, off the grid.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Gadabout Season
BRANDEE YOUNGER
Released 13 March 2025
Impulse Records / Verve
****-
Recorded in her Harlem apartment, the album exudes intimacy and authenticity. Younger's choice to compose and co-write nearly every track underscores her growing commitment to personal expression.
Brandee Younger is a Grammy-nominated harpist and composer, deeply influenced by harp pioneers Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby whose music is a sumptuous fusion of jazz, R&B, and hip-hop.
Younger has carved a unique space in contemporary music by blending traditional harp techniques with these modern genres. Her third album with Impulse! Records, Gadabout Season was recorded on Alice Coltrane’s restored harp, features ten composition that are all written or cowritten by Younger. Musical collaborations with artists like Shabaka (flute, clarinet), Makaya McCraven (percussion), Joel Ross (vibraphone), Niia, Courtney Bryan (piano), and Josh Johnson (sax), further enriching its sonic tapestry.
Her most introspective and exploratory work to date, the album opens with "Reckoning", which immediately sets a contemplative tone, inviting listeners into a journey of self-discovery. "End Means," featuring Shabaka, and "Surrender," with Courtney Bryan, demonstrate Younger's ability to seamlessly blend the harp's ethereal qualities with contemporary jazz elements.
The title track, "Gadabout Season," stands out with its intricate layering and rhythmic complexity, reflecting the album's theme of seeking joy amid life's uncertainties. "BBL" introduces Afrobeat influences, and the closing cut, "Discernment," featuring Josh Johnson, leaves a lasting impression of introspection and hope.
By recording on Alice Coltrane's harp, she pays homage to her musical lineage while forging her own path.
Read more ... Lydia Liebman Promotions
Reflections of Another Self
MILENA CASADO
Released 16 May 2025
Candid Records
****-
Drawing inspiration from Miles Davis's quintet and her own experiences navigating identity and heritage, Casado crafts a sound that is both introspective and forward-looking.
Spanish trumpeter and composer Milena Casado emerges as a compelling new voice in contemporary jazz with her debut album, Reflection of Another Self. Co-produced with mentor Terri Lyne Carrington and multi-instrumentalist Morgan Guerin, the album features contributions from notable artists including Brandee Younger, Nicole Mitchell, Kris Davis, and Meshell Ndegeocello. Casado's work blends traditional jazz elements with experimental textures, reflecting her personal journey and diverse influences.
Opening with "THIS IS MY HAIR (!)", Casado sets a personal tone, delving into themes of cultural perception and self-image. "O.C.T (Oda to the Crazy Times)" featuring Kokayi, "Lidia y los Libros" with Brandee Younger and Nicole Mitchell and "Circles" with Val Jeanty, showcase Casado's willingness to intertwine spoken word, harp, and flute into cohesive compositions (although the lo-fi quality of the spoken word is a distraction).
The album's structure is punctuated by introspective interludes, such as "Introspection I - I" and "Introspection II - Preguntas", which provide contemplative pauses between more expansive pieces.
"Circles", featuring Val Jeanty, introduces electronic textures that complement Casado's trumpet lines, while "Unconditional Love" offers a more traditional jazz arrangement, highlighting her melodic sensibilities. Closing track "SELF LOVE", with Meshell Ndegeocello, encapsulates the album's themes, blending soulful bass lines with reflective horn melodies.
Throughout the album, Casado's compositions are marked by their emotional depth and innovative arrangements, reflecting her commitment to pushing jazz boundaries while honoring its traditions.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Take Me To The Water
ASHLEY JACKSON
Released 21 MaRCH 2025
Verve
****-
Arrangements and performances that invite reflection on shared human experiences, using water as a metaphor for connection and transformation.
Ashley Jackson is a multifaceted harpist, soloist, and educator known for her innovative approach to classical music. Her second full-length album, Take Me to the Water. delves into the spiritual and cultural significance of water.
Jackson's work draws from African mythology and the antebellum spiritual tradition, featuring arrangements of pieces by Alice Coltrane, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Margaret Bonds, and Claude Debussy. Through this album, she aims to connect listeners to themes of love, freedom, hope, and rebirth, using the harp as a medium for storytelling and emotional expression.
Take Me to the Water is a profound exploration of the harp's capacity to convey deep emotional narratives.
Opening with a meditative arrangement of Alice Coltrane's "Radhe-Shyam," Jackson sets a tone of spiritual introspection. She follows this with her original composition, "River Jordan," which incorporates percussive elements and her own vocals, evoking ancestral memories and the enduring struggle for freedom.
The album features two renditions of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's "Deep River," highlighting Jackson's ability to reinterpret spirituals with sensitivity and depth.
Brandee Younger's "Unrest" is presented with a poignant clarity, reflecting contemporary social issues. Jackson's interpretation of Debussy's "Danse sacrée et danse profane" is both respectful and innovative, showcasing her technical prowess.
In "Troubled Water," Jackson adapts Margaret Bonds' piano piece for harp, employing a unique technique of weaving a sock through the lower strings to dampen resonance, creating a percussive effect that underscores the piece's emotional weight.
The album concludes with a two-part rendition of the titular spiritual, "Take Me to the Water," blending choral elements and harp to create a sense of communal uplift.
Read more ... Ashley Jackson
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I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away
HAYDEN PEDIGO
Released 6 June 2025
****-
Graceful restraint from the Texan fingerstyle guitarist, but a little more contrast wouldn’t hurt.
Hayden Pedigo is a Texan fingerstyle guitarist, composer and surrealist provocateur whose blend of American Primitive guitar and ambient minimalism places him among the heirs of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Leo Kottke et al. His work draws equally from the high plains of Amarillo and a deep lineage of acoustic tradition.
I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away, his fourth album in five years, finds Hayden Pedigo dialing down the ironic edge of his public persona and leaning into the subtleties of solo guitar with care and grace. There’s a delicacy to his phrasing here, a refusal to showboat, that allows every harmonic flutter and bass pulse to breathe.
Unlike some of his predecessors (Fahey’s bite, Jansch’s rhythmic sway, Renbourn’s modal jaunts), Pedigo prefers to suspend time, inhabiting moods that drift more than drive. This results in a suite of tracks that feel meditative and cohesive, though sometimes at the expense of emotional contrast.
What’s striking is his restraint: the technicality is never front and center, but it’s everywhere; in the seamless finger rolls, the perfect harmonic voicings, the clean sustain. Still, the album could have benefited from greater dynamic shifts or tempo variation to counterbalance the overall hush.
Pedigo’s compositional voice is genuine and lyrical and there is true beauty in the open spaces that are created within this music, reflecting the desert geographies of his Texan home (similar to Ry Cooder's marvelous 1984 soundtrack for the Wim Wenders' film, Paris, Texas) but across a full album, listeners may crave more of the textural or percussive variation that his forebears deployed to great effect.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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All The Quiet (Part I)
JOE ARMON-JONES
Released 28 March 2025
****-
An innovative fusion of jazz, funk, and dub showcasing Armon-Jones' multifaceted artistry.
Joe Armon-Jones is a London-based keyboardist, producer, and songwriter renowned for his contributions to the UK's contemporary jazz scene. A member of the BRIT Award-winning Ezra Collective, his work seamlessly blends jazz, funk, dub, and hip-hop influences. Beyond his ensemble performances, Armon-Jones has established himself as a solo artist and collaborator, working with musicians such as Nubya Garcia and Greentea Peng. In 2021, he founded his own label, Aquarii Records, to further explore and produce innovative music.
All The Quiet (Part I) marks the first installment of a two-part album entirely written, produced, and mixed by Armon-Jones.
The project originated during the lockdown period when he delved into dub production techniques, drawing inspiration from pioneers like King Tubby. This exploration led him to build a home studio equipped with reel-to-reel tape machines and spring reverb, allowing him to experiment with mixing his solo and ensemble recordings.
The album traverses various genres, including jazz, funk, dub, hip-hop, and soul, reflecting Armon-Jones' diverse musical influences. Tracks like "Lifetones" establish a jazz-funk groove enriched with reggae-inflected rhythms and warm, summery synths. "Forgiveness" features understated vocals that meld into brass-led melodies, culminating in captivating saxophone and Rhodes solos. The interplay between structure and improvisation is evident, as the music transitions effortlessly from smooth grooves to experimental passages.
The inclusion of guest artists such as Nubya Garcia, Oscar Jerome, and Goya Gumbani adds depth and variety to the album. For instance, "Kingfisher" leans into Afro-funk, with Asheber's warm baritone complementing an unpredictable bassline, while "Eye Swear" introduces an experimental jazz-hip-hop fusion, featuring winding bass and shimmering keys that add layers of intrigue.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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All The Quiet (Part II)
JOE ARMON-JONES
Released 13 June 2025
****-
Dialing down the heat and deepening the atmosphere on a brooding, dub-leaning companion to Part I.
