Crucial Material – Best Releases Of The Week (January 26th, 2019)

Too much music too little time.

Thankfully, our Crucial Material is slowly but surely becoming one of the best weekly recaps in the world scanning the hundreds of new releases and sharing only the cream of the crop.

So here it is, Crucial Material for the week of January 26th 2019!

NEW ALBUMS & EP’S

Ed Longo & The Applied Arts Ensemble “The Other Fantasy”

Genres: Jazz-funk / Fusion / Boogie
Label: Early Sounds Recordings
Purchase Link

Ed Longo is a name to get familiar with, as I suspect we’ll be hearing it quite a bit once this album wiggles its way around the world. ‘The Other Fantasy’ is a 5-track mini-album intended to sonically confront the out-of-touch-ness of our digital lives. The result is rich, lush, beautiful. Early Sounds crew have found themselves yet another excellent studio artist.
– Selected by Jake Stellarwell

Patrick Gibin “Cloud Nine”

Genre: Broken Beat / Jazz / Electronic
Label: Eglo
Purchase Link

Brilliant new broken beat 12 from Verona’s Patrick Gibin. Soulful dancefloor material from the rising Italian star, featuring the lush keys of Mark de Clive Lowe and vocals from Javonntte, on the ever-crucial Eglo Records.
– Selected by Oli Brunetti (Boom Music / Colectivo Futuro)

Ivan Conti “Poison Fruit”

Genre: Jazz / Funk / Samba
Label: Far Out
Purchase Link

The long awaited solo release from Azymuth drumming mastermind Mamao has arrived and its all we expected and more. Searing fusion synth with experemential grooves all held together by Conti’s steady hands. You can feel the decades of brazilian jazz and funk flow through every song as Poison Fruit is a slowburner that gets riper with every spin.
– Selected by Asma

Time Grove “More Than One Thing”

Genre: Jazz
Label: Wah Wah 45s
Purchase Link

The Tel Aviv-based ensemble, led by pianist Nitai Hershkovits and featuring members of both the Buttering Trio and Rejoicer (Stones Throw), release their debut album. The music is delicately uplifting, blending piano and keyboard driven melodies with layered horns and subtle electronic textures.
– Selected by TJ Gorton (Beat Caffeine)

James Holden “A Cambodian Spring OST”

Genre: Soundtrack / Electronic / Ambient
Label: Border Community
Purchase Link

Keyboardist and composer James Holden releases his first ever film score, a soundtrack to Chris Kelly’s powerful documentary, A Cambodian Spring. The music is quite a departure from Holden’s 2017 cosmic masterpiece The Animal Spirits, featuring a mixture of drone-like solo synth sounds and swelling ambient tones.
– Selected by TJ Gorton (Beat Caffeine)

Nicola Cruz “Siku”

Genre: Electronic / Latin
Label: ZZK Records
Purchase Link

Ecuadorian producer and percussionist Nicola Cruz’s sophomore full-length, takes the listener on a spiritual journey inspired by South American musical influences and sounds of the Andes mountains. Throughout the brilliant recording, Cruz combines echoing layers of electronic grooves and house-style bass synths with Afro-Latin and Hindu-influenced percussive rhythms and melodies.
– Selected by TJ Gorton (Beat Caffeine)

REISSUES & ARCHIVAL

Michael O’Shea “Michael O’Shea LP”

Genres: Experimental / Electronic / Folk
Label: AllChival
Purchase Link

A curious wanderer, O’Shea was forced to adapt to the conditions of his lifestyle. He sold his instruments to raise funds for his travels and in the midst of his journey created an instrument using part of an old door. The Mo Cara, as he called it, was played with chopsticks and fed through an effects chain to create a sonic texture that eventually caught the attention of Alice Coltrane. Originally recorded and released in ’82, AllChaval now makes this sought-after masterpiece widely available.
– Selected by Jake Stellarwell

Steve Elliott “Completion of a Miracle”

Genres: Soul / Funk / Electronic
Label: Rain&Shine
Purchase Link

Songwriting and arrangements with a clear nod to the glory days of Soul juxtaposed with the instruments of the early 80’s – this is ‘Completion of a Miracle’. Steve Elliott’s direct and unfussy song structure and lyrical content make this album pure, honest, but when these elements are combined with Funk-laden synth lines, drum machines and Moog bass, the album becomes complex, rich and profoundly idiosyncratic. Already a contender for best re-issue of 2019.
– Selected by Jake Stellarwell