Review: A mock-vintage version of a well-known but also tragic reggae classic, 'Satta Massagana' by the Abyssinians. Legend has it that the original tune was slated for release on Studio One, but, for reasons unknown, the dubplate ended up rejected by the label's founder, Coxsone Dodd. Indeed, sometimes it's a record's repression, not its release (get it?), that lends it its staying power. To add insult to injury, this new cover version by the Dig This Way All Stars and Yakka was first produced in acetate form and ended up cracked and unplayable only weeks after its receipt. A miracle cure, in the form of a vinyl restoration service in Rome, salvaged the record: just know that you're in an extra lucky position to be hearing this one at all. A cursed record? Perhaps, but the release of 'Sata' also implies proof of the original song's point; that some higher power really did give praise.
Review: The Yoruba Singers reinterpreted Guyana folk music and infused it with Afro-roots and culture on this double A-side 7". Now for the first time every it gets reissued on vinyl. This release came a year after the group's debut album Ojinga's Own and were recorded in Barbados and released on the Green Shrimp label. They were big regional has with dancers lapping the grooves throughout the Caribbean and South America. The sounds are said to be the building blocks for what went on to become known as the Champeta Criolla sound in the Caribbean coast of Colombia.
Review: In 2002, the Japanese government recognized bamboo flute maestro Hozan Yamamoto as a "living national treasure". It was in honor of his lengthy career in music, and in particular the way he championed a traditional Japanese instrument even when he was turning his hand to Western music. "Beautiful Bamboo Flute", an album first released in 1971 and almost impossible to find since, is a superb example of this. It sees him deliver haunting, emotional and life-affirming solos over funky jazz, big band and fusion backing tracks that tend towards the fresh and funky. It's an unusual blend, but also an invigorating and exciting one.
Review: Although born and raised in Holland, the duo behind the Yin Yin project "make music for an imaginary tropical Island" based "somewhere between the Netherlands and South East Asia". It's an apt description of their undeniably humid, wide-eyed style, which variously combines elements of surf-rock, dub, psychedelia, ambient, electronica, spaced-out synth-pop and various traditional South East Asian musical tropes. It's a style that makes this long promised debut album a unique, distinctive and hugely vibrant listening experience. While inventive and colourful, their music is also largely dancefloor friendly and highly addictive. In other words, this is one debut album that's well worth picking up.
Review: YIN YIN, the highly touted Dutch quartet from Maastricht, returns with a sonically expansive third album Mount Matsu. Recorded collectively in their own studio in the Belgian countryside, the album is a kaleidoscope of sounds and influences, occupying a no-man's land between Khruangbin and Kraftwerk, surf music and Southeast Asian psychedelia, Stax soul and mutant 80s disco, City pop and Japanese instrumental folk (sokyoku). Mount Matsu hears YIN YIN at their most mature and adventurous stage yet; infectious pentatonic melodicism calling for multiple rewinds.
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