Where Part I laid the foundation with layered dub textures and exploratory grooves, All The Quiet (Part II) extends the journey into deeper, darker terrain: more introspective, spacious and dub-soaked. The production remains tape-warm and tactile, but Armon-Jones leans further into atmosphere this time, swapping out some of the earlier record’s breezy optimism for murkier, more meditative hues.
The opener "Live From The Room" sets the tone: reverb-heavy, almost spectral, driven by languid synth motifs and rimshot echo — more King Tubby than Herbie Hancock. Rather than aiming for climaxes, the tracks often unfold slowly, prioritising tension and mood over resolution.
"Try Again" floats on minimalist Rhodes loops and sub-bass swells, with cryptic vocal refrains that barely rise above a whisper. The result is more sound system meditation than jazz-fusion jam.
Though fewer collaborators are featured this time, the ensemble contributions remain potent. The subtle horns and rhythm guitar on "Babylon Can't Roll" add depth without disrupting the dub logic Armon-Jones has perfected.
Greentea Peng's distinctive vocals are perfectly deploy for to the languorous swells of "Another Place", while “Still Moving”, another highlight, sees the piano return to the forefront, processed and distant, an echo of Armon-Jones’ earlier styles.
Other collaborators this time include: . Guest musicians & features include Wu-Lu, Yazmin Lacey, Hak Baker, Nubya Garcia, Oscar Jerome, and more.
Taken as a companion piece, Part II functions less as a sequel than a shadowy counterbalance, less groove-forward, more introspective and spatial. Together, the two halves present a richly textured suite, bridging the jazz continuum with dub’s radical sense of space.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Dream Manifest
THEO CROKER
Released 13 June 2025
****-
The culmination of his explorations into the intersections of jazz, hip-hop, R&B and electronic music, all woven together with a spiritual and introspective thread.
Theo Croker’s Dream Manifest is a luminous, genre-fluid odyssey that features a stellar lineup of collaborators, including Estelle, Kassa Overall, Tyreek McDole, MAAD, Gary Bartz, Natureboy Flako, Malaya, and D’LEAU. Each artist adds their unique voice to Croker’s intricate compositions, blending soulful melodies with complex rhythms and textures.
Croker’s approach to Dream Manifest is deeply rooted in the idea of manifestation and the power of imagination. He describes the album as a “sonic exploration of the power to manifest in our universe,” aiming to create a space where listeners can reflect and find inspiration.
Croker’s trumpet work is both expressive and restrained, often serving as a guiding voice through the album’s diverse sonic landscapes. The use of samples and electronic textures adds depth and modernity to the compositions, creating a sound that is both timeless and contemporary.
Read more ... HighResAudio
Let Go
ROBERT GLASPER
Released 13 June 2025
Loma Vista Recordings. Concord
****-
Taking a contemplative turn in his illustrious career, Glasper harnesses his genre-blending prowess and delves into ambient jazz, crafting a meditative soundscape designed to help listeners "recalibrate mentally" .
Glasper's intention with Let Go was to create music that serves as a balm for the soul.
“My whole career, everybody’s been saying my music is meditative,” Glasper shares. “People say they study to my music, they pray to my music, they do yoga to my music, they just zone out. People have wanted me to do this for a long time. I wouldn’t call it the ‘meditation project’ or nothing like that, but it’s something that helps you find your center. It’s just something that quiets the world and allows you to see what’s within”.
The result is a suite of songs that is characterised by its restraint and a focus on mood over complexity.
This entrancing piano-centric album features collaborations with esteemed artists including Meshell Ndegeocello on “Breathing Underwater” and Burniss Travis on “Luna’s Lullaby”, that are woven seamlessly into the album's overall tranquil aesthetic.
Read more ... HighResAudio
NT Soundsystem -
Dubplate Inferno
NUBIYAN TWIST
Released 13 June 2025
****-
This nine-track project transforms the original compositions into bass-heavy, dub-infused dancefloor anthems, showcasing the band's versatility and deep roots in UK soundsystem culture.
Nubiyan Twist's NT Soundsystem - Dubplate Inferno is a reimagining of their 2024 album Find Your Flame.
Produced by bandleader Tom Excell and vocalist Aziza Jaye, the album channels the raw energy of Nubiyan Twist's live performances and pays homage to the UK's rich soundsystem heritage, while pushing musical boundaries.
Do not expect the smooth-as-honey structures and deep-groove delivery of the of the originals: the slick production that characterised these has been reinterpreted through various genres, usually resulting in an edgier outcome: "Battle Isn’t Over" becomes a drum & bass powerhouse featuring MC Horseman, "Woman" is infused with dancehall vibes courtesy of SkillFul Kxng, and "So Mi Stay" takes on an Amapiano rhythm.
Other tracks explore UK garage, bassline, jungle, and Afro-fusion, with contributions from artists like Seun Kuti, Mamani Keïta, and NEONE the Wonderer.
For fans of genre-blending music and vibrant, danceable rhythms, NT Soundsystem - Dubplate Inferno offers an exhilarating listening experience. It's a celebration of collective innovation, blending jazz, afrobeat, soul and reggae with electronic elements to create a sound that's both nostalgic and forward-thinking.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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SCORPIO
MADISON MCFERRIN
Released 24 June 2025
*****
Soul‑appella ascendance: transforming heritage into hypnotic, healing neo‑jazz.
Known for intimate vocal looping and rich harmonies. McFerrin channels her heritage and personal journey into sound, carving an immersive, spiritually-grounded path that honors Gospel tradition and electronic-era innovation and emerging as complete neo-soul-appella diva.
Scorpio lays bare McFerrin’s emotional and musical DNA. McFerrin uses her singing voice breath, tone and loops to creates “cathedrals of sound” that simultaneously feel intimate and cosmic.
Lead singles “Ain’t It Nice” and “I Don’t”—(the latter co-produced by WILLOW) fuse jazzy piano, minimalist guitar, and her trademark vocal architecture into something hypnotic and modern.
After a series of quirky and adventurous releases dating back to 2016 (age 15), including the excellent "I Hope You Can Forgive Me" (2023), this album is clearly her breakthrough. Critics describe it as a potential coronation in neo-soul, rooted in jazz yet expansive.
The project delves into breakup and healing, giving Scorpio through-lines of ritual, resilience, and rebirth. It’s modern yet venerable, bridging her a‑cappella family lineage (grandfather, first Black male Met Opera vocalist; father, a-capella jazz icon, mother, a Sam Cooke choir singer) with global soul and electronic nuance.
The album’s confidence in emotional tone and craft signals that McFerrin has arrived. Like Nora Jones before her, McFerrin may now be appreciated not just as "Bobby’s daughter" but as a visionary with her own voice, fusing classic jazz roots, spiritual soul, and future-facing production.
Read more ... Bandcamp
The Jewel In The Lotus
BERNIE MAUPIN
Released 1 November 1974
Re-released 16 May 2025
*****
A classic of 1970s spiritual jazz,” with lush ensemble interplay, deliberate pacing and disciplined abstraction.
Bennie Maupin, a Detroit-born multi-reedist who is best known for his work with Miles Davis (Bitches Brew) and Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi and Headhunters, is an adventurous improviser. His debut ECM album, The Jewel in the Lotus (1974), remains a spiritual jazz milestone that transcends genre boundaries.
The album arose from Maupin’s deep immersion in Buddhism and his Mwandishi-era aesthetic. Recorded March 1974 in New York with Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams, Billy Hart, Fred Waits, Bill Summers, and Charles Sullivan, it emerged as a non-hierarchical, meditative suite rather than a leader-soloist format.
Maupin relied on rubato structures and Eastern-inspired textures—sparse flute notes over bass drones, layered percussion, and flute/glockenspiel interplay—to evoke contemplative states tied to the mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum.”
Manfred Eicher’s ECM championed the project as part of the label’s early vision: European-style sonic clarity supporting adventurous, genre-defying jazz rooted in spiritual and world music consciousness.
Rather than a radical departure, Maupin’s album deepened an existing ECM tradition—a spiritual, impressionistic strain evident in early works by Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett, and others. The Jewel in the Lotus stands alongside Journey in Satchidananda (Alice Coltrane) and Yusef Lateef’s Eastern Sounds as ECM-aligned efforts rooted in mysticism and collective immediacy.
This release solidified ECM’s experimental ethos—embracing ambient textures, non-linear composition, and spiritual jazz. The recent Luminessence remaster shows the label sees it not as a curious detour but a core artifact that shaped ECM’s identity.
Eicher’s production accentuated its timelessness, allowing it to re-emerge fully formed decades later.
Read more ... ECM
We Insist 2015!
TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON
& CHRISTIE DASHELL
Released 13 June 2025
*****
A bold reimagining of a civil rights jazz landmark, bridging generations through rhythm and voice.
Drummer, producer, and NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington joins forces with GRAMMY-nominated vocalist Christie Dashiell to reimagine Max Roach’s 1960 civil rights focused Freedom Now Suite. Carrington’s legacy of jazz innovation and activism meets Dashiell’s soulful vocal prowess, creating a powerful dialogue between past and present.
