THE WORLD'S BEST NEW ALBUMS: UPDATED DAILY
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2025 July Best New Albums
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Live From
The Royal Albert Hall
JORDAN RAKEI
Released 25 July 2025
Jordan Rakei / Universal Music
*****
A quietly triumphant live set for an iconic setting, from the jazz-soul polymath: showing how much cool it takes to fill this concert hall.
New Zealand-born, to a to a Pākehā mother and a Cook Islands Māori father, Jordan Rakei and his family moved to Brisbane, Australia at the age of three, where he honed his craft, before he made London his base in 2015.
Rakei fuses soul, jazz, and electronic textures with confessional lyricism and smooth, versatile vocals. A multi-instrumentalist and accomplished producer, he has steadily built an international following through albums - The Loop (2024), What We Call Life (2021), Origin (2019) and collaborations with the likes of Tom Misch, Alfa Mist, and the Cinematic Orchestra.
Live From The Royal Albert Hall captures Rakei's live prowess with a 21‑song setlist spanning major albums and deep cuts.
Highlight performances include opening track “Learning” with its hypnotic rhythm and emotive vocal delivery, and “Eye To Eye” a tender, slow-burner, which gains dynamic lift from audience interaction and shimmering horn accents. “Flowers” offers an extended, sweeping moment, featuring vibrational interplay with guest guitarist Eliza Oakes and the Idrîsî Ensemble, for a transcendent soundscape.
Other standout tracks: “Friend or Foe”, which engages the audience in a handclap and bristles with funky urgency; “Mind’s Eye”, which closes with introspective grace and “Everything Everything”, which he dedicates to his wife, listening in the audience.
The recording quality is exemplary: a warm, natural mix that captures the hall’s reverberant acoustics while maintaining clarity across vocals, rhythm, horns and strings.
Rakei’s delivery is polished yet emotionally centered, supported by a band that reacts sensitively to the room. The performance favors refinement over re‑arrangement, but these nuanced versions emphasize maturity and musical intelligence.
The full concert film may be found here: Jordan Rakei - Live From The Royal Albert Hall
Read more ... Jordan Rakei
Manifest Everything
BODDHI SATVA
Released 11 July 2025
*****
This soul-framed double LP of Afro-house anthems and intimate interludes is a heartfelt cultural manifesto and tribute, uniting dancefloor power, ancestral roots and personal memory.
Boddhi Satva, born Sativa Tosin Aina in Côte d’Ivoire and raised in Angola, is a London-based pioneer of Ancestral Soul - a blend of Afro-house, deep house, and soulful global rhythms. His 2022 album Manifestation earned a Grammy nomination in the Best Alternative Music Album category, elevating Afro-electronic sound to wider acclaim.
Satva's music often carries spiritual and political resonance, anchored by rich percussion and collaborated vocals.
Manifest Everything, is a personal tribute to his late mother and a celebration of cultural roots, marked by deep lyricism, packaged within striking, Basquiat-inspired visuals.
It is a powerful double vinyl set that curates highlights from Satva’s Manifestation and In Spite of Everything (2024), placing intimate moments among pulsating club-ready tracks in an immersive narrative journey of resistance, memory, and healing .
The first of this two disc set is opened by “Nyè Sonni So (The Strength Within)”, a four-minute intro that features a delightful kora lead figure, backed with soft-keyboard chords. The album's Afro-house heartbeat grows into “I Won’t Say I’m Not Hurting,” in which Bodhi's high, soulful vocal soars over shimmering, layered synths. “In That Funk” and “Dancing in Circles (Main Mix)” pivot toward dancefloor euphoria with sticky bass and propulsive rhythm. The contemplative “In Spite of Everything” closes the sequence with gravitas.
Disc two pivots into collaboration with globally recognized artists, each adding distinctive flavor. Raheem DeVaughn on “Finesse Me” channels buttery soul; Davi Lorenzo & Mr Luu’s “Sácalo” delivers seductive Afro-Latin swing; J’Something guests on the gospel/house-jam “Slow Down”; Spilulu, Kaysha & H. Baraka on “Kilulu” offer silky Afro-pop fusion. Zaki Ibrahim’s “Vibrate High,” Jorge Bezerra’s “Xangô” and the raw percussion of “Kotto River” closes the set, with Freddy da Stupid offering deeper emotional textures. The sequencing sustains narrative momentum - no filler, each track purposeful.
Doubly significant, the double gatefold includes personal liner notes by Satva reflecting on his mother’s memory and features Basquiat-inspired artwork, underlining the spiritual and cultural importance of the project.
While not strictly new material, Manifest Everything serves as both retrospective and rebirth, elevating Satva’s Afro-electronic vision with emotional authenticity and dancefloor impact.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Pulse
QUR'AN SHAHEED
Released 11 July 2025
*****
A sensational debut full of daring and raw potential, that dazzles, disrupts and frequently disorients.
Qur’an Shaheed is a pianist, poet, and vocalist from Pasadena, now based in Inglewood, California. The daughter of two professional musicians (her mother a piano teacher, her father a musical director for Marvin Gaye), Shaheed received classical piano training from the age of four.
Over time, she has evolved into a fearless improviser and genre-defying composer. Her music, often composed through tactile experimentation with keyboards and samplers, fuses jazz, neo-soul, spoken word, and lo-fi abstraction into radiant, dreamlike compositions. Her fluid artistic philosophy embraces personal vulnerability, communal liberation, and a boundless sonic imagination.
Pulse is a daring and challenging debut, overflowing with invention, spirit and restless experimentation. Shaheed draws on classical training, poetic fragments, looping keyboards and glitchy studio effects to shape a personal sonic language. The result is emotionally communicative but structurally elusive, a work as much about process as product.
With production support from Spencer Hartling and vivid inclusion of harp, flute, modular synth and saxophone, the album flows like a dream collage, teeming with sonic and textural shifts whose apparent spontaneity is in fact deeply considered.
While Pulse is richly expressive, it’s narrative is opaque. Tracks often fragment into sketches or abruptly shift mood, making it hard to follow a sustained musical or emotional arc; and the sheer density of ideas can be exhausting over a full listen.
Opening track "Dreams" and moments like “Doo Doo Doo” and “Somber Eyes” hint at clarity and cohesion, but they’re surrounded by material that feels deliberately amorphous, namely the challenging ambience of "Fix It" Parts 1 & 2" and "Variations " Parts 1, 2 & 3".
However, sheer brilliance is to be found here, (such as the transmogrifying trajectory of "3am Wine Drunk"), but it arrives in flashes rather than through an identifiable unified vision. THis might be distracting uon first listen, but repeat plays will reward those with patience.
"Mixing Colors" offers five minutes of angelic calm mid-set and the moods of the many abstract pieces offer glimpses of imaginative inspiration; the album would have sustained further development of the sometimes sublime moodier passages, which offer glimpses of Shaheed's exceptional potential.
Shaheed describes her approach as a resolve for wide-ranging, innovative musical techniques that merge intuitive composition with methodical devotion. She describes Pulse as "a spirited, unflinching approach to a new sound, inviting listeners into a field of lucid vision and resonance, capturing her voice in its most liberated form".
Pulse may be less an album to absorb all at once, than a sound-diary to return to in pieces but there's enough here to alert anyone listening that Qur'an Shaheed is "One To Watch".
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Affirmations
(Live At Blue Note New York)
THEON CROSS
Released 11 July 2025
*****
On the landmark New York jazz stage, Cross’s tuba-powered ensemble channels energy, ritual and improvisational mastery across a live set shaped like a DJ's playlist, that is immersive, expansive and (yes) affirmative!
Theon Cross is the London-based tubist whose Afro‑Caribbean beat fusion and jazz explorations have made him one of the most original voices in contemporary UK jazz. Rising to prominence through Sons of Kemet and associations with Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd, and Makaya McCraven, Cross blends tuba, electric bass, spiritual jazz, and dub-inflected grooves. His earlier albums Fyah (2019) and INTRA ( 2021) showcased his evolving compositional voice. Affirmations marks his electrifying debut on the U.S. scene, a transatlantic quartet live at the iconic Blue Note in New York, blending London and Chicago voices in an immersive live set deeply rooted in improvisation and soul.
Recorded during Cross' debut U.S. headline performance at the Blue Note, Affirmations captures a rare live statement of both procedural and emotional depth. With Isaiah Collier on saxophone, James Russell Sims on drums and Nikos Ziarkas on guitar, the 12-track set flows like a DJ mix - tight transitions and pacing that propel listeners through moments of tension, release, and spiritual uplift. The set includes pieces drawn from Cross's earlier work but every track is reimagined - stretched, spliced and rejuvenated by collective momentum. The title track, a 14-minute centerpiece, debuts here with full live presence; rising from murmur to crescendo in waves shaped by affirmational resolve.
Short interstitial pieces (“Greetings,” “Transition,” “Leap of Faith”) serve s dynamic connective tissue, evoking ambient minimalism one moment, pulsing like tribal incantations the next. Nikos Ziarkas’s guitar shimmers with fusion and psychedelic inflections; and Collier’s sax roars with Coltrane-esque urgency. Cross’s tuba anchors both frequency and feeling, sloshing between melodic lines and cascading sub-bass flesh.
Cross' ability to move between groove, improvisation, and electronic textures is making the tuba not just viable but vital again — almost like what James Blake did for falsetto in soul-electronica, or what Thundercat did for six-string bass. It is startling that, despite its foundational role in early jazz and marching bands, the tuba has rarely been the voice out front, much less associated with household-name soloists and band leaders. Part of that is practical: it's physically demanding, tonally massive and traditionally supportive rather than melodic or agile. Leading from behind the tuba is like conducting an orchestra from the back row, with a barbell on your chest! And yet, the few who do it - like Howard Johnson or Ray Draper (and now, Theon Cross) - bring a rare combination of endurance, imagination, and humility: they're like architects designing low-end accommodation and then carving space within, to live and work. Theon Cross might be the best positioned yet to break that ceiling.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Orbits
THE CIRCLING SUN
Released 11 July 2025
*****
New Zealand’s finest spiritual-jazz astronauts keep the groove grounded and the soul elevated. A unified groove collective, connecting deep jazz, soul-fusion, and masterful improvisation.
Hailing from Aotearoa/New Zealand, The Circling Sun is a shapeshifting ensemble of jazz musicians, producers, and crate-diggers associated with bands like Yoko-Zuna, Avantdale Bowling Club, and the Māori-Polynesian collective movements. Blending Pharoah Sanders-inspired spirituality with ’70s fusion and earthy club sensibilities, their debut on Soundway Records places them at the vanguard of the Southern Hemisphere's jazz-funk resurgence.
Orbits is both reverent and exploratory, calling on the astral ethos of Alice Coltrane and Lonnie Liston Smith while carving its own warm-blooded identity. Opener “Opening Sequence” sets the mood with shimmering electric piano, swelling flutes, and a rhythm section that breathes rather than blasts. Throughout, there’s a sense of collective listening—a hallmark of quality jazz ensembles.
The record flows through lush meditative grooves (“Plume,” “Microcosm”) and muscular funk workouts (“Spirits,” “Cascades”) without ever sounding imitative. Dub echoes and sun-warped synths drift in and out, with subtle Pacific influences grounding the group’s internationalist leanings. The production is crisp but unpolished—alive, textural, and free of studio excess.
What elevates Orbits is its cohesion: no grandstanding solos, no overreaching ideas—just deep, sustained focus on rhythm, tone, and ensemble interplay. It’s clearly crafted by musicians who understand the lineage but refuse to treat it like a museum piece.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Ripen, Vol. 1 (EP)
SAMPOLOGY
Released 4 July 2025
*****
A sun-drenched tapestry of neo-soul, jazz, and Pacific rhythms, that blossoms with warmth, groove and global curiosity.
At its core, 'Ripen Vol. 1' is music made by humans - 14 collaborators to be precise - all brought together under Sampology's direction as writer, composer, arranger, producer and mixer.
The EP showcases an array of instrumentation including vocal trios, strings, trumpet, saxophone, bass, double bass, congas, timbales, synths and drum machines, and was written and recorded at Sampology's Middle Name Records studio in Meanjin/Brisbane.
Opening single "Morning Sun" delivers the perfect soundtrack for a daybreak brimming with optimism, featuring the uplifting harmonies of a choral trio comprising Tiana Khasi, Hannah Macklin and Kalila. The second single "Ripened" introduces South Sudanese poet, activist, actor and model NMMWL (pronounced "NYA"), who makes her recording debut with powerful spoken word over soulful instrumentation. The EP's feature track, "Marigolds for Movement" lives up to its name, combining acoustic textures of conga, strings, horns, 303 baselines and spacey synth chords for sunshine and acid vibes.
