Another huge week for new releases - everything from perky bouncers to sweet, melodic crooners and some long-awaited reissues too - strap in!
Will's Wonder Wax of the Week...
Teno Afrika - Amapiano Selections
South Africa’s reputation for expanding dance music again with Amapiano. The past five years have seen amapiano, South Africa’s electronic music movement born in the townships of the country’s Gauteng province, evolve from an underground sound to a nationwide mainstream staple.
James' Judiciary: Karima Walker - Waking The Dreaming Body
Waking the Dreaming Body is the follow-up to Tucson artist Karima Walker’s 2017 standout album Hands In Our Names, which garnered praise from Pitchfork, MOJO and Bandcamp. The album includes dense harmonic arrangements of synthesizer, guitar, piano, percussion, field recordings, tape loops and Karima’s dulcet singing voice.
BW’s guitar is, more than ever, a thing of fearsome and filigree beauty, moving effortlessly from misty, mellifluous DIY pop-dreams to wailing vertiginous whiplash leads and dazed, epiphanic, angels-wept metha-drone, ringing in infinity – and tethered to this earth only by his beloved monotone, numbed-out, serial-killer croon.
What do you get when you combine the best hip-hop producer in Boston with one of the best upcoming lyricists in NY? Well Done. This is an album couldn’t have a better fitting title, as it will surely fill the void hip-hop fans around the world have been yearning to fill. In the style of classic producer & MC albums, Statik and Bronson deliver intricate rhymes and head-nodding beats on this noteworthy release.
What do you think of when you think of British film? Probably not the 1979 ‘puzzle picture’ that is Anti-Clock. And yet, for anyone who has seen this extraordinary film, it would be unlikely that they could forget it. Its sounds and images burn into the brain. It’s an infuriating and invigorating experience. It’s like entering a dream state only to find that one’s unconscious mind has been hijacked by somebody else’s skewed (il)logic.
‘Immigrants’, the new album (and official sequel to seminal 1999 Mercury Prize nominated ‘Beyond Skin’) from the multi award winning producer/songwriter/DJ/instrumentalist/composer/cultural pioneer Nitin Sawhney. The album is a unique celebration of immigrants around the world and showcases works inspired and contributed to by artists who either identify themselves as immigrants, are from immigrant heritage or wish to express support for those international immigrants who have found themselves judged or disadvantaged by pure accident of birth.
Antidepressant, originally released in 2006, is Lloyd Cole’s follow-up album to the critically acclaimed Music In A Foreign Language. It is a vivid album, recorded entirely by Cole himself, yet sounding like the production of a full band – a drastic change from the stripped-down sound of Music In A Foreign Language. Above all reigns Cole’s characteristic voice with his distinguished lyricism, ranging from the heartfelt to the sarcastic, which established him as one of the most articulate songwriters of the post-punk era. From the upbeat Bluesrock of the title track to the Country-esque “Travelling Light”, Antidepressant is a confident album with an impressive range.
Half-speed vinyl release of the Mark Knopfler soundtrack to the film Local Hero, mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Originally released in 1983, the album features the theme tune ‘Going Home’. Part of the UMC half-speed range, the package includes a branded obi-strip and a certificate of authenticity from Abbey Road. 180 Gram black vinyl, cut at half speed. Full colour outer sleeve, facsimile of original artwork. Series-branded obi-strip. Certificate of authenticity from Abbey Road Studios.
It’s nearly a decade since William Doyle handed a CD-R demo to the Quietus co-founder John Doran at a gig, who loved it so much he set up a label to release Doyle’s debut EP (as East India Youth). Doyle’s debut album, Total Strife Forever, followed in 2014, as did a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. A year later, he was signed to XL, touring the world and about to release his second album – all by the age of 25.
The landmark first album on the On-U Sound label, this self-titled debut announced a gathering of the tribes: producer Adrian Sherwood bringing together members of the Slits, the Pop Group, the Flying Lizards and the Raincoats and getting them to collaborate with the likes of the Roots Radics’ Style Scott, Creation Rebel’s Crucial Tony, and Aswad’s George Oban to form a potent post-punk/dub fusion.
THE REST OF THIS REISSUE SERIES IS AVAILABLE TOO- JUST FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW!