We Insist 2025! revitalizes Roach’s seminal work with a contemporary lens - honoring the original's spirit while infusing it with modern elements - gospel, neo-soul, Afro-Latin rhythms, and blues - reflecting the ongoing struggle for justice.
Dashiell steps into Abbey Lincoln’s role with grace, delivering vocals that are both reverent and innovative. Carrington’s drumming, complemented by an ensemble including Weedie Braimah (percussion), Milena Casado (trumpet), and Julian Priester (trombone), the latter being the only living musician from the original recording, adds depth and continuity to the project.
“Freedom Day (Part 1)” and “Driva’ Man” stand out, blending Carrington’s dynamic rhythms with Dashiell’s emotive vocals. The inclusion of spoken word and tap dance elements further enriches the album’s texture, making it a multifaceted homage to Roach’s work.
The album as a timely and necessary reimagining, capturing the essence of protest music for a new era. As noted by Glide Magazine, “We Insist 2025! is not only an important statement for this year. It will endure for years to come, reimagined art at its finest.”
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Come As You Are
TERRACE MARTIN, KENYON DIXON
Released 20 June 2025
*****
Two West Coast craftsmen trade fireworks for finesse and win on every front.
Terrace Martin is a LA based Grammy-winning producer, saxophonist, and multi-instrumentalist known for genre-spanning work with Kendrick Lamar, Herbie Hancock, and Robert Glasper.
Fellow LA artist Kenyon Dixon is a former Tyrese and Usher backup vocalist who become a leading figure in modern R&B, crafting sultry, sophisticated slow jams with exceptional vocal control and lyrical depth.
Come As You Are finds Martin and Dixon uniting over a mutual reverence for 90's R&B, West Coast groove and quiet storm balladry. The project is impeccably arranged: Martin’s jazz sensibility underpins everything, from the harmonic richness of the Rhodes piano voicings to the smoky, analog drum textures that recall Roy Ayers or mid-period D’Angelo.
Dixon’s vocals, meanwhile, are a masterclass in restraint: soft falsettos, layered harmonies, and an intimacy that never strains for attention.
Rather than crafting radio-ready hooks, the duo leans into mood and feel, exemplified by tracks like “Love Like You” and “Only One” drift with understated elegance, almost meditative in their pacing. The production is organic, even minimal at times, allowing Dixon’s phrasing and Martin’s tonal palette to breathe.
Occasionally, the uniform tempo and lushness risk blending into one another, but close listening reveals subtle shifts in color and emotion. There's a clear commitment to fidelity: sonically warm, deliberately paced, and never overproduced. In an era dominated by maximalist pop and synthetic gloss, Come As You Are offers a quiet counterpoint - grown, nuanced, and deeply assured.
Read more ... Sounds Of Crenshaw
Infinity Mirrors
HECTOR PLIMMER
Released 20 June 2025
****-
A kaleidoscope of jazz‑tinged reflections - quiet collaborations, softly spoken stories.
Hector Plimmer is a South London–based producer, composer, and DJ who blends electronic, nu-jazz, downtempo, and ambient styles who has built a reputation for textured instrumentation, delicate grooves, and melodic sophistication .
Infinity Mirrors is Plimmer’s most collaborative project to date, featuring eleven tracks with vocal and instrumental contributions from Laura Misch, Marysia Osu, Andrew Ashong, Julia Biel, Dariés Street-Soul, Tawiah, Alexa Harley, Rohan Ayinde, and Alex Cosmo Blake.
The album unfolds as a soothing yet emotionally layered journey, anchored by Plimmer's subtle production. The album’s broken-beat textures and jazz-drenched chords provide a plush backdrop for each featured artist.
Opening with "Infinity Mirrors," the interplay of Misch’s sax and Osu’s harp conjures a kaleidoscopic atmosphere—delicate yet resonant.
Andrew Ashong’s “New Knew” balances soulful restraint with melodic richness, while "Into Harmony" stands out as a warm jazz ballad that highlights Plimmer’s compositional finesse.
Tawiah’s "Grow" brings a soulful uplift, merging electronic sheen with organic instrumentation. Contributing to “Fight or Flight” and “Gentle Things,” Alexa Harley brings emotional weight, framed by soft percussion and lush pads.
“Resting Hands” and “Reflections” close the album with stillness and reflection.
Where Infinity Mirrors truly excels is in its pacing - shifting fluidly between vocal-led moments and instrumental interludes. Some may find the overall palette too muted, as there are no explosive crescendos or high-speed peaks, but that’s part of its charm. It’s contemplative, cohesive, and invites immersion rather than capture. In a climate of maximalist production, Plimmer's intimacy feels refreshing and considered.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Necessary Fictions
GOGO PENGUIN
Released 20 June 2025
****-
Redefining narrative through modular pulse and ensemble depth—GoGo Penguin’s most vivid statement yet.
GoGo Penguin, the Manchester trio of pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka, and drummer Jon Scott, blend jazz, classical, and electronica into immersive, minimalist soundscapes. Since their 2012 debut Fanfares, they've evolved through Mercury-nominated refinement to their boldest, most collaborative project yet.
Necessary Fictions signals a confident leap forward. The album’s concept, about the stories we tell ourselves, follows the hopeful tone of 2023’s Everything’s Going to Be OK while digging deeper into authenticity and rebirth.
This time around, the trio expands its palette, incorporating modular synths across several tracks, and for the first time. including human voice on “Forgive the Damages”, which features guest Daudi Matsiko.
Opening single “Fallowfield Loops” nods to their roots in dance-rave rhythms: punchy, hypnotic and melancholic, with crisp drums and layered textures.
Throughout this 12-track, 48-minute set, collaborations with Manchester Collective add lush strings and expanded harmonic layers, creating cinematic sound moments.
Some may miss the raw trio focus of earlier work, but this ensemble approach feels natural and well-judged. The blend of live improvisation and electronic color feels purposeful, balancing introspection and openness, but Necessary Fictions doesn’t abandon GoGo Penguin’s core identity - it enhances it, revealing a band evolving without losing itself.
Read more ... GoGo Penguin
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Fairyland Complex
TROPICAL FUCK STORM - TFS
Released 20 June 2025
****-
Melding post-punk, psychedelia, gonzo narrative, and pure sonic chaos, TFS tackles 21st-century paranoia, media overload and existential absurdity with equal parts fury and satire.
Tropical Fuck Storm (TFS), one of Australia’s most incendiary experimental rock bands, was formed when guitarist and vocalist Gareth Liddiard and bassist and vocalist Fiona Kitschin’s previous band, The Drones, went on hiatus in 2016. Joined by guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist Erica Dunn and drummer Lauren Hammel, the group has released a string of critically acclaimed albums and gained a reputation for their incendiary live shows.
Fairyland Complex is TFS at their most fractured and ferocious. Rather than refining their sound, they double down on distortion, stream-of-consciousness rants, and genre obliteration.
Fairyland Complex is TFS’s fourth album and their most cohesive slab of madness yet, a scathing, sly, and occasionally poignant descent into a world where conspiracy, catastrophe, and self-deception reign.
The album opens with “Irukandji Syndrome,” a jittery spiral of surf guitar and venomous lyrics about fear, venom, and media hysteria. “Goon Show” mutates vaudeville absurdity into a paranoid dirge, while “Stepping On A Rake” matches its title with slapstick chaos and screeching guitars that seem to trip over themselves. “Teeth Marché” conjures Beefheart via Bizarro Paris - drunkenly angular yet weirdly elegant. Then comes the centrepiece, “Fairyland Codex,” an 8-minute masterwork of dystopian poetics and droning feedback, equal parts sermon, fever dream, and breakdown. “Dunning Kruger’s Loser Cruiser” skewers self-delusion with psych-blues swagger and “Bloodsport” lashes out with convulsing urgency. “Joe Meek Will Inherit the Earth” is a deranged love letter to the cult producer, filtered through Cold War static and cosmic dread. “Bye Bye Snake Eyes” nods toward balladry—until it erupts—and closer “Moscovium” plays like radioactive noir, oozing menace to the very end.
Despite the noise, there’s remarkable control here: rhythms lock in, guitars stutter with intent, and vocals swap between sneering narration and weary confession. It’s intense, compelling and unmistakably TFS.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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28 Years Later
(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
YOUNG FATHERS
Released 20 June 2025
****-
A bleak, beat-driven reckoning that redefines the horror score - best appreciated in a cinema, with the visuals.
Young Fathers are a Mercury Prize-winning trio from Edinburgh known for blending hip-hop, soul, noise and politically charged lyrics into a sound that defies genre and convention. Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole, and Graham "G" Hastings, have built a critically-lauded reputation as one of the UK’s most progressive and unpredictable musical forces. Their work is raw, rhythmic, and emotionally direct, often embracing abrasion as powerfully as beauty.