The release extends beyond audio into a distinct visual world created through Sampology's mixed media visual artwork, collaging works from his floral photography practice with the solid orange, yellow and teal Ripen colour palette to document the world on the doorstep of where Ripen was created.
Read more ... Sampology
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A Dawning
OLAFUR ARNALDS, TALOS
Released 11 July 2025
*****
A hushed and fragile meditation on grief and renewal - an ambient-pop requiem that is all the more moving for it's context.
Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds is renowned for blending neoclassical minimalism with ambient electronics, creating introspective soundscapes that pair piano, strings, and modular synths with subtle field recordings. His work spans solo albums, film scores, and collaborations with artists like Nils Frahm and Bonobo.
Talos is the recording project of the late Irish singer and producer Eoin French, whose haunting vocals and layered production evoke art-pop, post-rock, and ambient soul. Together, their shared interest in atmosphere, space, and emotional depth has culminated in A Dawning, a collaborative album forged from personal grief and creative trust, marking a new chapter for both artists.
A Dawning is a luminous and solemn album born of mutual vulnerability. Recorded between Reykjavík and Cork, it pairs Arnalds’ hushed piano and string textures with Talos’ falsetto and ambient production, producing a series of restrained, elegiac compositions that rarely rise above a whisper but leave deep emotional resonance. A close creative and personal friendship was just beginning to form when French fell seriously ill. As the fear and uncertainty of his condition deepened and the growing realisation set in that there would be no recovery, the two turned to music as a form of solace. Creating together became a lifeline: a quiet, purposeful act of communion in the face of the inevitable.
It is beautiful, it is heartbreaking - the most profoundly meaningful project of Ólafur Arnalds’ career to date.
Opener “While They Sleep” sets the tone: a fragile piano motif dissolves into harmonic haze, with French’s voice emerging like breath through morning frost.
“Bedrock” and “We Didn’t Know We Were Ready” provide the album’s emotional core and conclusion, marrying choral surges, broken rhythms and yearning vocal lines. Arnalds’ signature prepared piano interludes act as pauses for breath, while Talos’ lyrics - grief-struck, unresolved - float in abstraction rather than statement.
This is a record of suspended emotion: loss acknowledged, but not resolved. There are no climaxes, no obvious singles. Instead, it unfolds like a long exhale, each track a moment of private reckoning rendered in exquisite sonic detail. At 40 minutes, it demands focus but rewards immersion.
It is a subtle, deeply personal collaboration that avoids sentimentality, staying with you like a dream remembered just before waking. A quiet triumph of tone, trust, and emotional acuity.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Aeris
ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR
Released 20 June 2025
*****
Music has to have everything: overwhelming power, illuminating light, endless gentleness and the deepest darkness. Fury, pain, remorse. Everything that makes us human. And the tender touch of redeeming love. - Erkki-Sven Tüür
Aeris is the ninth ECM New Series album to feature the vibrant and highly expressive music of Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür. Olari Elts, a long-time champion of Tüür’s work, conducts the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in compelling, intensely-focused performances of Phantasma, De Profundis and Tüür’s tenth symphony “ÆRIS”, which is scored for horn quartet and orchestra.
Phantasma (2008) is an indirect homage to Beethoven, with ghostly echoes from the Coriolan Overture, the otherworldly allure of Tüür’s piece also emphasized by microtonal glissandi.
De Profundis (2013) is dedicated to Olari Elts and is a free interpretation of the Old Testament psalm, its plea from out of the depths conveyed instrumentally, as vibraphone and harp lead the music upwards from despair and, eventually, toward transformation of the entire sonic field.
In Latin, Tüür notes, “æris” means brass while “aeris” means air, “and without this essential element, not a sound would come out of brass instruments. Thus, the title of my tenth symphony focuses mainly on the brass sound that carries the weight of this composition.” Written at the urging of the ensemble German Hornsound in 2022, the symphony is a vast drama of shifting energies and interactions, with the horns effectively “messengers from beyond the horizon, bringing prophecies of imminent irreversible changes.”
Read more ... ECM
Flowers
DURAND JONES & THE INDICATIONS
Released 27 June 2025
****-
A contemporary soul album that is filled with the spirit of Motown and Stax Records - vintage warmth, blooming in slow motion.
Durand Jones & The Indications are a retro-soul group formed in Indiana, built around the dual vocal leadership of Durand Jones, whose gospel-trained grit evokes Otis Redding and Bill Withers, and drummer-falsetto Aaron Frazer, whose airy tone recalls Smokey Robinson and Curtis Mayfield. Together, they fuse soul tradition with modern nuance.
Flowers finds the band stepping into a more mature, meditative phase - shedding the revivalist urgency of their early work for a soulful sound that blends psychedelia, folk, and ambient textures.
After more than a decade of music-making, the trio have blossomed as a unit and are basking in their successes. On their aptly titled new album, Flowers, The Indications unfurl their true colors — embracing all their roots and influences, maturation and confidence, and share them with the world. "We spent the last 10 years building this house and now we’re living in it,” says Blake Rhein.
Flowers reflects DJI's growth and conviction: It's grown and sexy, fit for cruising and kissing, and delights in the softer side of soul and disco. "All of these songs touch on such mature topics, things that we never got to sing about before," says Durand Jones. "We are all in our 30s, have all been through ups and downs in our personal lives and professional lives, and flowers are a sign of maturity, growth, spring, productivity."
nce for memory and loss.
The group’s influences run deep, but Flowers is no pastiche. It’s a record about internal weather — grief, growth, and grace — rendered in soft-focus soul. Without raising its voice, it leaves a lasting impression.
Read more ... Durand Jones and the Indications | Bandcamp | Dead Oceans
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Betting on Blak
JUNGAJI
Released 13 June 2025
*****
Rising from obscurity after three decades of creative endeavours Jangaji joins the vanguard of contemporary First Nations artists - with an album of songs that are grounded in soulfulness and overflowing with culturally resonant musicianship.
Jungaji is a First Nations songman, visual artist, playwright, and activist and a veteran the Australian music industry for three decades. First appearing on the scene as a teenager with Aim4More in the 90s, he has now embarked on a new creative path fusing Soul and R&B to create a unique and authentic sound that showcases his cultural roots.
Jungaji has undergone a deep cultural transformation and found a profound understanding of his identity and is dedicated to sharing his western songlines and artistic testimony with the world. He maintains the ancient fires through his smooth modern deliveries of stories & songlines.
A proud Western GuGu Yalanji & Birrigubba man, Jungaji is continuing ancient law by documenting the stories of his people through art, theatre, music and storytelling, having learned these traditions from his elders - and particularly from his last ancient connection to a 104-year-old bush man with whom Jungaji had a life-changing spiritual initiation. He is passionate about preserving these traditions for future generations.
Jangaji has forged a reputation based on integrity and has been delving deep into the language and culture of his ancestral lands, talking to elders, and creating art both visually and aurally. Betting On Blak is a deeply personal and culturally resonant debut that melds classic soul grooves with First Nations storytelling. Jungaji's voice - rich, expressive, and unhurried - anchors the album's diverse textures, conveying themes of love, resilience, and sovereignty. The production leans into classic 70s R&B, yet it resists nostalgia. His songwriting draws deeply from First Nations oral traditions while embracing the soul and blues idioms of Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Gurrumul.
The title track sets the tone with its conversational phrasing and melodic lines that echo both gospel and saltwater songlines. “Gummy Bamarra” uses Gugu Yalanji language as the primary lyrical mode, delivered over a minimal groove that lets each syllable resonate. Rather than rely on hooks or layered production, Jungaji employs repetition and phrasing variation—creating intimacy without theatricality.
Rather than following trends, Betting On Blak occupies its own space: dignified, grounded, and emotionally resonant. It joins the vanguard of Australian First Nations music that reclaims soul not only as genre but as inheritance.
Read more ... Jungaji
ڪڏهن ملنداسين
Kadahin Milandaasin
TARUN BALANI
Released 16 May 2025
*****
Blending South Asian, Persian and Arab influences, Balani’s jazz elegy for Sindh is conceptually unified, emotionally layered, and musically sophisticated
Tarun Balani is an Indian drummer, composer, and producer whose work traverses modern jazz, electronica, and South Asian traditional forms. Based in New Delhi and trained at Berklee, he leads multiple projects including Dharma and Seasonal Affected Beats. Balani’s music is conceptually ambitious, rhythmically intricate, and emotionally resonant, often exploring identity and displacement.
On ڪڏهن ملنداسين (Kadahin Milandaasin), Tarun Balani offers his most personal statement to date - an album rooted in ancestral memory and shaped by present-day diasporic yearning. The title track, a brief yet aching invocation, sets the emotional compass: this is music of longing, imagined reunion, and cultural reassembly. Joined by his Dharma Quartet - Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Sharik Hasan (piano/synth), and Olli Hirvonen (guitar) - Balani creates a meditative but restlessly alive soundscape where tradition and innovation speak in hushed tones.
“Lajpat Nagar Sometimes” opens the set with brushed grooves and cautious melodic searching, evoking urban transience. “The Laburnum Blooms” and “Locusts Are Descending” stretch out with patient, layered improvisations, their open-ended forms allowing for microtonal trumpet cries and glistening synth textures. “ٻوڏ Sailaab” (Flood) is densely rhythmic and impressionistic, while “Samadhi 02.11.2024” folds ambient minimalism into spiritual reflection. The album’s closer, “For Every Man Saved A Victim Will Be Found,” leaves no easy catharsis - its title alone suggests unresolved legacies and the moral weight of survival.
Balani’s use of Sindhi text and subtle vocal layering adds historical and emotional heft without falling into pastiche. This is music for memory work - not nostalgic, but vividly present, and quietly radical in its refusal to exoticize.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
BRIAN JACKSON
FEAT. BLACK THOUGHT
Released 2 May 2025
*****
A classic reimagined for today: flute-driven jazz-rap, socially urgent lyrics and dance-floor pulse coalesce in a powerful update that bridges protest-era soul with modern consciousness.
Brian Jackson is best known as the musical architect behind Gil Scott‑Heron’s early 1970s classics; a pianist, flutist, and co-writer whose electric Rhodes and flute lines helped shape albums like Pieces of a Man and Winter in America. After decades behind the scenes, Jackson has emerged as a solo figure in his own right. He collaborates now with generations spanning nostalgic soul, hip‑hop, and house—working notably with Masters At Work and, on this project, Black Thought. His steady commitment to conscious expression and melodic sophistication makes him a rare elder statesman bridging eras of protest music and dance‑floor resonance.
The 2025 edition of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised revisits Brian Jackson’s foundational protest anthem in stunning new form. Produced by house legends Masters At Work (Louie Vega & Kenny Dope) and featuring Black Thought, this recreation reimagines the classic with fresh relevance. The revamped track, with new lyrics referencing Fox News, social media, protests, and consumerist culture, is delivered by Black Thought’s trademark intensity. Jackson’s flute remains central, weaving through the bass-heavy rhythm section and deep jazz-rap groove, while Black Thought's new voice gives the statement bite. It’s both homage and call to arms, built for now.
The production balances message and movement: poised for both nightclub play and conscious listening. Though one track alone, it’s powerful: a modern liberation anthem that stands confidently beside its predecessor, bridging generations.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Hiwar
ALEPH QUINTET
Released 18 April 2025
*****
Privileging mood, texture and collective sensitivity this exciting Quintet delivers authentic, cross-cultural music that feels deeply lived-in rather than conceptual.
Brussels-based, Aleph Quintet is a French-Tunisian ensemble rooted in modal jazz and Maghrebi (north African) traditions. Led by drummer and composer Sofian El Mabrouk, the band includes saxophonist Adam Mounir, pianist Clément Daldosso, bassist Nabil Boularès and oud player Nesrine Gherbi. Their name, Aleph, nods to both Arabic script and infinite possibility.
The Quintet's sophomore album, the follow-up to 2023's award-winning "Shapes of Silence"), Hiwar is a conceptually unified and emotionally layered set that finds its voice in contrast and convergence. “Hiwar” (meaning “dialogue”) invites listeners into a richly textured conversation between North African heritage and European modern jazz language.
