Crucial Material – Best Releases Of The Week (August 19th, 2019)

Back at it again with your weekly roundup of unmissable albums and EP’s from jazz, modern funk to club-ready releases.

As always we hope you make some nice discoveries and feel free to encourage these artists/labels if you do! Enjoy and have a great week.

NEW ALBUMS & EP’s

Alex Figueira “Platanito / Guacuco”

Label: Music With Soul
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Bandcamp

A double dose of tropical heat from Fumaca Preta / Conjunto Papa Upa bandleader, Alex Figueira, destined to burn up dancefloors the world over. One side of psych funk, Ghanian / Nigerian highlife, Angolan semba, dedicated to fried plantain, and on the flip, steel drums, Brazilian percussion and guitars, inspired by a Venezuelan seafood dish renowned for its aphrodisiac properties.
– Selected by Oliver Brunetti

Quitapenas “Tigrada”

Label: Counter Culture / Cosmica Records
Buy: Digital & Physical
Stream: Spotify

An immensely fun second album from tropical afro latin combo, Quitapenas, who continue to draw on a shared love of soukous, Salsa, Angolan semba, merengue, Guadeloupean gwoka, Funana, psych/surf and so on. 10 songs that will have you smiling and dancing, even when hitting one serious topics, such as the 2006 Oaxacan teacher’s strike on lead single “La Educación”. Brighten up your day with this album.
– Selected by Oliver Brunetti

LCSM (Likwid Continual Space Motion) “EP1”

Label: Super-Sonic Jazz Records
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Bandcamp)
Stream: Spotify

From CoOp to the Outer Spaceways. Broken beat pioneer IG Culture returns with another EP of interplanetary grooves, this time joined by the likes of Alex Phountzi, Neue Grafik and members of the Steam Down collective. No stranger to working with the creme of live musicians, it’s a sublime match to hear the groundbreaking producer step out of the box again with a fresh generation of creative musicians.
– Selected by Oli Brunetti

Scan 7 “Between Worlds”

Label: Deeptrax
Genre: Techno
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Bandcamp)

“Big news from the motor city where Detroit’s finest Scan 7 announce their new triple vinyl album to the world since 20 years on Deeptrax records. Of indisputable +313 vintage, Scan 7 with deep roots in the rich musical heritage of Detroit techno, announce their new triple vinyl album since 20 years on Deeptrax Records. SCAN 7`s name (originating from the word DETROIT, which consists of 7 letters, and its area code, 313 (which, added up, equals 7)) will forever remain definitively techno and wholeheartedly Detroit and is here with this 3xLP to infiltrate and knock out!”

Loscil “Equivalents”

Label: Kranky
Genre: Ambient / Drone
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Boomkat)
Stream: Spotify

“Vancouver’s ambient great Loscil returns with handfuls of foggy atmospheric saturation in ‘Equivalents’, his 12th solo album and 9th for long-term supporters at Kranky”

Ana Roxanne “~~~”

Label: Leaving
Genre: Ambient / Modern Classical / Electronic
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Boomkat)
Stream: Spotify

“Bay Area’s Ana Roxanne exerts a gently intimate and singular spin on new age ambient tropes, surely set to be hailed among this year’s finest quiet listening missives”

Theo Parrish, Lori, SilentJay, Simon Mavin, Perrin Moss, & Paul Bender “What You Wanna Ask For”

Label: Sound Signature
Genre: Soul / House / Jazz-Funk
Stream: Spotify

“Sound Signature’s latest release is an all-star crew affair, with an impressive cast list of vocalists, musicians and producers joining main man Theo Parrish in the studio. He’s at the controls on the sublime A-side mix, a jazzy affair where layered twinkling electric piano motifs, spacey chords, jazz-funk riffs and sumptuous deep house grooves combine on a fearlessly loose and organic dancefloor workout. On the flipside friend of the family Dego offers his interpretation, adding even more warmth and some tasty additional hand percussion parts whilst wisely utilizing most of the original version’s intricate musical elements.”

Afrodeutsche “RR001”

Label: River Rapid
Genre: House / Techno
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Bandcamp)
Stream: Spotify

“RR001 features 4 brand new tracks by Afrodeutsche AKA Henrietta Smith-Rolla . Building on the sound established on her 2018 Debut “Break Before Make” on the legendary SKAM label – these raw hardware driven tracks evoke classic Rephlex in the same breath as Underground Resistance. Respectful to the originators whilst keeping an eye firmly on the future.”

REISSUES & ARCHIVAL

Lito Barrientos y su Orquesta “Very Well Well”

Genre: Cumbia
Label: Vampisoul
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Bandcamp
Stream: Spotify

If one group was to represent Colombia’s golden cumbia era it would be Lito’s Orquesta. This album is chockful of chirpy percussion and deep basslines that molded the sound of cumbia del caribe with enough variety to keep things interesting but a singular sound holding the album together. The quintessential “Cumbia en Do menor” make this a must have album and the good folks at Vampisoul have allowed it to come clean into the vinyl rotation instead of the scarce heavily played out copies available in bogota fleamarkets.
– Selected by Asma

L.V Johnson “We Belong Together”

Label: Everland
Genre: Soul / Jazz / Disco
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Bandcamp

L.V Johnson was quick to be compared to Barry White, for his sultry voice and his self produced indulges orchestral ballads, but his album We Belong Together proved his was a soulful force to be reckoned with on his term. Dilla made everyone aware of the brilliant “I Don’t Really Care”, but this very rare album finally reissued by Everland has a lot more to offer. Introspective Modern Soul with raw emotion and a stack of smooth cuts make this record a syrupy sweet addition to the collection.
– Selected by Asma

IF Music presents You Need This – A Journey Into Deep Jazz Vol. 3 by Jean-Claude

Label: BBE Records
Genre: Jazz
Buy: Digital & Physical (via Bandcamp)
Stream: Spotify

“Founder of London record shop IF Music and vinyl hunter extraordinaire, Jean-Claude drops the third glorious volume of his compilation series ‘A Journey Into Deep Jazz’ on BBE Music. True to the album’s ‘You Need This’ tagline, Jean-Claude has once again dug deep in his personal collection, emerging with an eclectic yet coherent selection of jazz sounds. Skimming the list of featured artists, such as James Brown’s former trombonist and musical director Tyrone Jefferson, Hungary’s all-time great jazz guitarist Szabó Gábor István, Czech band Jazz Celula and India’s Jazz Yatra Sextett, gives a sense of the album’s global scope. From rare cover versions of classics originally penned by Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane to original Japanese Mambo via an Afro-centric hip shaker made in Hungary, ‘A Journey Into Deep Jazz Vol. 3’ travels all over the map in search of sonic bliss.”