Tasked with scoring Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Later, a revival of the post-apocalyptic zombie franchise, Young Fathers deliver a soundtrack that pushes far beyond typical horror scoring. This isn’t ambient dread or orchestral bombast. Instead, the group crafts a visceral, percussive atmosphere that fuses industrial beats, haunted vocal snippets, and warped gospel energy into a sonic world that mirrors societal collapse with eerie intimacy.
Rather than serving as mere underscore, tracks feel like characters, each cue throbbing with intent. Sparse piano figures, degraded synth textures, and ghosted chants suggest a world not just infected, but spiritually poisoned. Percussion drives much of the album, often built from distorted samples that mimic the irregular pulse of survival.
Where some cues lean toward suspense, others erupt in explosions of cathartic noise and bass, mirroring Young Fathers’ live reputation for unfiltered emotion. They manage a balance of narrative function and standalone impact: however without images, the album requires exceptional patience and attention: it is over an hour in length of discontinuous, errie sound bites separated by numerous silent or low-volume passages.
It’s a bold move for a commercial franchise, but Boyle’s faith in Young Fathers pays off. This is one of the most original horror soundtracks in years, not simply a genre exercise but a body of work in its own right. But this is truth-be-told, best appreciated with the visuals, in a cinema.
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New Vienna (Live)
KEITH JARRETT
Released 30 May 2025
****-
In his final solo waltz through Vienna, Jarrett offers silence, struggle, and sublime control: Jarrett’s quietly transcendent closing statement.
Legendary American pianist Keith Jarrett's improvisational solo concerts have redefined the possibilities of live performance. From The Köln Concert (1975) to Vienna Concert (2016) his recordings span five decades.
After a 2018 stroke ended his career, ECM began releasing his final 2016 European solo tour recordings posthumously. New Vienna, recorded at the Musikverein on 9 July 2016, captures Jarrett in reflective but still inspired form. Unlike the long-flowing improvisations of his 70s and 90s concerts, this set is broken into nine concise parts, ranging in tone from urgent modernist dissonance (Part I) to meditative gospel lyricism (Part IV). The venue’s impeccable acoustics magnify the intimacy of his playing - soft pedal work, long rests, and delicate phrasing all feel deeply intentional.
There’s no trace of decline here. Despite ongoing health struggles and Jarrett’s eventual retirement, this performance is full of technical clarity and emotional control. His dynamic range remains vast: stabbing clusters resolve into tender intervals, and passages hint at Debussy, Gershwin, or spirituals without ever quoting directly. The encore, a solo reading of “Over the Rainbow,” is vintage Jarrett - wistful, hesitant, full of breath.
Though not as exuberant as Köln or as monumental as Vienna Concert, New Vienna offers a final gesture of clarity and grace from one of modern music’s most influential improvisers.
Read more ... ECM
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Lazarus
(Adult Swim Original Series Soundtrack)
KAMASI WASHINGTON
Released 11 April 2025
Cartoon Network / Milan Records / Sony
****-
A soundtrack collection that establishes its own identity: bold, spiritual jazz that carries emotional weight with its narrative purpose.
Kamasi Washington is a Los Angeles–based saxophonist and composer as redefined contemporary jazz with his expansive spiritual jazz and post‑bop work - headed by his landmark releases The Epic (2015) and Fearless Movement (2014).
"Lazarus" is an anime film is directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, a Film Director with a reputation for integrating music deeply into his anime worlds - often making the soundtrack as narratively important as the visuals and dialogue.
The film continues Washington's association with soundtrack composition, a trajectory first seen in projects like Becoming (Music from the Netflix Series) (2020) (a documentary commissioned by Michelle Obama) and collaborations with cinema and anime auteurs including Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) and the short film As Told to G/D Thyself (2019).
Fusing propulsive rhythms with rich horn lines, the opening tracks "Lazarus" and “Vortex” (which doubles as the show’s main theme) ride an energetic groove reminiscent of a previous Watanabe anime, Cowboy Bebop (1998) a seminal Japanese series scored by Yoko Kanno.
On “Magical Distance” and “Discovery”, Washington’s collaboration with keyboardist Cameron Graves and cinematic string arrangements create richly layered, rhythmically complex textures.
A cinematic choir and Hammond‑style layers appear in “Lie in Memory”, generating emotional resonance beyond typical soundtrack tropes. “Hard Way to Wonder” slows the mood to post‑bop introspection - a signature Kamasi moment tinged with spiritual depth.
The score balances intensity and ambience: frequent hard bop punchiness contrasts with spacious, reflective interludes, giving the music standalone musical integrity, not just functional underscore.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Words Fall Short
JOSHUA REDMAN
Released 20 June 2025
****-
After the "politely" received "where are we", Words Fall Short re-establishes Redman’s voice as a lyrical leader and master of the acoustic quartet form.
Joshua Redman is a masterful tenor and soprano saxophonist whose breadth spans acoustic post-bop to lyrical explorations. A multi-Grammy nominee and powerhouse bandleader, he continues his Blue Note chapter with this introspective, original quartet project, his second for the label following the disappointing debut "where are we" in 2023.
Words Fall Short introduces Redman’s new quartet - Paul Cornish (piano), Philip Norris (bass), Nazir Ebo (drums) - a rhythm section forged during touring for "where are we" and refined into studio synergy.
Across eight original compositions, Redman leans into spacious, emotionally nuanced music. Opener “A Message To Unsend” unfolds with hymn-like lyricism and gentle arpeggios, while “So It Goes” adds depth with a nod from guest saxophonist Melissa Aldana.
The title track, Words Fall Short, explores the emotional territory where language fails—an idea inspired in part by author Yiyun Li, who has written about silence, grief, and the limitations of verbal expression. Redman channels this theme musically, using his saxophone to convey moods and meanings that words alone cannot capture.
With “Icarus”, trumpeter Skylar Tang joins, propelling a soaring, narrative moment. At the close, “Era’s End”, featuring Gabrielle Cavassa, adds vocal texture that ties loosely back to Redman’s more lyric-infused previous Blue Note album.
The performances center on interplay and subtlety - Cornish’s sensitive voicings, Norris and Ebo’s rhythmic nuance, and Redman’s warm tone and melodic invention. There’s no chase for virtuosity; instead, the emphasis is on group cohesion and emotional clarity. It’s a contemplative, refined entry in Redman’s catalog - an intimate quartet conversation that balances roots in acoustic jazz with forward-looking compositional vision.
Words Fall Short is both personal and collective and echoes Redman’s own past quartet work in its blend of compositional coherence and spontaneous interplay.
However, this record also marks a pivot: rather than a reunion of jazz legends, as an artist of Redman's stature might have chosen, this is a a mentoring act that finds Redman championing a new generation while stepping back into a lead-listener role.
Read more ... Blue Note
Clay
MOMOKO & GILL
MATTHEW HERBERT & MOMOKO GILL
Released 27 June 2025
*****
A triumph of mood and meaning. resulting in one of the most original vocal jazz albums in recent memory.
Matthew Herbert is a genre-defying British composer, producer, and sonic experimentalist whose work spans house, big band jazz, classical, and musique concrète.
Momoko Gill is a Japanese-English vocalist and multi-disciplinary artist whose voice blends precision and vulnerability.
Clay marks their first collaborative album, an avant-jazz song cycle that draws equally on chamber minimalism, poetry and improvisation.
This delicate, conceptually rich album unites Herbert’s textural curiosity with Gill’s intimate, unguarded voice. The album centers around the metaphor of clay and this malleable, earthen and tactile sensibility is deeply embedded in its sound and structure. Herbert crafts sparse, organic soundscapes throughout, using field recordings (footsteps, water, wind), brushed percussion, and acoustic instruments treated with quiet subversion.
Gill’s voice hovers at the edge of speech and song, often unaccompanied, imbued with fragility that evokes early Björk, or the spectral intimacy of Portishead's Beth Gibbons.
On tracks like “Unformed” and “Kiln,” words emerge like memories - broken, partial, elemental. “Inheritance” loops a whispered phrase into a trance-state, while “Shaping” finds her voice folding into and resisting the granular texture of the accompaniment.
This is not jazz in the traditional sense - it eschews swing, harmony and vocal flourishes. But it is profoundly improvisational in spirit: a music of gesture, breath, and suggestion. The pacing is slow, sometimes glacial, but never inert. Every sound feels intentional, handmade. As a collaborative statement, Clay is both austere and intimate, a rare meeting of minds where conceptual rigor deepens, rather than dilutes, emotional expression.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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I Forgive You
I Forgive You (A Capella Edition)
CYNTHIA ERIVO
Released 6 June 2025
*****
As a debut, it's audaciously personal and vocally immaculate, an introspective rather than radio-driven record.