Opener “Hair Dance” sets the tone with a shifting groove and sparse melodic material that unfolds slowly, making space for detailed instrumental interplay. “Monsters Are Everywhere” leans into abstraction, its minor modality and free pulse suggesting paranoia without melodrama. “Samaï,” the first of the album’s two centrepieces, builds on a classical Arabic form, but reframes it with a stretched harmonic palette and a jazz ensemble’s sense of dynamic evolution.
For many, I am sure, "Le Chat Noir" will transport listeners to after dark sessions in the jazz bars, music festivals and salons of the Maghreb.
The second major element, the four-part “Hiwar” suite (preludio, follia, aria, finale) reveals the group’s most ambitious writing. Here, the oud and piano entwine in delicate counterpoint, while saxophone threads through with lyrical restraint. The “follia” movement stands out for its intensity, pulsing with ritual energy, before the “finale” closes in hushed reconciliation.
Read more ... ECM
Cancionera
NATALIA LAFOURCADE
Released 24 April 2025
*****
The album dazzles with its display of range and rawness: a theatrical feast of folklore and modernity, of ambience and emotional presence.
Natalia Lafourcade, Mexico’s genre-defying songstress and a four-time Grammy winner, channels her “Cancionera”, the theatrical alter ego of a mystical songstress-witch, which she has adopted for this album and tour. A master at blending regional Mexican folk with chamber-pop, she harnesses analog spontaneity and lush instrumentation to explore themes of love, identity and cultural memory, building on the emotional depth of her breathtaking 2022 release "De Todas las Flores".
Cancionera is a cinematic, emotionally rich work that reinforces Lafourcade's position as both storyteller and folkloric medium. Recorded live to analog tape with 18 musicians over three weeks, its ambience is intimate, authentic and organic.
Where De Todas las Flores felt somber and thematically cohesive, Cancionera is deliberately more playful and episodic—a musical journey through vignettes rooted in Veracruz’s sonic heritage, incorporating bolero, cumbia, ranchera, tango, and jazz
The evocative opener, “Apertura Cancionera”, a cinematic prelude steeped in classical melancholy, sets the emotional register of the album.
Other highlights include the party‑infused exuberance of “Cocos en la Playa,” the tender duet with David Aguilar in “Como Quisiera Quererte” and the spectral folk reinvention “La Bruja – Versión Cancionera”
Critics laud Lafourcade’s embrace of her alter ego as an artistic liberation—inviting sensuality, love and even absurdity into her world. The analog live-take ethos brings warmth and authenticity, though the sprawling (76 minutes) runtime lacks the tight thematic focus of her previous work.
Cancionera may not eclipse the emotional cohesion of De Todas las Flores, but its live spontaneity and mythic scope reveal Lafourcade at her most daring, playful, and beautifully rooted.
Read more ... Bandcamp
The Making of Five Leaves Left
NICK DRAKE
Released 25 July 2025
****-
A 42-track collection made from re-discovered archival recordings becomes a spoken word scrapbook that adds context to the late singer's haunted masterpiece.
Nick Drake (1948–1974) was a reclusive English singer-songwriter whose three albums - Five Leaves Left (1969), Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972) - drew little attention in his lifetime but, a generation on, gained cult status for their haunting beauty and became hugely influential for singer-songwriters in multiple genres. His gentle vocals, intricate guitar tunings and introspective lyrics define a unique, melancholic corner of British folk.
This unofficial documentary LP - drawn from BBC interviews, engineer sessions, and contemporaneous radio commentary - offers a fascinating lens on the making of Five Leaves Left, Nick Drake’s 1969 debut. The spoken-word format leans heavily on archival narration and reflections from collaborators such as producer Joe Boyd and arranger Robert Kirby, whose chamber-folk orchestrations gave the album its twilight elegance. We hear Drake’s hesitance in the studio, the delicate tension between folk intimacy and baroque jazz stylings and the conflicted role of Island Records, which marketed him without understanding him.
There is no unreleased Drake music here, only fragments of familiar tracks and narration, so this is best approached as a historical artifact rather than a musical discovery. The centerpiece is two newly acquired tapes. Drake had given one of them to his friend Beverley Martyn, the English folk singer and wife of the late John Martyn, among Drake's closest friends and collaborators. It documents his first sessions at London’s fabled Sound Techniques studio — solo recordings of just voice and acoustic guitar. Yet for admirers of Drake’s music, the record deepens appreciation for the artistic and emotional fragility behind his sound. Especially revealing is the attention to the delicate balance in tracks like “River Man,” where Kirby’s sweeping strings risk overpowering Drake’s understated delivery, an artistic gamble that, in retrospect, elevated the material. This LP doesn’t mythologize Drake but situates Five Leaves Left within a creative process fraught with doubt, aesthetic tension, and quiet brilliance.
Read more ... Facebook
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Now Would Be A Good Time
FOLK BITCH TRIO
Released 25 July 2025
****-
Beautifully sung and subtly written, this trio’s promising debut is limited only by its narrow musical and emotional range.
Folk Bitch Trio are a Naarm/Melbourne-based three-piece featuring former high school friends Heide Peverelle, Jeanie Pilkington and Gracie Sinclair. Known for their angelic vocal blend, poetic sensibilities, and acoustic minimalism, they emerged from the city’s fertile indie-folk scene with a shared commitment to lyric-driven, harmony-rich songwriting.
Now Would Be a Good Time is a debut marked by elegance, lyrical nuance and remarkable vocal control. The trio’s harmonies are poised and intricately arranged, wrapping themes of self-doubt, longing and quiet rebellion in hushed acoustic textures.
Inspired by contemporary writers including Mary Gaitskill and Ottessa Moshfegh, there’s substance to the lyrical content of all songs, and careful construction to every track: chords ripple like wind across still water and melodies are delivered with grace and solemnity.
Their Bandcamp page suggests that they're taking the piss - insisting the album is "funny and darkly ironic" - yet, over its duration, the album's beautifully rendered palette remains stubbornly uniform. The group adheres to a narrow-cast approach throughout: hushed, melancholy and vocally interwoven, a style evoking Simon & Garfunkel or Bon Iver by way of Peter, Paul & Mary. The effect is intimate but singular: one longs for more rhythmic variation, melodic boldness and surprising dynamics, to break the spell.
What’s clear is that these are seriously talented musicians with intelligent lyrics and technical finesse. This is especially apparent when one tracks music and lyrics. But future work would benefit from a broader emotional and musical range.
The trio has built a strong foundation, yes. But variety will be key to enduring impact.
Fortunately, they are armed with a saucy band name, sexy identity and a musical approach that gives them limitless scope.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Find El Dorado
PAUL WELLER
Released 25 July 2025
Solid Bond Productions / Parlophone
****-
A collection of songs remembered, reimagined and reverently reborn.
On first glance El Dorado appears to be a collection of deep-cut covers of songs by obscure artists. Closer inspection reveals an album that represents Weller's personal journey - a meditation on songmaking, memory and meaningfulness.
An artist who has always acknowled his heroes, "Find El Dorado" is a later-in-life return to the approach he took in his 2004 album "Studio 150", in which he covered songs by songwriters including Tim Hardin, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot and Gil Scott-Heron (to name a few).
Thhis time around, across fifteen handpicked reinterpretations, Weller once again pits the desire for emotional cohesion against risks of musical eclecticism - and wins. Clearly, these songs have fired Weller's imagination and are now gently reshaped to reflect the artistry of his 60's - reflective, restrained and still quietly searching.
The arrangements, co-produced with fellow traveller Steve Cradock, are understated yet artful, often acoustic-led, grounded in warm harmonies and brushed drums, and embellished by well-placed flourishes of kora, horns or strings.
Lyrically, themes of longing, loss and acceptance emerge. Tracks like “Handouts in the Rain” (Richie Havens) and “One Last Cold Kiss” (Christy Moore) offer mournful grace, while “Pinball” (Brian Protheroe) and “When You Are a King”, exude faded glamor and wry nostalgia. His breathily-voiced interpretation of The Bee Gees' "I Started A Joke", a song of resigned reminiscence from beyond the grave, is a poignant redefinition of this classic".
Even with high-profile guests - Noel Gallagher’s guitar on the title track, Robert Plant duetting on Hamish Imlach’s “Clive’s Song”, the mood stays intimate. Weller doesn’t dominate, but he interprets with care, finding quiet strength in phrasing and tone. It’s a quietly luminous album, a soul-deep conversation with songs that still have something to say.
Read more ... Paul Weller
Surin
JUAN IBARRA & RAMIRO ZAYAS
Released 25 July 2025
****-
A tightly woven gem: South‑American rhythms meet European jazz clarity in a six‑song exploration of identity and improvisation.
Uruguayan drummer-composer Juan Ibarra merges Afro–Uruguayan candombe rhythms with modern jazz sensibilitie, while Argentine pianist and composer Ramiro Zayas weaves modal jazz, improvisation and Argentine folk echoes.
Surin was born after Ramiro Zayas and Juan Ibarra met in Basel, Switzerland. Their first encounter took place in Buenos Aires in 2010. Fourteen years later, they met in Europe and set up a recording session with Josh Schofield from England, Thiago Duarte from Brazil, and Sebastian Greschuk from Argentina.
The recording took place at the Jazz Campus Academy studios in Basel. The result is six original compositions that blend Uruguayan and Argentine folk rhythms influenced by modern jazz.
The album thrives on rhythmic drama deeply informed by Río de la Plata heritage - candombe pulses beneath intricate jazz motifs.
“Argenta” (Ibarra) introduces the set with taut percussion grooves and rich band textures. “Argento” (Zayas) builds on this with melodic grace, subtle piano lines, expressive horn shifts, and layered harmonic interplay. “Feed the Cat”, also by Zayas, drifts into freer territory - looser rhythms and extended improvisation that allow instrumental voices space. Ibarra’s “Gambito” is taut and rhythmic, a cerebral showcase for drummer‑composer interplay. “H1”, another by Ibarra, balances tension and release with shimmering interplay among rhythm and brass. The final piece, “La Mañana Siguiente” (Zayas), closes with lyrical depth and warm ensemble resonance.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Home Is Where The Zorb Is
SYCCO
Released 25 July 2025
****-
Sycco adds two new tracks to her 2024 debut album's technicolor coming-of-age story, extend its emotional palette.
Sycco is the genre-hopping project of Brisbane’s Sasha McLeod, a psychedelic pop producer and vocalist known for vibrant synth textures and clever songwriting. Rising from triple j Unearthed to international stages, she blends R&B-tinged vocals with indie electronica, collaborating with Flume, Chrome Sparks, and Mallrat while crafting an aesthetic rooted in DIY community energy.
Home Is Where The Zorb Is expands Sycco’s 2024 debut Zorb with two additional tracks that deepen its emotional register and energy.
“All In”, the new lead track, is a sparkling ballad awash in melancholy synths and vulnerable phrasing, channeling early-20s ache into a heartfelt slow-burn that contrasts the more chaotic energy elsewhere on the record. Sycco’s production is restrained here—allowing her voice space to express yearning and self-reflection.
In contrast, “Monkey Madness (At Midnight Remix)” reframes one of Zorb’s more hyperactive tracks with a twitchier, glitch-laden intensity. The remix exaggerates the original’s off-kilter funk into something more club-ready, distilling the essence of midnight overstimulation into two and a half jittery minutes.
Together, these additions don’t alter Zorb’s tone but rather extend its emotional palette. The album remains a vivid portrait of early adulthood—riddled with overstimulation, intimacy, late-night reflection, and communal joy. Flume’s shimmering textures on “Ripple” and Chrome Sparks’ glossy aesthetics remain standout elements, but Sycco’s fingerprints are on every synth swell and lyrical pivot. Home Is Where The Zorb Is reasserts that this is her universe—chaotic, curious, and full of heat.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Eigengrau
VINCENT MEISSNER
Released 24 July 2025
****-
An inward journey through minimalist textures—a luminous blend of jazz precision and emotional resonance.
Vincent Meissner, born in 2000, is a German pianist-composer crafting a singular voice within modern European jazz. Centered in his trio with Josef Zeimetz (bass) and Henri Reichmann (drums), Meissner draws on classical lyricism and the exploratory energies of artists like Vijay Iyer, Esbjörn Svensson, and Michael Wollny.
With Eigengrau, Meissner’s third album, the pianist extends his introspective journey through nine carefully sculpted compositions recorded in Berlin in September 2024, under the production of Andreas Brandis.
The opening track, “Supernumb”, sets the tone—a delicate tension between stillness and subtle propulsion. “Gemeinsam Erkunden” unfolds in quiet discovery, while “Nothing Compares 2 U”, a cover of the Prince classic, stands out as an emotional pivot: its familiar melody is reimagined through minimalist, jazz-informed interpretation.
Original compositions such as “Manja” and “Oknok” balance lyrical sensitivity and rhythmic intent, featuring crystalline piano lines that commune with Josef Zeimetz’s responsive bass and Reichmann’s textural drumming. “Palma Amore eases into a soulful warmth with thoughtful pacing, whereas “Anthem” delivers a quiet but firm declaration of musical identity. The closing track, “Separator”, ties the album together with reflective closure.
Throughout, the sound is intimate and focused, a studio approach favoring clarity over excess. Meissner and his trio treat each measure as a frame for improvisational space, forging what Paris‑Move calls a “musical chiaroscuro” where texture and silence hold equal weight.
Read more ... Vincent Meissner
In C
TERRY RILEY
IRON GIANT FREE ASSOCIATION
Released 25 July 2025
****-
Minimalism’s Big Bang, joyfully detonated all over again.
Terry Riley is a pioneering American composer best known for In C (composed 1964, recorded and released 1968), a foundational minimalist work that helped reshape 20th-century classical music. Drawing from Indian raga, jazz, and improvisation, Riley’s work bridges composition and spontaneity. His influence extends through Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and the broader experimental and electronic scenes.
Iron Giant Free Association is a New Zealand-based improvisational collective merging jazz, minimalism, and experimental rock. Led by drummer John Bell and featuring members from across Aotearoa’s exploratory music scene, the ensemble embraces open-form performance, deep listening, and genre fluidity, breathing new life into classic works and spontaneous sonic structures.
This recording by Iron Giant Free Association reimagines In C with radical clarity and intuitive force. Instead of treating the work as a museum piece, the ensemble digs into its aleatoric instructions with fresh ears, emphasizing the rhythmic pulse and tonal playfulness that originally made it such a revelation. There’s a looseness to the phrasing and a conversational awareness between players that avoids rigidity while maintaining cohesion across its 53 modules. The instrumentation leans into amplified textures and electric atmospheres—guitar, drums, electronics, and brass coalesce in a sonic field that feels closer to krautrock or electric Miles than to the strict minimalism of Reich or Glass.
While In C is often recorded with reverence, Iron Giant Free Association plays it like a living, jamming organism. The ensemble maintains the shimmer of repetition while allowing moments of tension, jazz-like accents, and bursts of collective energy to rise to the surface. The performance unfolds with a sense of joy and perpetual curiosity, proving that In C remains as open and alive as ever—especially in the hands of musicians more interested in listening than in leading.
Read more ... Iron Giant Free Association
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A Dark Flaring -
Works for String Quartet
from South Africa
SIGNUM QUARTETT
Released 25 July 2025
****-
A stirring dialogue between tradition, trauma and transformation.
The Signum Quartett is a German string quartet known for its precision, emotional depth, and fearless engagement with contemporary repertoire. Since forming in 1994, the ensemble has earned international acclaim for their adventurous programming, blending modern works, historical arrangements, and cross-cultural commissions that explore the expressive range of the string quartet form.
Review (200 words):
A Dark Flaring is an ambitious, beautifully curated journey through South Africa’s tangled musical and political history, performed with riveting sensitivity by the Signum Quartett.
The six featured composers, born between 1903 and 1983, span apartheid and post-apartheid eras, and their string quartets draw from Xhosa and Zulu traditions, European classical lineage, and a broad palette of 20th-century techniques—from Renaissance counterpoint to spectralism, minimalism, and impressionism.
The album opens with Mokale Koapeng’s "Komeng", inspired by the Xhosa initiation song “Umyeyezelo,” whose polyrhythmic character is evoked with subtle meter layering and bowed percussion.
Matthijs van Dijk’s "rage against the"follows. Driven by the spirit of protest, (its title borrowed from the outspoken rock icons) channels both post-rock density and classical violence.
Works by Rainier ("Quartet for Strings I - IV, 1939) and van Wyk (5 Elergies for String Quartet, 1940-1941), reveal a lyrical, introspective strain, shadowed by exile and longing, while Péter Louis van Dijk’s "iinyembezi" marries Dowland with Mbira-like textures in a haunting dance between tonal memory and rhythmic innovation.
Robert Fokkens’s "Glimpses of a half-forgotten future" adds spectral echoes and bowed resonance, drawing from both John Cage and the Xhosa Uhadi.
The Signum Quartett inhabits each idiom with clarity and grace. This is musical storytelling of rare depth and purpose.
Read more ... ECM
Valentin Silvestrov - ...flowering over Lethe…
ALEXEI LUBIMOV
Released 18 July 2025
****-
In this meditative odyssey, Lubimov guides Silvestrov’s compositions, like echoes of memory through a tapestry of whispered reverie.
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov has emerged as a neoclassical visionary, defining “meta-music” with lyrical echoes of past masters.
Russian pianist Alexei Lubimov, a Neuhaus protégé and champion of both period and modern repertoire, delivers this piano portrait with decades of insight and emotional nuance.
…flowering over Lethe… offers an expansive, contemplative journey through Silvestrov’s late piano oeuvre. Lubimov curates bagatelles, dedicatory pieces, and postludes into a seamless, hour‑plus recital that feels like an unfolding dream: a “musical dialogue among friends and fellow spirits”
Opening with the elegiac Two Dialogues with Postscript, lines from Schubert and Wagner merge into Silvestrov’s reflective postludes. The Birthday Dedications, In Memoriam Schubert/Glinka, and Hommage à Purcell continue this reverie, with each piece softly transitioning into the next. Lubimov’s playing highlights the music’s spiritual stillness—phrasing breathes in open space, color emerges from subtle pedaling, dynamics pulse with fragile presence. AllMusic notes the “exquisitely nuanced inflections” that make this recital “heart‑easing”
This recording refrains from dramatic contrast; instead, it invites immersion in silences, tender echoes, and fleeting beauty. It evokes a shared lineage, from Hrabovsky and Knaifel to Pärt and Volkonsky, yet remains anchored in Silvestrov’s intimate, post‑avant-garde lyricism.
In Lubimov’s hands, the works become personal meditations, moments of memory, loss, and quiet flourishing.
This is not a display of pianistic fireworks but a masterclass in restraint, empathy, and depth, musical whispers that linger long after the last key fades.
Read more ... Outhere Music
Beside Myself
DJ HARAM
Released 18 July 2025
****-
Here is an artist who insists on evolving in times of war and weaponized entertainment, challenging herself and her peers, she asks - “how can this be, how can we live with ourselves, how can we find each other and the truth, how can we get free?”
Brooklyn-based Arab-American DJ, producer DJ Haram (Zubeyda Muzeyyen) is a self-described “multidisciplinary propagandist” whose work fuses Jersey club, punk, electronic, rap and Middle Eastern instrumentation. After carving a reputation in underground scenes and with 700 Bliss (a collaboration with Moor Mother), her debut solo album channels rage, grief, and radical selfhood through culturally conscious, layered sonics.
Beside Myself is a turbulent statement of purpose, a visceral reckoning that navigates betrayal, rage and resilience with unflinching clarity. From the opening ferocity of “Walking Memory” to the closing meditative “Deep Breath (An Ending)” Haram candidly reveals her cultural and emotional core. In “Lifelike” and “IDGAF” she brandishes ominous synths, guitar feedback, heavy 808s, and darbuka - coalescing into what Pitchfork describes as a “Syrian Black Sabbath” of sound.
The Quietus applauds Haram's rejection of Western fetishization of non-Western music, highlighting her dismantling of orientalist tropes by reanimating cultural memory “through embodied knowledge and sonic intensity”. Collaborations - Moor Mother on “Lifelike,” El Kontessa on “Sahel,” Armand Hammer on “Stenography,” and BBymutha/Sha Ray on “Fishnets” - run deeper than texture: they form a community of dissident voices.
Though rooted in anger and confrontation, the album contains moments of joy and surprise: “Loneliness Epidemic” pivots into a joyous Middle Eastern house jam, and “Sahel” erupts as a breakbeat/darbuka duel. The result is harsh, dense, yet liberating, a chaotic soundscape that refuses complacency and prioritizes cultural sovereignty over escapist club tropes.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Tuff Times Never Last
KOKOROKO
Released 11 July 2025
****-
Exploring togetherness, community, sensuality, childhood, loss and above all perseverance.
Kokoroko is a London-based Afrobeat-soul collective led by trumpeter and composer Sheila Maurice-Grey and percussionist Onome Edgeworth. Drawing on Nigerian highlife, 1970s spiritual jazz, and UK jazz-funk, the seven-piece band has earned acclaim for their elegant horn lines, locked grooves, and collective improvisation, emerging as key figures in the UK’s vibrant contemporary jazz movement.
‘Tuff Times Never Last’ is a spirited and vibrant collection of songs serving as an optimistic reminder to tightly hold and embrace the many dualities that occur in life.
Initially drawing inspiration from a viral social media meme, Edgeworth said of the title’s origins and meaning: “It’s true! Although we’re reflecting on joy and celebration, you realize that a lot of that beauty comes out of challenges and difficulties. It felt like a natural truth that we discovered whilst writing”.
Three years on from their debut album ‘Could We Be More’ the afrobeat jazz of their previous work is still a core part of the record’s sonic design, but the new album largely pulls from British R&B from the 80s, neo-soul, West African disco, bossa nova, lovers rock and funk, taking sonic cues from the likes of Loose Ends, Don Blackman, Common, Sly & Robbie, William Onyeabor, Patrice Rushen, Ofori Amponsah and Cymande.
Throughout this instinctive evolution, the septet's seasoned musicianship preserves the essence of who Kokoroko are as masterful jazz artisans.
Speaking on the band’s progression in sound, co-bandleader Sheila Maurice-Grey said: “Innately, we’re jazz musicians but we've tried not to kind of box ourselves into one sound. So there is a level of freedom we're starting to feel. We want to continue being as creative as possible without feeling any boundaries”.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Life Lessons
BILL FRISELL, TIM O'BRIEN, DALE BRUNING
Released 11 July 2025
****-
Three of music's Quiet Masters come together to swing and to teach with empathy, melody, and the wisdom of restraint.
Dale Bruning, a revered jazz guitarist and educator from Colorado, reunites with former student Bill Frisell—now a genre-transcending icon—for this intimate trio session. Joining them is multi-instrumentalist Tim O’Brien, best known for his roots and bluegrass credentials. Together they explore a shared language of subtlety, space, and acoustic storytelling.
Life Lessons is a masterclass in quiet musical conversation. This trio doesn’t aim to impress through complexity or speed—instead, their strength lies in unforced interplay and deep listening.
Opening with the folk-rooted “Red Rocking Chair,” the album signals its ethos early: introspective, slow-burning, and warm. Bruning’s originals like “Bonita’s Place” and “Langosta Bay” are understated and lyrical, their elegant voicings allowing space for Frisell’s filigree lines and O’Brien’s mandolin and fiddle hues.
The setlist spans jazz standards (“Bags Groove”, “All the Things You Are”), folk ballads (“Spanish Is the Loving Tongue”), and originals from all three players. O’Brien contributes vocals on select tracks, lending earthiness and narrative depth, especially on the closing blues “Trouble in Mind.”
Frisell is at his most acoustic and responsive here, eschewing effects in favor of harmonic empathy. The trio doesn’t so much solo as weave: lines overlap and pass gently between them.
It’s not an album of grand gestures - rather, one of nuance, patience and deep-rooted affection musicians and toward the material. Life Lessons offers exactly what its title implies: wisdom passed not as proclamation, but through gentle, resonant example.
Read more ... Bill Frisell | Tim O'Brien | Dale Bruning
Africa Express Presents...Bahidorá
AFRICA EXPRESS (VARIOUS ARTISTS)
Released 11 July 2025
Africa Express / World Circuit
****-
A borderless, genre-fluid celebration of global collaboration - joyful, eclectic and unapologetically bold.
Africa Express is a UK-based non-profit organization that facilitates cross-cultural collaborations between musicians in African, Middle Eastern, and Western countries. It began out of a 2005 gathering in a Covent Garden bar where Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn along with other musicians and music industry friends were angered by the Live 8 charity concert for Africa's inclusion of only one African artist in its line up. Operating as both a production team and live ensemble, the collective’s projects span genres and borders, emphasizing musical exchange, spontaneity, and the dismantling of industry hierarchies and cultural silos.