British-Nigerian singer, actor, and Broadway star, Cynthia Erivo rose to fame with her Tony-winning role in The Color Purple and has since earned various Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Academy Awards nominations for her title role in the 2019 motion picture, Harriet and in 2024, for her role as Elphaba in Wicked. Blessed with a powerful soprano, natural theatrical intensity and intense emotional commitment, Erivo now pivots into full-length solo music with a theatrical sound that is shaped by gospel, soul and contemporary pop.
I Forgive You is both a deeply personal reckoning and a bold artistic declaration. Across 12 tracks, she fuses gospel-rooted vocal phrasing with expansive, genre-spanning production.
The Original Edition leans into spiritual pop-soul, borrowing from Solange and Moses Sumney’s palettes - airy textures, reverb-drenched harmonies, and lyrical introspection dominate. Standout tracks “Alive,” “Glowing Up,” and “Tears” ride minimalist arrangements that showcase her dynamic control, but also suffer occasionally from overly abstract lyrics or ambiguous melodic focus Vocally, she is as commanding as ever, her sustained notes and melismatic runs are polished without ostentation.
The Capella Edition's stripped-down format underscores her vocal prowess, revealing impeccable pitch control and breath technique, but it also exposes some over-arranged vocal layering that can feel cluttered without instrumental grounding. While the album asserts her identity outside the stage and screen, it occasionally wavers in songwriting distinctiveness. The spiritual and emotional themes feel sincere but would benefit from more varied song structures and rhythmic risk-taking.
The album cover presents Erivo as an ethereal, elemental force, her naked form dwarfed by angels wings, draped in metallics, eyes alight, embodying divinity and rebirth. It a bold contrast to her theatrical roots (The Color Purple, Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream) and gritty movie appearances (Harriet, Luther: The Fallen Sun). The supernatural imagery and song choices suggest her aiming to elevate the music’s spiritual themes. In context of her progressively more controversial recent casting (as Puck in Midsummer Night's, Jesus Christ in JC Superstar, Elphaba in Wicked) this visual and thematic rebranding seems intended to control the narrative, seeking to be considered now not just as a performer, but as a visionary artist in her own right.
Read more ... Cynthia Erivo
The Secret of Life:
Partners, Volume 2
BARBRA STREISAND
Released 27 June 2025
*****
It's neither"edgy" or progressive but by setting imperfect partners against her perfect phrasing, Streisand shows how legacy is made, not simply maintained.
Barbra Streisand is one of the most decorated and enduring performers in American music, with a career spanning six decades. Renowned for her crystalline tone, meticulous phrasing and emotional precision, she has bridged Broadway, Hollywood and pop culture, while maintaining a singular vocal standard and artistic authority throughout.
The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2 finds Streisand revisiting the duet format with a sharper curatorial instinct than on 2014’s Partners.
This time, the pairings are more surprising and, in many cases, more affecting. She tones down the bombast and partners with singers whose vocal edges, some aged (Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Seal), others imperfect (Hozier, Sam Smith, Willie Nelson) only draw out deeper emotional resonance in the well-chosen material.
The results are characterful conversations, rather than the glossy showpieces one might have expected. Her duet with Sting, for example, avoids his usual faux-reggae affectations in favour of a clean, sincere tenor line.
The song choices are striking: Sting's “Fragile,” McCartney's “My Valentine,” and Taylor's “Secret O’ Life”. These deep cuts from these modern greats are now elevated to Songbook status thanks to her interpretive clarity.
Throughout, Streisand’s vocal control remains astonishing. While her upper range is used sparingly, her phrasing is effortless, her diction exacting and her emotional shading subtle. Whether by virtue of the repertoire or the maturity of her delivery, this is among her most listenable recordings - less showy than her early work and more generous in spirit.
At 82, she’s not competing with her past triumphs. She’s curating them. And in doing so, she’s making room for others - on her terms, with her legacy intact.
Read more ... Barbra Streisand
Burning Moonlight (EP)
MARIANNE FAITHFULL (1946-2025)
Released 6 June 2025
****-
Posthumously released, this is a circle-closing release from and artist who burned bright, burned out and then, after a long absence, returned with her seventh - and definitive - album, Broken English.
“As we grieve the loss of Marianne, ... these are songs which she worked on during the year before her death. Marianne lived to create and perform music – it was her driving force and she never stopped. Right up until the end she was looking forward to this release which now completes and celebrates her remarkable artistic career,” says Nicholas Dunbar, her son.
The four new recordings are inspired by, and have their creative roots in, Marianne’s first two albums, released simultaneously 60 years ago. The EP’s executive producer Andrew Batt explains; “It was so unusual to start your career this way, so we decided to bring the music full circle. One side of the EP would be inspired by her debut pop LP "Marianne Faithfull" while the flip would honour her folk roots on "Come My Way”.
Side 1 and opens with the poignant ‘Burning Moonlight, a moving ballad of resilience and acceptance that was inspired by the opening line of her debut single ‘As Tears Go by’ (“It is the evening of the day”) and is followed by ‘Love Is’ an uplifting homage to her ‘60s pop sound written with her grandson Oscar Dunbar.
Side 2 of the EP reconnects Marianne to her folk background with ‘Three Kinsmen Bold’, a traditional song learned from her father Glynn Faithfull who had been a formative influence on her folk recordings, and a new interpretation of ‘She Moved Thru’ The Fair’, a song Marianne performed throughout her life, and which she first recorded in 1966.
With this new four-track E.P. Marianne’s recording career now stretches over 60 years: an amazing achievement. “It’s a good time to look back,” she said after completing the project “It helps me to remember all the things I’ve done. I can’t say I’m a particularly nostalgic person, but I am enjoying this period of reflection.”
Read more ... Marianne Faithfull
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I Swear To You
GEORGIE SWEET
Released 20 June 2025
****-
Born out of a warm, creative environment, and full to the brim with heart and soul, but a little more energy in parts would help.
A Brighton-based singer-songwriter steeped in the UK soul and broken beat scene, Georgie Sweet first emerged with her debut album Misunderstood (2020) and sophomore release Lovemuscle (2024). A collaborator with K15, Mecca:83, and Children of Zeus, her music bridges jazz, neo-soul, and lo-fi R&B and her naturally smooth, airy voice brings restraint and feeling to every phrase.
Musical Critique
I Swear To You, Sweet’s First Word Records debut, shows remarkable growth. The 12-track album, written in partnership with producer Marc Rapson, plays like a quietly profound coming-of-age diary.
It opens hauntingly with “The Ones We Loved,” a sultry lament that sets the tone: warm, introspective, and emotionally articulate.
Songs like “All That We Were,” “Bedsheets,” and “Patricia” draw on deep wells of memory and grief, with Sweet’s phrasing subtle yet resolute. She avoids vocal pyrotechnics in favor of grace, showing control that belies the vulnerability of her lyrics.
The arrangements feel lived-in but elegant. Rapson’s production leans on piano, sparse beats, Rhodes textures, and brushed drums. suggesting D’Angelo’s sensitivity, Moonchild’s poise, and the wistfulness of early Jill Scott.
“Smaller,” “As I Am,” and “In My Stride” bring in mid-tempo swing and jazz-hop bounce without compromising the reflective mood.
“Energy” and “Equal Measure” show Sweet at her most rhythmically engaged, balancing groove and restraint. The closing title track, with its gospel undercurrent, gently lifts the mood into affirmation.
If there’s a drawback, it lies in the consistency of mellow tone: the uniformity of tempo and timbre pulls tracks together. A broader dynamic arc, either harmonically or rhythmically, would give the record more impact.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Analogue Recital (EP)
SAI GALAXY
Released 14 March 2025
****-
Whiting’s style emphasizes movement and fluidity; she treats the harp not as a delicate ornament but as a rhythmically driving and harmonically rich voice.
Amanda Whiting is a classically trained Welsh harpist who has carved out a distinct niche in contemporary jazz. Melding modal improvisation with groove-heavy rhythms, she bridges the elegance of Alice Coltrane with the sensibility of European jazz.
Can You See Me Now? confirms Amanda Whiting as one of the most agile and expressive harpists in today’s jazz scene. The album continues her fruitful collaboration with drummer Aidan Thorne and the ever-tasteful Jon Reynolds on drums, with Mark Threadgold’s flugelhorn adding warm counterpoint.
“Can You See Me Now?” and “Venus Fly Trap” balance modal exploration with a deep pocket, grounded in cinematic noir-funk grooves. The improvisations are lyrical but never indulgent, and the rhythm section swings hard in places—especially notable given the harp's traditionally fragile sonic space.
The production (again with Greg Simmons) is clean and detailed. This isn’t background chill jazz; it rewards close listening with sophisticated interplay and subtle shifts in colour. The melodies are memorable yet elusive, offering just enough form to draw the listener through the modal haze.
If anything, the album’s elegance may obscure its daring, as Whiting quietly expands the harp’s role in modern jazz composition.
Read more ... Bandcamp
do it afraid
YAYA BEY
Released 20 June 2025
*****
Spoken Like a Prayer, Sung Like a Scar
A Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, and visual artist, Yaya Bey draws from neo-soul, hip-hop, reggae and jazz to create emotionally raw, socially conscious music. Daughter of rapper Grand Daddy I.U., she combines streetwise intellect with personal vulnerability. Having established her reputation with Madison Tapes (2020) and Remember Your North Star (2022) and Ten Fold (2024), Bey’s work is diaristic, fierce, and always grounded in Black womanhood.
With do it afraid, she sharpens her voice as both storyteller and groove-maker, with a fiercely creative, emotionally multidimensional offering that affirms Yaya Bey as one of the most vital voices in contemporary soul.
Across 18 short but fully formed tracks, she weaves vulnerability, wit, anger, sensuality, and resistance into a body of work that feels handmade and unfiltered.
The collection opens with the biting spoken-word screed “wake up b*tch,” setting a tone of clarity and combustion. From there, the album dips effortlessly into rich pockets: the woozy love duet “end of the world” (with Nigel Hall & Butcher Brown), the airy ‘90s bounce of “cindy rella,” and the raw confessionals “breakthrough” and “choice,” which fuse spiritual doubt and resolve with disarming candor.
“raisins,” produced by DJ Harrison, is Bey at her most exposed - addressing generational fear and artistic inheritance with rhythmic grace. Tracks like “in a circle” and “merlot and grigio” (with Father Philis) channel her Bajan roots through dancehall and soca, while “dream girl” is a vaporous ballad that floats more than sings. Every element - from the clipped transitions to the drum programming - feels like an extension of her interior world.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Analogue Recital (EP)
SAI GALAXY
Released 14 March 2025
****-
Jazz meets house with live drums, soulful voices and analogue warmth for late‑night dancefloors.
Sai Galaxy is a Melbourne-based producer blending lo-fi house, jazz-synth and Afro-flavoured percussion, who effortlessly fuses electronic grooves with live instrumentation, generating tracks that feel both dancefloor-ready and richly textured.
Analogue Recital eases listeners into a world where jazz-house meets soulful vocal interplay and organic percussion.
Across six core tracks, Sai Galaxy layers crusty, hip-hop‑style drums with live horns, African drums, modular synths, and guest vocals from Millicent, Adrian M Nation, Natalie Slade, and Horatio Luna.
Opener “You Are Not Alone” (feat. Millicent) melds a warm piano loop with soft percussion and soulful singing - setting a perfect medium‑tempo (120 bpm) groove that is maintained throughout the set
“Invincible” and closing track “Kinda Strut” (feat. Adrian M Nation) bring urgency, as tight drum patterns meet confident vocal deliveries atop deep bass.
“Run Away” expands the palette with lush, echoing horns and a sense of spacious escape.
On “Eyes Like Cinnamon”, Horatio Luna’s bass anchors a jazzy groove layered with brass and subtle synth washes.
“When I’m With You” (Nat Slade) closes the EP with heartfelt vocals over dreamy keys and brushed beats.
This EP balances dancefloor energy with soulful intimacy. It’s warm, textured, and engaging. extended versions, The relatively concise track lengths (most b/w 4 and 5 minutes) sets a breezy ready-to-party mix pace, these tracks invite extended remixes.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Album of the Year
#1 Funkateer (2025)
BOOTSY COLLINS
Released 27 June 2025
****-
Funk’s most joyful elder statesman returns with an album overflowing with grooves and goofy wisdom, booing basslines, bounce, and a universe of unapologetic fun.
Bootsy Collins, the Ohio-born bassist and showman, has been a cornerstone of funk since the early '70s, first with James Brown and then with George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic. Known for his rubbery basslines, space-age slang and outlandish persona, Bootsy embodies funk’s joyful rebellion and continues to influence generations of musicians.
Album of the Year #1 Funkateer is a riotous, intergalactic bounce through everything Bootsy Collins has ever stood for — groove, humour, social commentary, and cosmic love. It’s a guest-laden, genre-colliding opus that leans heavily into digital funk but never loses its analog soul. Bootsy's bass is slinkier than ever, his trademark “space bass” sliding beneath layers of synth squelch, gospel choir harmonies, and absurdly catchy choruses. “Groovemaster General” and “Big Bangin’ Boogie” marry electro-funk with trap drums and modern R&B vocal production, while “Soul Vaccination 2025” nods to the Tower of Power school with brass and wah-wah fire.
Younger collaborators (like Anderson .Paak, Thundercat, and YEBBA) elevate the record without ever outshining its glitter-suited captain.
Bootsy, now in his seventies, remains an irrepressible spirit — vocoder monologues, party chants, and comedic interludes prove he’s still having more fun than anyone else in the game. Not everything lands (a few skits drag), but the sheer positivity and musical invention override any weak spots.
It’s a generous, maximalist album made not for nostalgia but for the now — a parliament of joy presided over by the original Funkateer-in-Chief.
Read more ... Bootsy Collins
Cafe Del Mar
45th Anniversary Compilation
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Released 20 June 2025
****-
After forty-five years of chill, here' forty-five tracks - but only one mood - the ageless Balearic sunset bar cruise ship has docked.
Café del Mar is a Balearic institution, originating as a seaside bar in Ibiza in 1980 and evolving into a globally recognised brand synonymous with chillout, ambient, and downtempo compilations.
Its releases define the sun-drenched, introspective vibe of Mediterranean evenings, curating music that blurs the line between luxury and introspection.
The Café del Mar 45th Anniversary compilation honours the legacy of chillout music without lapsing into nostalgia. It assembles 45 tracks across three discs, blending familiar Café del Mar veterans with newer voices from the ambient and downtempo underground. While many entries adhere to the label’s signature template—soft percussion, gentle guitar flourishes, airy pads, and the occasional Mediterranean motif—there’s also surprising textural variation. Tracks by Moby, Nightmares on Wax, and Afterlife balance classic ambience with subtle rhythmic sophistication.
Where previous volumes sometimes dipped into hotel-lobby blandness, this anniversary set largely avoids those pitfalls. The sequencing is careful, with each disc subtly shifting from daytime shimmer to nocturnal introspection. Newer contributors like Melvo Baptiste and Chris Coco inject a fresh pulse, while long-time favourites such as José Padilla (posthumously represented) anchor the compilation in its founding ethos.
This isn’t an attempt to revolutionise the genre. Instead, it reaffirms Café del Mar’s role as a curator of emotional moodscapes. For longtime listeners, it’s a reminder of why this sound mattered. For newcomers, it’s an elegant introduction to a world of stillness, space, and beauty.
Read more ... Cafe Del Mar
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About Ghosts
MARY HALVORSON
Released 13 June 2025
****-
Ambitious chamber-jazz compositions where strings, brass and vibes interlace with her highly distinctive guitar voicings.
Brooklyn-based guitarist Mary Halvorson has long been a central figure in contemporary experimental jazz, known for her elastic phrasing, angular melodic sense and use of subtle pitch bending to blur harmony and intonation. Trained under Anthony Braxton, she straddles composed and improvised forms with ease.
Long championed for her originality, Halvorson remains a radical voice in modern jazz, restlessly reimagining structure, space, and emotional tone.
Returning to her Amaryllis ensemble (now expanded to a nine-piece band including Immanuel Wilkins and Brian Settles), About Ghosts is cerebral, yes, but it’s also deeply expressive, revealing new dimensions with each listen. Halvorson’s expanded ensemble allows her to think orchestrally. This is not free jazz chaos, but carefully plotted terrain where every dissonance, pause, and gesture carries intent.
Tracks like “Full of Neon” or “Carved From” build mood rather than momentum. Listeners used to steady rhythm or harmonic resolution should focus on how instruments exchange phrases—horns finishing a melody the strings began, Halvorson answering herself with twisted echoes. It’s jazz as shifting conversation. Her guitar tone—slightly detuned and sometimes processed—is less about virtuosity than about narrative texture.
“Eventidal” and the title track offer clearer footholds, with gently unfolding motifs and more overt beauty. Vibraphone and string passages create emotional space, while Halvorson’s guitar threads through like a curious observer—sometimes lyrical, sometimes oblique. It’s in these moments that hesitant listeners may experience a shift: when discord reveals its purpose, and abstraction turns evocative.
If you come expecting swing or solo showcases, this may confound. But approach it as modernist chamber jazz, and Halvorson’s ghost-stories-in-sound come alive. About Ghosts doesn’t ask for surrender, but does require attention, rewarding those willing to listen differently.
Read more ... Nonesuch Records
Bone Bells
SYLVIE COURVOISIER, MARY HALVORSON
Released 14 March 2025
****-
Two radical improvisers draw strange, beautiful maps in real time.
Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson are titans of contemporary experimental jazz. Swiss-born Courvoisier brings a background in classical composition and European free improvisation, known for her dynamic attack and extended piano techniques. Halvorson, an American guitarist and former student of Anthony Braxton, has built a singular voice through angular phrasing, pitch bends, and harmonic subversion. Both artists are prolific bandleaders and collaborators and Bone Bells marks their first full-length duo album together. It documents a long-simmering mutual admiration - two sonic architects converging in a dense, poetic dialogue of texture, risk, and uncanny synchronicity.
As might have been expected, Bone Bells offers no easy entry points - and that’s the point. These nine improvised duets resist traditional roles of soloist and accompanist, instead unfolding as a balanced, conversational weave between Courvoisier’s piano and Halvorson’s guitar.
Tracks like “Golden Propolis” and “Last Minute Smears” showcase percussive flurries and contrapuntal mischief, but never descend into chaos. There is a shared grammar here, built on precision and trust, with dissonance used not as provocation but as curvature, bending form, teasing resolution, then dodging it again.
For the listener, the “light bulb moment” comes when focusing on how they listen to each other. A sudden cluster of notes on piano meets a warped arpeggio from guitar - and hangs. Silence is part of the language. A track like “Kindred Spirit” might begin in abstraction but flowers into something almost hymn-like.
Halvorson’s delay-pedal pitch bends mimic vocal microtones; Courvoisier answers with soft, glancing harmonies. It's haunting. At times, the music feels like an etching being drawn in air.
Fans of freely improvised music will relish this. For newcomers, listen with no expectations and lean in. You’ll start to hear structure emerging from the fog, and that’s when the magic begins.
Read more ... All About Jazz
Abstraction Is Deliverance
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS QUARTET
Released 30 May 2025
****-
Two radical improvisers draw strange, beautiful maps in real time.
Tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis stands at the forefront of contemporary jazz, known for his robust tone and innovative compositions. His quartet, featuring pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones, and drummer Chad Taylor, has garnered acclaim for their dynamic interplay and genre-defying performances.
Abstraction Is Deliverance, their fifth collaboration, continues this trajectory, blending spiritual jazz, post-bop, and avant-garde elements. The album again is characterized by Lewis's commitment to pushing musical boundaries forward while honoring jazz traditions, offering listeners a profound and immersive experience. He is one of a handful of artists who consciously shoulder this "pay it forward" responsibility; (others include Wynton Marsalis, Rhiannon Giddens, Jon Batiste, Ambrose Akinmusire, Esperanza Spalding, Jason Moran, Terri Lyne Carrington, Christian McBride, Brittany Howard, Meshell Ndegeocello, Tyshawn Sorey)
Abstraction Is Deliverance is a compelling exploration of jazz's expansive possibilities. Opening with "Ware," a tribute to the late saxophonist David S. Ware, the quartet sets a tone of reverence and innovation. Lewis's tenor saxophone navigates complex emotional landscapes, from the introspective "Even the Sparrow" to the contemplative "Remember Rosalind."
The title track, "Abstraction Is Deliverance," epitomizes the album's ethos—melding structured composition with free-flowing improvisation. Ortiz's piano interlaces seamlessly with Lewis's melodies, while Jones and Taylor provide a rhythm section that's both grounding and exploratory.
A standout moment is their rendition of Mal Waldron's "Left Alone," where the quartet reimagines the classic with a fresh, emotive perspective. Throughout the album, the group's synergy is palpable, each member contributing to a cohesive yet adventurous soundscape.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Traces
COSMIC EAR
Released 23 May 2025
****-
Spiritual jazz and global rhythms intertwine, exploratively crafting a profound homage to Don Cherry.
Cosmic Ear is a Swedish jazz collective formed in 2024, comprising veteran and contemporary musicians: Christer Bothén, Mats Gustafsson, Goran Kajfeš, Kansan Zetterberg, and Juan Romero. The ensemble draws inspiration from the legacy of Don Cherry, particularly his explorations during his time in Sweden in the 1970s. Bothén, a direct collaborator of Cherry, brings historical depth to the group, while Gustafsson and Kajfeš contribute their avant-garde sensibilities.
The opening track "Father and Son," written by Kafjes, sets a meditative tone with intricate instrumental interplay. "Traces of Brown Rice" a Cosmic Ear original follows, weaving a tapestry of sounds that pay tribute to Cherry's legacy. "Love Train," a Cherry composition, and "Right Here Right Now," by Bothén, showcase the ensemble's ability to blend homage with innovation. Gustafsson's "Do It (Again) – For Sofia Jernberg" stands out with its dynamic energy and the set concludes with another original, "Traces of Codona and Mali," that further explores the group's global influences.
Throughout Traces, Cosmic Ear strikes a balance between reverence and originality, creating a suite of tunes that is retrospective in its inspiration and forward-looking in it's realisation.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Boomkat
Ember
COAST
Released 9 May 2025
****-
The fire still still smoulders: emotional velocity and post-pandemic clarity from Marrickville’s jazz alchemists
Coast is an Australian jazz-fusion ensemble led by drummer and composer Paul Derricott. Coast blends post-rock sensibilities with contemporary jazz, driven by a core quartet of seasoned improvisers. With ties to artists like Georgia Mooney, Lanie Lane, and Lakecia Benjamin, Derricott’s musical vision bridges Sydney’s live scene with broader global currents.
Six years on from their debut albums Skim (2019) and Coast (2018) Ember is Coast’s most assured and emotionally resonant album yet, nine pieces born not from spectacle, but from the internal churn of restraint, change and residual energy.
Derricott’s post-pandemic compositions are thoughtful without being sombre, gently pushing the ensemble toward clarity rather than catharsis. The title track opens in warm minimalism: guitar and Rhodes exchanging slow motifs over Derricott’s delicate cymbal work.
There’s space everywhere, no rush, no clutter. “The Path and the River” and “Hiatus” find Michael Avgenicos’s saxophone threading between locked grooves and loose reverie. “Static Movement” is built on beautifully odd tension, where the rhythm section hovers just out of phase, keeping the listener slightly off balance.
“Kyeemagh” (named for a waterfront Kyeemagh is a suburb in southern Sydney) penned by Shannon Stitt, adds rich harmonic depth, showing the group’s compositional diversity. There are shorter sketches, like “Beato 2,” that serve more as connective tissue than full statements, but they help pace the album’s emotional arc.
Like the landscapes that inspired it, Gadigal country along the Cooks River, Ember feels lived-in, contemplative, and quietly radiant.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Lilja
THORHAN
(ORHAN ÖZGÜR TURAN AND ÞÓR ARNARSSON)
Released 7 March 2025
Thorhan
****-
The fusion of Anatolian and Nordic musical traditions creates a sound that transcends cultural boundaries.
Thorhan is the seemingly improbable collaborative project of Danish-based musicians Orhan Özgür Turan and Þór Arnarsson. Turan, of Turkish descent, is a master of the bağlama ( a kind of long necked lute) ad has worked with ensembles like Ipek Yolu and Hudna. Arnarsson, hailing from Iceland, brings his expertise as a guitarist and producer.
Opening with "Rey" and "Göl," both penned by Turan, the tracks set a contemplative tone, highlighting the intricate melodies of the bağlama. As the album progresses, traditional songs from both cultures are reimagined, with Turan and Arnarsson each lending their vocals in Turkish and Icelandic, respectively.
The album is an even mix of contemporary (most involving Turan) and traditional songs - although this might not be quite apparent from casual listening.
Opening cut "Rey" is a particularly beautiful piece with a delicate acoustic break that may remind many Western listeners of the the acoustic figure in Led Zeppelin's classic, "Stairway To Heaven".
The album closes memorably with "Gelin Ayşe", a traditional classic, to which Arnarsson's guitar work injects a piercing, contemporary gravitas that perfectly compliments the mournful vocal.
The duo's mutual respect and understanding allows for their fluid exchange of musical ideas, resulting in compositions that feel both rooted in tradition and innovative in their execution. Similarly, the fusion of Anatolian rhythms with Nordic harmonies creates a soundscape that's balances the familiar and the refreshingly new.
Read more ... Ivan Rod
Matjaa: The Battle of the Hotels
MAYSSA JALLAD
Released 3 March 2023
****-
A unique narrative that personifies buildings as silent witnesses to conflict, blending Arabic lyrics with experimental folk and ambient textures.
Mayssa Jallad is a Lebanese singer-songwriter and architectural historian who intertwines her musical talent with her academic research. The album delves into the 1975–76 Battle of the Hotels in Beirut - the first high-rise urban battle in history. Collaborating with producer Fadi Tabbal, her work doubles as historical document and poignant reflection on Lebanon's Civil War (1975 - 1990), aiming to preserve collective memory through art.
Jallad's ethereal vocals narrate stories from the perspectives of Beirut's iconic hotels, transforming them into characters that embody the city's fractured history.
Tracks like “Baynana” and “Al Irth” merge traditional Arabic maqam-inspired melodies with ambient, minimalist textures that recall the work of artists like Julia Holter or Eleni Karaindrou, yet remain unmistakably rooted in the Levantine experience.