Africa Express Presents… Bahidorá unveils a sprawling sonic tapestry recorded during and after the 2024 Bahidorá Festival in Mexico. Clocking in at roughly 75 minutes over 21 tracks, the album is an energetic, kaleidoscopic (and at times, uneven) journey through Latin, African and avant-pop traditions.
Opening track “Soledad,” a cinematic duet in Spanish by Damon Albarn and Luisa Almaguer, is buoyed by Nick Zinner, Joan as Police Woman, and the Mexican Institute of Sound. The breezy “Otim Hop” pairs Ugandan artist Otim Alpha’s Afrofuturist imagery with Bootie Brown’s streetwise rhymes over a laid‑back hip‑hop pulse. “Mi Lado” delivers Latin‑pop ease via Mare Advertencia, Poté, and Alansito Vega - catchy, melodic, and urgent in its feminist tone. Meanwhile, the frenetic “Kuduro” features Fatoumata Diawara and Moonchild Sanelly trading fiery vocals over Tom Excell’s pounding rhythm. Marimba‑infused “Defiant Ones,” with Son Rompe Pera and M.anifest, detonates punk‑tinged rhythm and defiant lyricism. Elsewhere, wistful compositions like “Dorhan Oullhin” (featuring Imarhan and Albarn) and the bittersweet “Hacernos Así,” carve out moments of reflection.
From cumbia and kuduro to soul‑pop and dub‑inflected rap, the album captures the raw immediacy and spontaneity of the festival, while offering a deeper, more purposeful unity. It’s Africa Express’s most expansive and coherent record yet, a joyous manifesto of cross-continental camaraderie.
Read more ... Africa Express
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Welcome Back
FADE EVARE
Released 11 July 2025
****-
A homecoming through broken circuits and haunted frequencies
Fade Evare is a Melbourne-based trio led by siblings Mira and Tori Holleman, joined by synth artist Madeleine Magee Carr. Blending introspective pop songwriting with ambient textures and restrained electronic production, their music evokes personal intimacy and quiet strength. Welcome Back is their graceful debut LP, grounded in emotional and communal resonance.
Welcome Back is a soft-spoken yet striking debut, tracing the fine line between memory and momentum. Mira Holleman’s featherlight vocal presence centres the album’s emotional weight, while Tori Holleman’s production lends each track a cool sense of control. The result is an elegant tension between fragility and precision, deepened by Madeleine Magee Carr’s tasteful synth work.
Opener “Anymore” introduces a palette of vaporous synths, brushed percussion, and lyrical disquiet. “Send Me Out” pulses with a sense of departure and return, its bassline tugging gently beneath Mira’s voice. Shorter pieces like “Broad Spectrum” and “Prep” act like connective tissue — not mere interludes, but fragments of sonic thought. Tracks such as “Everywhere I Go” and “99%” glide closer to electropop but stop short of formula, retaining a delicate spaciousness. “Sky Writing” and “As The Eagle Flies” are especially evocative, weaving organic metaphors into gauzy electronics.
The album’s flow is seamless, its sound design careful and tactile. Welcome Back doesn’t shout for attention; it invites stillness and trust. Fade Evare’s debut succeeds not by innovating loudly, but by refining quietly — an understated, cohesive portrait of modern electronic songwriting with soul.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Other Worlds And Habitats
THE SORCERERS
Released 11 July 2025
****-
Cosmic Ethio-jazz explorers trip into analogue dreamworlds, merging dusty library textures with melodic wanderlust.
The Sorcerers are a UK-based ensemble rooted in Leeds, led by bassist and ATA Records head Neil Innes alongside drummer Joost Hendrickx and multi-instrumentalist Richard Ormrod. Their sound builds on Ethio-jazz foundations, infused with 1960s–70s cosmic library tones and analogue warmth. Their fourth LP, Other Worlds and Habitats, marks an expansive next step, enriched by the addition of keyboardist Johnny Richards, whose Mellotron, Farfisa, and Jen 73 piano contributions enhance their ever-evolving sonic terrain
Other Worlds and Habitats is a rich, analogue-drenched voyage through imagined soundscapes, reflecting the band's growth on and off stage. Inspired by Ethiopian keyboardist Hailu Mergia and Nigerian funk innovator William Onyeabor, the record strikes a balance between homage and innovation, steering clear of pastiche .
Opener “Echoes of Earth” and follow-up “Ancestral Machines” pair drifting saxophone and vintage synths to conjure a futurist sunrise, while “Abandoned Satellites” drifts into late-night trip-hop territory—no coincidence a Nightmares On Wax fan base is emerging.
Highlights like “The Great Belt” and “Beneath the Dunes” capture the cumulative wear and inspiration of the band’s first Danish tour, their "weary" but lucid melodies shaped by road-worn intimacy
Overall, the album feels like a curated journey through “other worlds and habitats”, from cosmic funk to breezy, meditative grooves, suffused with texture and narrative suggestion without adherence to a single genre. Its analogue production gives everything a textured, soulful depth, ideal for fans of cinematic soul, library, and Ethio-jazz rooted in warmth and analog fidelity
Read more ... Bandcamp
Dom Salvador JID024
DOM SALVADOR, ADRIAN YOUNGE
ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMED
Released 11 July 2025
****-
A cross-continental conversation: samba‑funk’s architect returns in a warm‑analog homage that both respects and reinvigorates.
The legacy of Brazilian keyboard luminary Dom Salvador, who is a pivotal figure in blending samba, funk, soul and jazz during the Black-consciousness movement, is revitalized here by producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. As the latest release of Jazz Is Dead’s ambitious JID series, whose mission is reimagining the works and styles of underappreciated musical pioneers, this duo transforms this legacy into a modern, analog homage that deeply honors and extends his vision.
On seven tracks, Salvador’s Fender Rhodes piano glows at the core, supported by Younge’s orchestration and Muhammad’s soulful bass under a live, analog ethos. I
The set opens with “Os Ancestrais,” a reverent, spiritually charged invocation driven by sitar-like guitar and marimba. The single “Não Podemos o Amar Parar,” praised for its lazy, head-nodding groove, blends samba-funk and jazz-soul in a subtly addictive fashion.
Mid-album cuts like “As Estações” and “Música Faz Parte de Mim” shift from reflective piano-led passages to fuller ensemble statements, layering horns, percussion, and vocal harmonies without obscuring clarity.
The closer “Safíra” ties everything together in a mellow, cyclical form , restrained yet fully resolved. The production is transparent, even warm and rarely polished, seeking feel over gloss.
What’s remarkable is how Younge and Muhammad don’t merely restore Salvador’s sound, but extend it. This album is less a tribute than a continuing dialogue, rooted in Salvador’s history yet feeding into a broader conversation between Black Brazilian and American soul-jazz.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Habibi Funk 031
A Selection Of Music From Libyan Tapes
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Released 4 July 2025
****-
Habibi Funk excavates Libya’s cassette underground, where disco, reggae and funk thrived far from the spotlight, but close to the people.
Habibi Funk is a Berlin-based reissue label dedicated to rescuing and spotlighting vintage popular music from the Arab world, particularly recordings overlooked due to political marginalisation, format decay, or lack of international distribution. Founded by Jannis Stürtz, the label is known for meticulous archival work, on-the-ground research, and respectful, non-exoticising presentation. Releases often focus on cross-cultural hybrids - funk, disco, soul, jazz, and reggae-infused recordings made in North Africa and the Levant from the 1960s to early 2000s.
Habibi Funk champions not just the music, but also the social and technical networks that sustained it: cassette duplicators, local radio stations, and DIY studios across a geopolitically complex region.
Habibi Funk 031 is less a comprehensive history than a vibrant mixtape drawn from Libya’s cassette culture of the 1980s through early 2000s - a time when musical creativity flourished in spite of international obscurity and domestic restriction. What emerges is a sonically diverse, genre-hopping compilation that dances across synth-driven disco (Cheb Bakr’s “Allom”), mellow Shaabi-reggae hybrids (Group Hewaya’s “Irja”), and gritty home-studio funk-pop (Ahmed Ben Ali’s “Jara”). It’s not just retro charm; the compilation’s energy is immediate and idiosyncratic.
Rather than focusing on the most exportable stars, the curators have opted for rawer, locally cherished material, much of it recovered from a demolished Tunisian cassette plant or digitised in field sessions across Cairo. This means the sound quality occasionally bears analogue scars, but also a vivid authenticity.
Tracks like “Palestine Is My Homeland” by Fathi Aldiyqz & Sons of Africa Band and “Kul Ghrub” by City Lights Band exemplify the era’s unpolished resilience: lo-fi production, unmistakable sincerity, and regional identity braided through reggae backbeats and Casio melodies.
Reggae, in particular, looms large - its social and rhythmic forms reshaped to local contours, with shaabi grooves slowed into dubwise cadence.
The whole compilation is a testament to Libya’s unique cultural crossroads, drawing on Arab melodic structures, pan-African rhythmic sensibility, and a homegrown cassette economy that made experimentation possible. The overall arc is informal but deeply curated. both an act of cultural preservation and a genuine listening pleasure.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Crashing waves dance to the rhythm set by the broadcast journalist revealing the tragedies of the day.
CHARBEL HABER, NICOLAS JAR,
SARY MOUSSA
Released 4 July 2025
****-
This is not a composed reflection, but a sonic document of attention under pressure.
"Crashing waves dance to the rhythm set by the broadcast journalist revealing the tragedies of the day" is a collaborative album by Charbel Haber, Nicolás Jaar, and Sary Moussa, recorded live on August 2, 2024, at Tunefork Studios in Beirut, during the Israeli aggression against Lebanon.
The session unfolded in real time: no overdubs, no edits. Electric guitar (Haber), bass clarinet (Jaar), and live signal processing (Moussa) form the album’s core materials. Moussa manipulated live audio feeds from the other two musicians, building dynamic textures and spatial depth from inside the performance itself. The result is an ambient and electroacoustic work shaped by the immediacy and volatility of its recording context.
Each artist, rooted in long-standing experimental practices that span Beirut, Santiago, and beyondbrings an individual vocabulary of sound, shaped by memory, movement, and collective experience.
The album was mixed by Fadi Tabbal and Sary Moussa at Tunefork Studios, with photography and text by Charbel Haber, and design by Carla Aouad.
The musicians:
Charbel Haber emerged from Beirut’s post-war scene in the late 1990s, blending ambient and electroacoustic sounds with theater, film, and dance collaborations.
Nicolás Jaar, a Chilean-American artist, is acclaimed for emotionally rich and sonically adventurous music that spans ambient, experimental pop, and political soundscapes.
Sary Moussa, also part of Beirut’s underground music scene, crafts intricate compositions that explore personal memory and regional soundscapes.
Ambient tremors meet with electroacoustic urgency in this improvised chronicle of crisis, transforming grief and fear into textured sonic architecture. The result is an immersive experience of attention under fire, captured in real time.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Melodic Fictions (EP)
MERINDA DIAS-JAYASINHA
Released 4 July 2025
****-
An elegant, mesmerizing selection, in which voice becomes atmosphere and inquiry.
Merinda Dias-Jayasinha is a unique genre-crossing Australian vocalist, recognised for preternatural intonation, creative versatility and sweetness and variety of tone, whether in a haze of vocal layers or a single heartfelt lyric.
Multi-talented and perennially pluralistic as a performer, composer and improviser, her music slips fluidly between genres and beyond into other disciplines, with recent projects exploring the nuance of her queer and diaspora identities installation, and oral history. While on home turf as a singer of songs, her debut album as a leader-composer, Sense, was released in 2022 to national critical acclaim.
Of Melodic Fictions, she writes: "These pieces were created for five wonderful humans - Rachel, Belle, Siobhan, Emma, and Claire.
I had the opportunity to work with these performers across 2022 for Siobhan's 'Rhythmic Fictions' and had the pleasure of singing with them all (my favourite thing to do with anyone).
I am releasing this contemporary choral, improvised, multi-layer solo voice EP a few years on because I still look back so fondly on that creative time and am still in awe of these women.
The work concluded in a sound bath and that period of time was just the loveliest, most inspiring experience. It only felt right to offer them a sound bath each when we wrapped the show - five layers of solo, improvised voice forming each piece for five dancers."
Read more ... Merinda Dias-Jayasinha
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The Surrounding Green
FRED HERSCH
DREW GRESS, JOEY BARON
Released 27 June 2025
****-
Fred Hersch’s work is marked by its inwardness, the allusiveness, the restraint. But beneath such apparent discretion bursts a raw sensuality - the flesh of the music, its pulse. (Francis Marmande, Le Monde)
Fred Hersch’s third recording for ECM is an essential entry into the piano trio canon for its masterful trio interplay, reliant on deeply honed communication and a refined sense of understatement. With Drew Gress on bass and Joey Baron on drums, Hersch tackles a handful of 20th century compositions, spanning from standards to less frequented jazz tunes, as well as three originals,
Drew and Joey are longstanding companions of Fred’s who have played with him on and off since the early and late 80s respectively. This however marks their first studio recording as a trio, and their exceptional collective approach, shaped by decades of experience, can be heard (and felt) in every song.
On this record you really hear their history! For example, on ‘Plainsong’ and ‘The Surrounding Green’, there’s so much trust in how they get through the harmony, where they pause and where they move on. The recording seeks to capture the maturity of this interaction, the sonic world of their creation and the sensitivity at play.”
Fred’s own pieces are striking in their lyrical intensity, beaming with elaborate harmonies and interwoven counterpoint on “Plainsong”, timeless melodic invention on the title track “The Surrounding Green” and irresistible Brazilian groove on “Anticipation”. While previous solo renditions of “Plainsong” already introduced the melody’s intimate quality, the trio formula heard here proves quietly revelatory, with bass and drums adding a fresh pulse and expanded harmonic dimensions to the tune. The title track and “Anticipation” are new entries into the Hersch songbook.
Read more ... Fred Hersch | ECM Records
Solace of the Mind
AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS
Released 20 June 2025
****-
Like a hymnal of remembrance and restraint, this collection invites us into deep spiritual reflection through its poised deployment of space, silence and soulful clarity.
Amina Claudine Myers is a visionary pianist, organist, and vocalist whose music blends gospel, blues, and free jazz. Raised on church music in Arkansas, she later joined Chicago’s groundbreaking Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), becoming one of its most soulful and spiritually resonant voices.
The follow up to 2024's exceptional release "Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens" (which was among SunNeverSetsOnMusic's Albums of The Year last year), "Solace of the Mind is a profoundly meditative, gospel-tinted solo collection that balances restraint with emotional depth.
Recorded with former ECM engineer Sun Chung, the album’s spacious production highlights Myers’ “right notes, not many notes” philosophy - each chord and pause weighted with intention.
Revisiting early compositions like “African Blues” from "Salutes Bessie Smith" and “Song for Mother E” from the album of the same title, both 1980.
Myers transforms them into hushed hymn-like meditations, their spiritual gravity richer and more reflective than ever. The spiritual “Steal Away,” once a childhood burden, is now rendered gently, with reverence born of maturity.
Newer pieces—“Sensuous,” “Voices,” “Twilight,” and the drawn “Ode to My Ancestors”—are quietly expressive, weaving gospel cadences, R&B fragments, and minimalist avant-garde motifs. Myers even speaks softly over an organ drone in “Ode to My Ancestors,” creating an intimate invocation of lineage.
Across ten tracks, the album feels like a solo service - solemn, tender, subdued. Critics praise its contemplative clarity: Paris-Move calls it “poetic, vulnerable, transcendent,” while JazzViews notes its warmth and unhurried lyricism.
At times, it evokes Keith Jarrett’s ECM-era solitude, yet this is Myers fully herself, rooted in Black church tradition and creative jazz exploration.
Sacred, soulful, and serene, Solace of the Mind illuminates Myers’s lineage and evolution, offering sanctuary through the art of thoughtful simplicity.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Live At The Montreal International Jazz Festival
DOMINIQUE FILS-AIMÉ
Released 6 June 2025
****-
Transcendent and theatrical, this live record turns a festival main stage into a sacred space of storytelling and soulful transformation. A deeply moving live milestone in her artistic journey.
Montreal-based Dominique Fils-Aimé is a JUNO-winning vocalist celebrated for her deeply rooted exploration of African-American musical traditions—from blues to gospel and soul. Her live performances, marked by expressive nuance and theatrical presence, have established her as one of Canada’s most compelling jazz-soul artists.
Recorded on June 29, 2024, at the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s TD Stage with a 16-piece band and nine vocalists, this live album captures a masterful reinterpretation of Fils-Aimé’s catalog, spanning her albums from Nameless through Our Roots Run Deep. The set opens with a contemplative “Introduction,” giving way to evocative renditions of Our Roots Run Deep tracks like “My Mind At Ease,” “Birds / While We Wait,” and “Fall And All / Old Love” that reveal emotional tension and release.
Signature moments include a joyous “Tall Lion Down”, a euphoric “Love Take Over”, and a shifting-mood “While We Wait”, demonstrating her band's rhythmic agility and creative flexibility. Notably, songs flow into one another—track transitions feel narrative, creating an immersive arc that guides the listener through emotional states.
Fils-Aimé's vocals range from hushed intimacy to commanding spiritual force, particularly on “Fall And All”, where her delivery becomes almost incantatory, drawing the crowd into reverent silence. The overall sound—live but polished—balances clarity with warmth, emphasizing subtle instrumental layering and vocal interplay.
Read more... Bandcamp
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Souffles
NAÏSSAM JALAL
ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE BRETAGNE GUEST IMPROVISERS
Released 30 May 2025
****-
A work of breath, spirit and conviction, Souffles is a radiant new pinnacle in Jalal’s quest for trans-cultural musical healing.
French-Syrian composer, flautist and vocalist Naïssam Jalal has become a vital voice in progressive European music, blending Arabic classical traditions with free jazz, Sufi mysticism, and contemporary chamber music. A collaborator of artists like Hamid Drake and Claude Tchamitchian, she’s known for forging emotionally rich, cross-cultural soundscapes rooted in both discipline and improvisational freedom.
Souffles is the most expansive statement yet from Jalal’s evolving musical vision, a richly orchestrated, deeply human work that elevates breath itself into an instrument of spiritual and political resonance. Commissioned by and performed with the Orchestre National de Bretagne, the album layers Jalal’s signature bamboo and Western flutes, incantatory vocals, and spoken word passages over dynamic, occasionally minimalist string and horn arrangements.
What sets this apart is how organically it marries composed and improvised sections. Pianist Leonardo Montana and percussionist Zaza Desiderio add instinctual rhythmic interplay that offsets the formality of the orchestral setting. Jalal herself alternates between serenity and urgency, especially on tracks like “Respire!” and “Révolte,” which channel ecological and social themes without ever turning didactic.
There’s genuine innovation in the compositional language, hovering somewhere between Sufi devotional song, Arabic maqam, French impressionism, and ECM-like spaciousness. Crucially, it never feels like pastiche. Jalal's intimate relationship with her instruments, and her causes, imbues Souffles with sincerity and depth.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Jazz & Flow
ORQUESTA NATIONAL DE MEXICO
Released 29 May2025
****-
Hip-hop meets big band with brains, beats, and breathtaking precision.
Founded in 2015, the Orquesta Nacional de Jazz de México (ONJMX) is a rotating collective of the country’s leading jazz musicians, composers, and arrangers. Under director Christian Bernard, the ensemble pushes the boundaries of big band jazz, incorporating Mexican folk, experimental forms, and now, dynamic collaborations with the nation’s hip-hop voices.
Jazz & Flow marks a bold turn for ONJMX, merging the architecture of the jazz orchestra with the kinetic urgency of contemporary Mexican rap. Across six extended pieces, the album integrates complex arrangements with verses from a range of MCs, transforming the orchestra into both a rhythmic foundation and an active, interpretive voice in dialogue with the rappers.
Christian Bernard’s compositions retain his signature cinematic flair, but here they serve the flow - beats, breaks, and harmonic textures are designed not just for drama but to complement the cadence, tone, and content of each vocal performance.
The result is a rare meeting of two ensemble-driven traditions: jazz’s collective improvisation and hip-hop’s verbal dexterity. The interplay is organic, unforced: rappers push against time and harmony and the orchestra flexes in return.
Far from a novelty, Jazz & Flow feels like a conversation that was waiting to happen. It affirms rap’s narrative power while expanding the role of orchestral jazz in the 21st century. Social commentary, identity and musical complexity coalesce into something urgent and necessary.
Read more ... ONJMX
Varvie World
VV PETE, UTILITY
Released 26 May 2025
****-
From Western Sydney, the birth of a global club‑rap riot. Drill, baile funk, gqom & trap collide in an electrifying, 27‑minute, genre-bending and unapologetically bold debut
Varvie World emerges from the creative synergy between Vv Pete, a Sudanese-Australian rapper from Sydney's Western suburbs, and UTILITY, co-founder of the Trackwork (a grassroots Sydney label committed to spotlighting underground voices rooted in local culture). Their partnership, catalysed by a viral freestyle video in 2018, foregrounds club rap fused with global and diasporic influences, ranging from ***drill to **baile funk and *gqom .
Varvie World is a bracing debut mixtape that amplifies Vv Pete’s fiery persona through a kaleidoscope of club-rap styles. Executive produced by UTILITY, it navigates, without apology, across drill, Jersey/Baltimore club, baile funk, gqom, and trap, with hand-picked collaborators like Brodinski, DJ Plead, Formation Boyz, Cassius Select, and Kelman Duran adding global flavor .
Songs like “Wassa” (gqom*-fused) and anthems like “Go Dumb” and “Bacardi Papi” fuse heavy-hitting beats with swaggering, hot‑girl lyricism. Critics have noted how Vv carries drill’s structural confidence without replicating its signature sonic tropes. Lyrically, the album oscillates between aggressive bravado (“don’t make me chew on your brain…”) and self-affirming introspection, setting a tone of assertive vulnerability.
UTILITY’s production roots the mixtape in club culture: tight, punch‑driven low ends bounce under syncopated percussion and sharp sampling. Featured collaborations—Formation Boyz on “Wassa,” DJ Plead on “Mashallah,” Kelman Duran on “Bacardi Papi”—stretch the project across sonic geographies.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Heartstrings
SNOWPOET
Released 23 May 2025
****-
A carefully crafted collection of melodic songs built on jazz harmony, spoken-word phrasing and electronic textures.
Heartstrings is the new album from London-based Snowpoet, led by the creative partnership of Lauren Kinsella and Chris Hyson. Since their debut EP in 2014, the band has built a devoted audience drawn to their emotionally rich songwriting, intricate production, and distinct sonic identity. With Heartstrings, they take a bold step forward, writing and recording in the studio as a collective for the first time, capturing the raw immediacy of live performance while expanding their sound with lush textures, layered harmonies, and deeply personal storytelling.
The album was born in the moment, with the full band improvising, shaping, and refining ideas together in real time and the result is an album that feels alive - organic, immersive, and deeply human. Sonically, the group leans into rich, analogue synth tones, intricate drum textures, and a dynamic push-and-pull between electronic and acoustic elements. Lyrically, it is their most personal work to date, weaving themes of life, loss, and renewal with poetic honesty.
At the heart of Heartstrings is a powerful contrast - moments of deep emotional weight balanced with luminous joy. Songs like Host dive into themes of grief and the body as a vessel for experience, while tracks like New Tree radiate warmth and rebirth. The band’s signature harmonies and layered production give the album a three-dimensional quality, pulling the listener into a space where vulnerability and beauty coexist. With Heartstrings, Snowpoet solidifies their position as one of the most innovative and emotionally resonant bands in the UK’s jazz-adjacent and electronic-acoustic crossover scene. This is an album for listeners who crave depth, sonic richness, and lyrical honesty.
Read more ... Snowpoet | Bandcamp | Edition Records
Sound & Fury
ESTHESIS QUARTET
FEATURING BILL FRISELL
Released 9 May 2025
Sunnyside Communications
****-
A heartfelt exploration of loss and resilience, rendered through introspective jazz and collaborative synergy.
Esthesis Quartet, comprising flutist Elsa Nilsson, pianist/vocalist Dawn Clement, bassist Emma Dayhuff, and drummer Tina Raymond formed is a collective of improvisers united by a shared commitment to exploratory jazz.
The four members of Esthesis Quartet met through chance and grew close workshopping music during the pandemic. Both Clement and Nilsson were mentored by Ron Miles and had hoped he would one day collaborate with the group. His untimely death cut that possibility short. In his place, Bill Frisell joins Sound & Fury, lending quiet tribute to a cherished influence.
Sound & Fury is a poignant tribute to Miles, and navigates themes of loss, reflection, and resilience through a tapestry of original compositions that blend jazz improvisation with elements of chamber music and folk traditions.
Tracks like "Where I Begin" and "Fit of Fury" showcase the quartet's dynamic interplay, with Nilsson's expressive flute lines weaving seamlessly around Clement's lyrical piano and vocals. Frisell's guitar work adds depth and texture, his signature atmospheric tones enhancing the ensemble's contemplative mood.