The album draws subtly from regional folk, contemporary classical, and electroacoustic traditions, without succumbing to pastiche. As a suite, Marjaa succeeds not just in its historical ambition, but as a coherent, emotionally resonant body of music—structured like a requiem in movements, with pacing and tonal variation that reward full-album immersion.
The album's meticulous sound design, enriched by field recordings and minimalist instrumentation, underscores the emotional weight of the narratives. Jallad's dual expertise in music and architecture allows her to explore the spatial dimensions of memory and conflict, making the album a unique auditory exploration her subject.
It’s a quietly masterful debut that marks Jallad as a composer of rare depth and originality.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Matjaa: The Battle of the Hotels (Versions)
CIVILISTJAVE!, MAYSSA JALLAD
Released 6 June 2025
****-
Their collaboration bridges cultural and musical divides, offering a fresh perspective on the themes of memory and conflict explored in Jallad's original album.
The sequel to Lebanese Artist Mayssa Jallad's 2023 album, this collaboration with Swedish producer Civilistjävel! (Tomas Bodén) reimagines the work through the lens of dub techno and ambient electronic music. Civilistjävel! deconstructs the source material, infusing it with minimalist rhythms and echoing textures, creating a sonic landscape where Jallad's vocals float amidst atmospheric soundscapes.
The Versions album abstracts Marjaa's narrative into texture and mood. Tracks like “Baynana (Version)” and “Kharita (Dub)” strip away the original’s melodic and structural anchors, replacing them with dub delay, sub-bass, and reverberant space. The result evokes memory rather than map—Jallad’s voice now a ghostly remnant rather than a guide.
The architectural metaphors of the original—buildings as battlegrounds, memory encoded in structure—are largely dissolved. What remains is atmosphere: trauma made ambient.
Rather than restating Marjaa, Civilistjävel! reimagines it as aftermath, offering emotional truth through sonic dislocation rather than historical detail.
Read more ... Bandcamp
I recognise you from my sketches
FADI TABBAL
Released 31 January 2025
****-
A missed opportunity to update their classic trip-hop: the result is tranquil but ultimately unsatisfying.
Lebanese producer, guitarist, and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal plays a pivotal role in Beirut's experimental music scene. As the founder of Tunefork Studios, he has collaborates with regional artists, shaping the city's alternative soundscape. His solo work delves into ambient and drone territories, characterized by layered guitar textures and introspective themes. Tabbal's music often explores the interplay between personal identity and collective memory, offering listeners a meditative auditory experience.
I Recognize You from My Sketches, Tabbal's sixth solo endeavor and his most texturally diverse work to date, comprises ten instrumental tracks that oscillate between distortion and clarity, mirroring the internal conflicts of identity and self-perception. Utilizing electric guitar, synthesizers, and cassette tapes, Tabbal crafts ambient soundscapes that evoke both solace and disquiet.
On I Recognize You from My Sketches, Tabbal crafts an immersive suite of instrumentals that seem less composed than exhaled - rolling atmospheres that shift like low clouds over a sleepless city.
Built from looping guitars, detuned synths, tape hiss and field textures, the album evokes the psychic weight of Beirut - not in literal sound but in emotional weather.
“When We Swam Together” and “All Those Nights” shimmer like memories too distant to comfort, while “(keep thumping)” and “Drunk in the Kitchen” churn restlessly, mirroring the internal frictions Tabbal describes: between hope and isolation, past and present, resilience and weariness.
By the time we reach the closer, “I Am All That Is Left,” the mood has thinned to near-silence, a kind of uneasy resolution that echoes not just personal trauma, but also the ambient grief of a city shaped by upheaval. In Tabbal's form of ambient music there is not much relaxation and retreat; his is slow, searching and haunted.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Luminal / Lateral
BRIAN ENO & BEATIE WOLFE
Released 6 June 2025
***--
Another tranquil ambient journey, prioritizing mood over melody but without surprise or delight.
Brian Eno started out in Roxy Music and became a pioneering figure in ambient music, renowned producer and a serial collaborator from Bowie, U2 and Talking Heads down. His most recent collaboration is with Beatie Wolfe is a British-American conceptual artist and musician, known for her innovative approaches to music and technology. Their partnership began after a shared discussion on art and climate at SXSW 2022 and together, they explore the intersection of art, emotion, and environmental consciousness.
Their resultant albums, Luminal and Lateral, delve into "dream music" and "space music" respectively, offering listeners another immersive auditory experience of the kind for which Eno has become famous.
Lateral is an expansive sonic suite that invites listeners into a meditative space. Comprising eight parts titled "Big Empty Country - I to VII" the album unfolds as a continuous ambient work, characterized by Eno's signature atmospheric textures, with Wolfe's conceptual artistry hardly apparent. The compositions are subtle, with layers of sound that ebb and flow, creating a sense of vastness and introspection.
Luminal features spoken-word fragments from Beatie Wolfe and textured atmospheres shaped by Brian Eno. It plays more like an intimate diary of the subconscious - all soft shadows, ghostly synths, and echoing thoughts.
For fans of ambient music seeking a calming auditory environment, the albums deliver a cohesive and soothing experience but they do not break new ground for those familiar with Eno's extensive ambient catalog. Those looking for more dynamic or groundbreaking elements may find it less than engaging. While the introduction of a female voice to Eno's synthetic world of sounds is welcome, the overwhelming mood, like much of Eno's ambient work, is melancholy.
If ever there was an opportunity for Eno to expand his mood-set to explore the music of brighter emotions ("delight", "joy" or "whimsy" ... ) this was it - and the moment has passed.
Read more ... Brian Eno
More
PULP
Released 6 June 2025
****-
Introspective lyrics, familiar sonics and a mature exploration of life's later chapters: still wringing energy songforms we thought had been retired.
Pulp, the Sheffield-born band fronted by Jarvis Cocker, emerged in the late 1970s but achieved prominence during the Britpop era of the 1990s. Their 1995 album Different Class won the Mercury Prize and cemented their status with hits like "Common People." Known for their sharp social commentary and theatrical flair, Pulp disbanded in 2002 after releasing We Love Life. Following reunions in 2011 and 2022, they returned to the studio, culminating in More, their first album in 24 years. The album, produced by James Ford, marks a poignant chapter following the 2023 passing of bassist Steve Mackey.
More doesn’t reinvent Pulp, but it reaffirms their unlikely alchemy: theatrical flair, pop instincts, and a poet’s eye for the awkward glory of human experience. The band draws on familiar sonic palettes - glam strut, synth pulses, brittle disco - but still wrings fresh energy from forms that many of their peers have long since abandoned.
The lyrics are some of Jarvis Cocker’s most introspective yet: aging, death, and desire linger at the edges of every track, yet there’s a sly vitality in the delivery. “Grown Ups” and “My Sex” crackle with tension, both sexual and existential, while “Got to Have Love” turns romantic yearning into a wounded anthem. “Spike Island” opens the album with motorik propulsion and deadpan Bowie-esque swagger, and “A Hymn of the North” closes it with a subdued, hymn-like melancholy.
There’s no pretence of reinvention here, just a band owning their limitations and still making them sing. But it does demonstrate that what seemed like dated songforms (Britpop introspection, glam-infused indie, post-punk ennui) may still have life in them outside the "Legacy" circuit if infused with the insight of a sharper, older lens. It’s not a comeback; it’s a continuation with deeper shadows and more honest light.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Rough Trade Records
Escape The Chaos
MORCHEEBA
Released 16 May 2025
100% Records, Fly Agaric Records
***--
A missed opportunity to update their classic trip-hop: the result is tranquil but ultimately unsatisfying.
Morcheeba, the British trip-hop pioneers formed in the mid-1990s became renowned for their fusion of downtempo beats, soulful vocals and cinematic soundscapes. The duo, vocalist Skye Edwards and multi-instrumentalist Ross Godfrey, craft a distinctive sound that blends elements of electronic, soul, and psychedelic music. This release marks a continuation of their signature style developed over three decades and eleven albums,
Opening with "Call for Love," the album immediately envelops the listener in Edwards' velvety vocals and Godfrey's lush instrumentation. "Elephant Clouds" and "Far We Come" showcase the duo's knack for blending mellow grooves with introspective lyrics. The track "We Live and Die" is a reflective piece, highlighting the band's longevity and evolution over the years.
A raremoment of contemporary influence, "Peace of Me," featuring rapper Oscar #Worldpeace, introduces a fresh dynamic to Morcheeba's sound while retaining their signature chill. Similarly "Hold It Down" has an edgy vocal sample but such moments are scarce here.
Despite its elegant production and Skye Edwards’ ever-silken vocals, Escape the Chaos plays it too safe. Except for isolated moments, Morcheeba miss the chance to refresh their sound or reach a younger, genre-fluid audience. For longtime fans, it may be a comforting listen; for everyone else, it’s background music that never quite steps forward.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Morcheeba