The album's title, referencing Shakespeare's Macbeth suggests a meditation on the tumultuous nature of existence ("It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Macbeth's bleak reflection on the futility and chaos of life) . Yet, the music leans more toward introspection than chaos, offering a sonic space for contemplation.
Given the Esthesis Quartet’s dedication of the album to Ron Miles and its themes of grief, resilience, and reflection, their title likely draws on the phrase’s emotional weight and existential tension — not to suggest nihilism, but to explore how creativity and connection can push back against meaninglessness.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Keepers of the Eastern Door
CHRIS CHEEK
FEATURING BILL FRISELL, TONY SCHERR, RUDY ROYSTON
Released 23 May 2025
****-
A glowing, low-key meditation on ecology, culture, reverence and restraint.
Chris Cheek is a Missouri-born saxophonist renowned for his lyrical restraint and melodic depth. A veteran of Paul Motian’s ensembles and a respected soloist, Cheek here collaborates with guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Rudy Royston. Together, they form a quartet of quiet virtuosos, merging jazz tradition with meditative introspection.
Keepers of the Eastern Door is a deeply resonant and quietly radical album - one that favours space over speed, resonance over rhetoric. Chris Cheek’s inspiration for the album stems from Native American imagery and values, specifically, the Mohawk concept of being "Keepers of the Eastern Door" as guardians of territory and tradition.
Rooted in a reverence for melody and mood, it draws its power from understatement, not provocation. Recorded live to tape in analog warmth, the sound feels tactile and human, perfectly suiting music that suggests spiritual communion rather than virtuosity.
The album’s cultural and ecological themes are gently threaded through its repertoire. Opening track “Kino’s Canoe” is constructed from a mirrored fragment of a well-known tune, its phrasing oddly familiar yet uncannily new. Also familiar, “Smoke Rings” and “On a Clear Day” evoke a mid-century haze, while the baroque formality of Purcell’s “Lost is My Quiet” and the sacred calm of Messiaen’s “O Sacrum Convivium!” are treated with the same quiet respect as the Beatles’ “From Me to You.”
Cheek’s tone is breathy but clear, often arriving like a thought mid-formed. Frisell’s clean-toned guitar shimmers with quiet suggestion, never crowding. Scherr and Royston play with delicate intuition - loose yet tightly attuned. The album’s title and cover image evoke Indigenous stewardship of land and spirit, and this quartet’s patient, earth-toned approach makes that theme felt, even when nothing is said aloud.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Lamomali Totem
LAMOMALI
-M- (MATTHIEU CHEDID)
FATOUMATA DIAWARA, TOUMANI DIABATÉ
Released 25 April 2025
Labo M / 3eme Bureau / Wagram Music
****-
The boundary-crossing Malian-French supergroup returns to celebrate Africa’s musical spirit through luminous collaboration.
French rock icon -M- (Matthieu Chedid) reassembled his collaborative Afro-French collective Lamomali for this jubilant sequel, again anchored by Malian griot royalty Toumani Diabaté (kora) and Fatoumata Diawara (vocals). The ensemble blends Malian traditional music with French pop, funk, and psychedelia, framing West African traditions in a kaleidoscopic, globalized sound.
Where 2017’s Lamomali was a successful fusion experiment, Lamomali Totem feels more like a festival of friends reunited: there's greater cohesion, richer songwriting and an infectious sense of celebration. Diabaté’s intricate kora lines sparkle and anchor the entire record, serving as the musical thread binding each track together.
Fatoumata Diawara’s presence is even more central this time. Her voice, radiant and resilient, guides songs like “Kèlè Magni” and “Mali Ba” with warmth and clarity, while -M- offers tasteful flourishes, never overwhelming the core West African rhythms and melodies, but enhancing them with psychedelic licks, gentle funk grooves, and layered production.
The project welcomes further guests (including Oxmo Puccino and Tiken Jah Fakoly), yet it’s less star-driven and more about collective uplift. The multilingual lyrics (French, Bambara, English) echo themes of unity, resilience, and joy. The arrangements are lush but unpretentious, with organic percussion and plenty of room for improvisation.
Rather than leaning on nostalgia or fusion tropes, Lamomali Totem feels alive in the present, joyfully pan-African, musically generous and groovy to its core.
Read more ... Lamomali
Áshira
JAN KADEREIT, GAMELAN SALUKAT
Released 4 April 2025
****-
An ethereal conjunction of Balinese and Danish, Áshira weaves resonant ritual, dual-tuned shimmer, and trance percussion into timeless sonic ritual.
Jan Kadereit, a Copenhagen-born percussionist and contemporary composer, collaborates with Bali’s avant-garde ensemble Gamelan Salukat, a group known for blending dual-scale tuning systems to expand gamelan’s harmonic horizons.
With Áshira, Kadereit leaves behind traditional formality to co-create a meditative yet dynamic tapestry that merges Balinese ritual textures with experimental Western sensibilities.
Áshira unfolds across seven pieces, ranging from intimate refrains to sprawling meditations, in a total of 52 minutes. Its expansive arc reveals a project rooted in cross-cultural synthesis and rhythmic exploration.
“Kampana - Vibration, Trembling” begins with crystalline gongs and overlapping tones, immediately pulling listeners into a sonic space of resonance and measured pulse. “Saih Cenik” Parts I & II act as interludes: Part I introduces shimmering metallophones, while Part II offers a hushed refrain, as Kadereit’s subtle percussion dialogues with the ensemble’s tuned bronze.
“Besakih’s Embrace” unfolds like a warm sunrise: layered calung, kendang drums, and evolving melodic motifs slowly dance, invoking temple ritual and communal presence.
The title track “Áshira – Sun and Fire” elevates the ensemble’s polyphony: dueling scales shimmer as metallic harmonies bend and swirl, Kadereit’s rhythms propelling the piece into joyous momentum.
“Mamdi” subverts expectation: a contemplative chamber of percussion and gongs that breathes softly, offering a moment of quiet tension.
The final piece “Dalai di Alam” is a hypnotic 22-minute journey, layering cyclical motifs in a trance-like spiral. Time seems to dilate as rhythms slip in and out of sync, an immersive, meditative immersion praised by listeners for its transformative, “sea of impressions” quality.
Throughout, the interaction between differently tuned sets - jegog, kendang, kantilan - creates harmonic shifts that feel at once ancient and otherworldly. Kadereit’s percussion injects subtly unpredictable phrasing, giving Áshira a fresh, slightly off-balance vitality.
This is finely crafted, contemporary music - a co-created, living soundscape, not archival gamelan. Áshira transcends ethnomusicology through its duets between tradition and experiment, texture and rhythm. It demands immersive listening, rewarding patience with shimmering micro-details and shifting tonalities that ripple beneath the surface.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Fantôme (EP)
SASHA BERLINER
Released 28 March 2025
****-
Her most accomplished and emotionally resonant release to date - an album of casual complexity and considerable charm.
Sasha Berliner is a rising star of contemporary jazz, bravely positioning the vibraphone as a deeply expressive lead instrument. Based in San Francisco, she’s carved a path that blends modern jazz with poetic narrative and bold themes.
Sasha performs internationally with her own group as well as musicians such as Tyshawn Sorey, Nicholas Payton, and Victor Lewis.
She draws influence from post-minimalism, and art cinema to create a fractured but emotionally engaging collection, far removed from the the lush harmonic safety of many other, more run-of-the-mill vibraphone-led records.
Opening with a reimagining of Billy Strayhorn’s “UMMG”, Berliner signals her intent to honour jazz tradition while shifting its focus. Her vibraphone playing is subtle but commanding, guiding the ensemble as bandleader, more than soloist.
“Khan Younis,” named after a city in Gaza, is one of the album’s emotional centres - slow-building, spacious and full of quiet urgency. Throughout the album, Berliner avoids predictable melodies, often letting phrases hang unresolved, as if challenging the listener to sit with discomfort.
For “Zenith”, the full band leans into its groove and momentum - trumpet, sax and drums trading phrases like fragments of conversation.
“The Worst Person in the World” and “Construction” continue this pattern - shifting between stillness and motion, thoughtfulness and edge.
With top-tier collaborators like Taylor Eigsti and Harish Raghavan, Fantôme balances intellect with feeling.
Berliner has created something rare: an album that stays with you not just for how it sounds, but for what it asks you to consider.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Loose Talk
AMELIA BARRATT, BRYAN FERRY
Released 28 March 2025
**---
Forensic prose over ambient sketches creates more tedium than transcendence. It's all talk, without tension.
Amelia Barratt is a London-based performance artist whose background spans sound installation, conceptual text work, and experimental narration. In Loose Talk, she overlays Bryan Ferry’s instrumental sketches with a running monologue that blends forensic detail, domestic observation, and poetic detachment, drawing from the tradition of avant-garde voice art and performance poetry.
It was a conceptually intriguing idea but the outcome, at least for the spoken-word version, is a courageous but ultimately fatiguing experiment. The truth is, the music holds more charm when left to speak for itself.
The project is framed as a high-concept dialogue between voice and music, but it ends up feeling more like two independent layers grafted together - Ferry’s ambient sketches undercut by Barratt’s unvarying tone and protracted detailing of the mundane.
Barratt’s delivery is flat, her texts clinically focused on trivial domesticity and social minutiae. What might have worked in the confines of a gallery installation becomes a test of endurance across a full-length album. As some critics have noted, the spoken word content "aquivers with unresolved tension," but often lacks direction or aesthetic payoff. With content so central to spoken word (as with rap), the absence of narrative propulsion or lyrical depth leaves the listener adrift in repetition.
There are occasional synergies — moments where the hush of Ferry’s music and Barratt’s narration achieve a kind of static poignancy — but too often the pairing feels arbitrary rather than organically fused. It’s an uneasy experiment whose parts are better apart than together.
Read more ...
Loose Talk Instrumentals
AMELIA BARRATT, BRYAN FERRY
Released 28 March 2025
***--
A quiet diversion from Ferry that trades in ambient comfort over innovation - while Eno's ghost hovers.
Bryan Ferry, renowned as the charismatic vocalist of Roxy Music, has long straddled the line between suave art-pop and experimental sophistication. His solo output has explored chanson, jazz, and synth-laced balladry. in recent years, he's even taken on straight Jazz. Now, Loose Talk’s instrumental version sees him sidestep toward ambient jazz, echoing his old bandmate Brian Eno’s sonic minimalism.
Stripped of its spoken-word layer, the instrumental version Loose Talk becomes a curiously palatable listen: a modest but coherent ambient jazz album shaded by Ferry’s melodic instincts and the spectral residue of Roxy Music’s later years. The tracks are sculpted from archival demos — skeletal compositions brushed with synths, mood guitars, and soft piano voicings. They don’t demand attention, but they maintain a low-key elegance.
The most intriguing aspect may be the unintentional irony: Ferry, ever the suave romantic, now trades in textures and atmosphere once pioneered by Brian Eno, his former Roxy Music colleague. While not as radical or nuanced as Eno’s ambient canon, there’s enough character - wistful chord shifts, noir-ish instrumental flourishes - to keep longtime Ferry fans comforted.
The music rarely ascends beyond "mediocre" ambient jazz, and there's little compositional development, but it functions well as mood-setting - evocative of empty foyers, late-night drives or stylish melancholy. It’s not a statement album by any means, but it’s surprisingly listenable.
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Blue False Indigo
MARC STUCKI, SYLVIE COURVOISIER
Released 21 February 2025
****-
An organic exploration of sound, from Swiss saxophonist Stucki and Swiss-born, Brooklyn based pianist Courvoisier: serene yet adventurous jazz that strikes the delicate balance between structure and spontaneity.
Marc Stucki is a Swiss saxophonist and composer and co-founder of the Jazzwerkstatt Bern a leading exponent of experimental jazz in Switzerland.
Sylvie Courvoisier, also Swiss-born and based in Brooklyn, is a renowned pianist and composer whose work bridges European chamber music traditions with the avant-garde jazz scene of New York City. Courvoisier's approach to the piano is playful and exploratory, treating the instrument as a playground for sonic experimentation.
Blue False Indigo is characterized by its free-flowing and improvisational nature. The duo takes ample space to explore musical ideas, resulting in compositions that balance structured elements with spontaneous passages. Tracks like "Twin White Oaks" exude a sense of calm through their seemingly spontaneous creation, while "Elderflower Tree" showcases Stucki's restrained yet expressive saxophone lines, complemented by Courvoisier's dynamic piano play.
The album is not strictly free jazz but maintains a free-spirited essence. Courvoisier often exercises more freedom in her playing, adding a lively and playful dimension, whereas Stucki's approach is more contemplative and measured. This contrast creates a compelling tension and balance throughout the album.
The compositions draw inspiration from various plants, as reflected in track titles like "Iberis" and "Monchurian Catalpa," symbolizing the organic growth and unpredictability of the music. The title track, "Blue False Indigo," encapsulates the album's essence, offering a blend of beauty and unpredictability akin to the plant it's named after.
Read more ... Bandcamp | Marc Stucki | Sylvie Courvoiser
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Contrasti (EP)
WYSYLLA
(MICHELE IOCOLANO, ASIA BORIOLI)
Released 7 February 2025
****-
Tiny musical archetypes: five intimate vignettes charting hope, narrative, and quiet resolution.
Wasylla is the collaborative piano project of Italian composers‑performers Michele Iocolano and Asia Borioli. Both rooted in contemporary classical and chamber music, they blend lyrical, improvisatory motifs with cinematic sensibilities, crafting succinct instrumental vignettes that convey emotion and narrative in minimal yet expressive form.
Contrasti delivers five evocative miniatures (in total just 8½ minutes) but leaves a resonant emotional arc.
The (co-credited) opener "Dream" is a lyrical overture that sets a reflective tone,and distills the contrast between the two artists compositions.
For the remainder of the EP, the compositions alternate by composer in the playing order: Iocolano’s “Hope” and “Theta” are gentle, introspective piano meditations layered with subtle dynamic shifts; Borioli’s “The Story” and “WalkOne” are more narrative-driven, spaciously poetic statements.
The recording values silence as much as sound - each phrase is allowed to breathe, leaving space for the listener's imagination. The duo’s synergy is evident: a shared sense of pacing, tone and restraint, yet each composer’s voice remains distinct.
Although brief, Contrasti functions as a musical haiku – small-scale, concentrated, and emotionally potent.
It is a slim volume that rewards close listening: an elegant miniature journey through emotional contrasts and chamber poetry.
Read more ... Bandcamp
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Wirlmarni
KANKAWA NAGARRA (OLIVE KNIGHT)
Released 30 August 2024
Kankawa Nagarra
*****
Recorded by Kankawa's longtime friend Darren Hanlon, the sessions are relaxed and warm. It's a true gift - the experience of hearing Kankawa on her own land, in her own words.
Born circa 1943 in the traditional lands of the Gooniyandi and Walmatjarri peoples of the Eastern Kimberley region of North Western Australia, Kankawa grew up with the tribal songs at cultural ceremonies. She was taken from her family to a Christian mission, where she was taught hymns and Gospel songs with the choir. On the pastoral lease where she was sent to work, Country Music was everywhere and she first heard rock and roll on the station gramophone. But it wasn’t until many years later that her musical journey truly began, when she stopped to listen to a busker outside a shop in Derby, Western Australia. It was the first time she’d heard the blues, and it awakened something in her. Through it, she found a medium to express all her thoughts and feelings, and it inspired her to turn these into songs.
The empathy of her message extends from those she sees struggling around her to the entire planet being ravaged for profit.
Recorded live near her home, these twelve acoustic guitar and vocal tracks offer a glimpse of Kankawa's (also known as Olive Knight) far ranging humanity, humor, and lived experience. She shifts between musical styles and languages, backed by night bugs and the call of birds.
Read more ... Mississippi Records
Waku Minaral A Minalay
CHRISTINE ANU
Released 9 August 2024
Christine Anu / Australian Broadcasting Corporation
****-
The literal translation of Waku is mat. Minaral is colours and Minalay means the patterns.
"The fabric of this album weaves together the songs of my maternal grandfather, Nadi Anu," she says.
Christine Anu spent many "hot, balmy nights" on the verandah at their rental in Wooloowin, Brisbane before her family relocated to Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait where she spent much of her childhood. Anu's parents taught their children how to speak Kala Lagaw Ya, her Dad's language, and Kalaw Kawaw Ya, her mother's, through song. "It was shown [to us] that [music] could take up space in a room, fill it and really give joy to other people," Anu says, adding that music was handed down to her Dad too. "His mother was also a prolific composer in her own right."
Anu has been a household name since she released a cover version of the Warumpi Band's "Island Home" in 1995.
The song was the second single on her debut album "Stylin' Up" which was certified platinum.
Anu was "dropped" by Mushroom Records after her 10-year contract expired. "There was no email, there was no phone call, there was no card," she said.
Now with ABC Music, she says she couldn't have released "Waku – Minaral A Minalay" all those years ago anyway. The time is now.
"What's sprung forth is a beautiful ancestor that is exactly the second album that should come from a debut if you took out everything that happened in between."
The album is produced by David Bridie, who produced "Stylin' Up" and has a long history of involvement with indigenous music in Australia and PNG. There are soundscapes captured from Anu's visit to Thursday Island with Bridie, as well as traditional instruments from the Torres Strait on the album, but the primary instrument is Anu's powerful and euphonic vocals.
Read more ... ABC
clicking cover art opens Spotify
Betting on Blak
JUNGAJI
Released 13 June 2025
*****
Rising from obscurity after three decades of creative endeavours Jangaji joins the vanguard of contemporary First Nations artists - with an album of songs that are grounded in soulfulness and overflowing with culturally resonant musicianship.
Jungaji is a First Nations songman, visual artist, playwright, and activist and a veteran the Australian music industry for three decades. First appearing on the scene as a teenager with Aim4More in the 90s, he has now embarked on a new creative path fusing Soul and R&B to create a unique and authentic sound that showcases his cultural roots.
Jungaji has undergone a deep cultural transformation and found a profound understanding of his identity and is dedicated to sharing his western songlines and artistic testimony with the world. He maintains the ancient fires through his smooth modern deliveries of stories & songlines.
A proud Western GuGu Yalanji & Birrigubba man, Jungaji is continuing ancient law by documenting the stories of his people through art, theatre, music and storytelling, having learned these traditions from his elders - and particularly from his last ancient connection to a 104-year-old bush man with whom Jungaji had a life-changing spiritual initiation. He is passionate about preserving these traditions for future generations.
Jangaji has forged a reputation based on integrity and has been delving deep into the language and culture of his ancestral lands, talking to elders, and creating art both visually and aurally. Betting On Blak is a deeply personal and culturally resonant debut that melds classic soul grooves with First Nations storytelling. Jungaji's voice - rich, expressive, and unhurried - anchors the album's diverse textures, conveying themes of love, resilience, and sovereignty. The production leans into classic 70s R&B, yet it resists nostalgia. His songwriting draws deeply from First Nations oral traditions while embracing the soul and blues idioms of Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Gurrumul.
The title track sets the tone with its conversational phrasing and melodic lines that echo both gospel and saltwater songlines. “Gummy Bamarra” uses Gugu Yalanji language as the primary lyrical mode, delivered over a minimal groove that lets each syllable resonate. Rather than rely on hooks or layered production, Jungaji employs repetition and phrasing variation—creating intimacy without theatricality.
Rather than following trends, Betting On Blak occupies its own space: dignified, grounded, and emotionally resonant. It joins the vanguard of Australian First Nations music that reclaims soul not only as genre but as inheritance.
Read more ... Jungaji
clicking cover art opens Spotify
Warrangu; River Story
DOBBY
Released 14 June 2024
Australian Broadcasting Commission
*****
Where hip-hop, history and Country coalesce in a symphony of resistance and renewal.
DOBBY (Rhyan Clapham) is a Filipino-Aboriginal hip-hop artist, classically trained percussionist, and powerful voice in Australian music. A proud Murrawarri and Ngemba man, DOBBY fuses his musical and cultural identities to tell urgent stories of resistance, connection to Country, and Aboriginal sovereignty through intricate beats, spoken word, and compelling composition.
Warrangu; River Story is an ambitious, multi-layered concept album that merges hip-hop, classical percussion, spoken word, and Indigenous oral storytelling into a seamless narrative that documents the cultural knowledge of the three rivers that form the surrounding tribal boundaries in Brewarrina - the Bogan River to the South, the Culgoa River to the North, and the Barwon River to the East; while shedding light on the over-irrigation and water theft in the region. DOBBY constructs this work with a composer’s rigour and a rapper’s energy and precision.
Each track serves musical and cultural functions: here, beats are not simply rhythmical backdrops but sonic environments echoing the movement of water, industry, ceremony, and protest.
He integrates field recordings (frogs, running water, drilling machines) with orchestral textures and rhythmic patterns drawn from both Aboriginal and Western traditions. The album’s cinematic scope is grounded by his sharp lyrical flow and bilingual narration, alternating between English and Language revival.
Voices of Elders and community members—recorded on Country, are not sampled for flavour, but centered as narrative authority, placing community memory above commercial hooks.
Water theft on a grand scale has been occurring in the region for years, causing horrific and irreversible damage to the ecosystem, in particular, over-irrigation and redirection of the waterways known as the Murray Darling Basin for the profit of almonds and cotton. WARRANGU: River Story provides the soundtrack for the community-grown demonstration against this injustice.
What makes Warrangu especially innovative is its form: a musical map that is simultaneously archival and contemporary. It's not just about the river; it is the river—alive, contested, and flowing with memory. Few artists fuse electroacoustic composition and social justice this organically. It’s an act of sonic sovereignty, built not just to be heard, but to be listened to.
Read more ... DOBBY
Nara
EMILY WURRAMARA
Released 23 August 2024
Emily Wurramara / Australian Broadcasting Corporation
****-
Emily Wurramara’s latest album, NARA, is a musical journey that defies categorization and blends a diverse array of genres and influences. From indie and alt-pop to RnB, rock, and ambient sound, Emily fearlessly explores the complexities of life, love, and identity.
NARA is a testament to her unwavering commitment to artistic growth and weaves together thirteen years of personal and creative evolution into a cohesive and compelling narrative.
NARA opens with “Midnight Blues,” a track that immediately draws one in with its haunting melody and introspective lyrics. The song sets the tone for the album. A tone that is balanced between ethereal and earth, Emily’s voice soars above a bed of lush music and her delivery is delicate yet powerful. Her voice reflects the duality of her experiences: joy and sorrow, hope and despair. As she says, “You need both to truly understand peace.”
Throughout NARA, Emily collaborates with a range of artists that add depth and variety to her sound. But what truly sets NARA apart is its authenticity. Emily’s lyrics are steeped in honesty and reflection. They offer a window into her soul. She does not shy away from the difficult moments, her struggles with mental health, the devastation of losing her home, and the pressures of her public profile are all laid bare. Yet, there is also a sense of triumph, a celebration of survival and the joy found in community, family, and Country.
NARA is a statement of intent from an artist who refuses to be confined by expectations. Emily Wurramara has crafted a body of work that is as expansive as it is intimate, as complex as it is accessible. It is a celebration of life’s highs and lows, and a reminder of the beauty that can be found in both.
Read more ... Amplify The Noise
For The Dreams
KING STINGRAY
Released 8 November 2024
King Stingray Civilians Cooking Vinyl
****-
"The Northern Territory band follow up their award-winning debut with another instant classic full of catchy hooks, massive choruses and good vibes" The Guardian
King Stingray are a four piece Yolŋu surf-rock band from Yirrkala North-East Arnhem Land, Australia. Creating a genre of their own in Yolŋu surf-rock, the band merge ancient indigenous melodies with a fresh new sound. It is the follow-up of the iconic band Yothu Yindi - King Stingray are the children of the iconic Australian band Yothu Yindi
In its five star review, The Guardian posed the question that attaches to any band's sophomore album "How do you follow up an instant classic?". They observed "This was the challenge faced by King Stingray, the self-described Yolŋu surf-rock group from Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land, whose self-titled 2022 debut sounded more like a greatest hits collection than a first album. It deservedly won the Australian Music prize".
Their assessment - "Thankfully, the band hasn’t overthought things. Their answer to the above question is simple: make another one. For the Dreams may as well be titled King Stingray II. The themes are practically identical: the joys of being on country (and getting back to it), slowing down, chilling out. The wind, the sun, the rain, the moon, the tides.
In that sense, there is little development from their debut, musically or lyrically. King Stingray have simply stuck to what they’re already exceptional at. For the Dreams teems with hooks, the choruses are massive and the sound is universally bright, up-tempo and uplifting. And there are no bad vibes, anywhere".
Read more ... The Guardian