Sandunes - The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Sandunes's third transcendental album, 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet', on her new label Tru Thoughts, is released Friday 17th November.

The 13 track album challenges the celebration and reward for individualism, instead homing in on humanity's "collective spirit, authentic expression… subverting the norm of what’s expected", serving as a reminder to do more of that which connects the earth and the body. The album shares its name with a Salman Rushdie novel and the book's humanist message that arrives from newfound awareness. It speaks to the sentimental foundations involved in making a home - when a tangible version of it doesn’t exist, "finding home in relationships, in ritual, in music and memory".

The project isn’t bound to any one genre but by Sandunes' emotions and reflections on the evolution of identity, particularly of womanhood and the modern world. Moving through the dynamic, electronic soundscape are soulful jazz currents, utopian synth moments and dancing percussion. The enchanting displaced vocal arrangement of “The Surge feat. Ramya Pothuri” expresses the flurry of emotions surrounding migration and big changes, like leaving the comfort of Goa’s beautiful, familiar red soil. “Pelican Dance” has rich layers of skipping marimba and 18th century harpsichord that serve as the soundtrack to a pelican dancing in the wind. You are then transported to the heart of a dark wood, with its breathing, ever changing ecosystem of sounds and deep string arrangements; with each moment shifting the sonic narrative, “Feel Me From The Inside”, is part of a world that is delicate but dense, sort of like a forest…” Sandunes adds.

“Follow Me” channels the power of women, with the collaboration of KAVYA and her siren-like, euphonious vocal offerings. Tapping into the sound of the elements, with imagery of swelling water and desert heat, the track’s shimmering synth tones and fiery lyrics peter out as the instrumental simulates a drowning sensation through the disintegrating chimes.

The releases, “Pelican Dance”, “Masti” and “Follow Me feat. KAVYA'' will be brought to life with live videos of Sandunes performing, showing her captivating musical process in real time. Her unforgettably enchanting live renditions are performed with anything from a solo show up to an eleven-piece band.

Sandunes has opened for Bonobo at the Manchester International Festival, supported George FitzGerald's album release tour at Evolutionary Arts Hackney, performed at London’s Barbican Centre under commission from Warp Records and Boiler Room, toured the US supporting Pretty Lights and released a collaborative album with celebrated UK jazz drummer Richard Spaven. As well as joining NTS for a guest mix, her previous work has gained praise from international and local tastemakers across various media; Rolling Stone, The Quietus, The Guardian, Red Bull Radio and Resident Advisor to name a few.

Tracklist:
1. Mother Figure
2. Feel Me From The Inside
3. The Surge
4. Pelican Dance
5. Masti
6. Earthquake
7. Tsunami
8. Follow Me
9. Signs
10. Time For This
11. Cyclone
12. Indeterminance
13. Flamingo Dreams

*Bonus (Sandunes - Feel Me From The Inside (Live at Island City Studios))

Terrace Martin & Calvin Keys - The Near North

Tracklist:
1. The Island
2. Invitation
3. Potholes
4. In a Sentimental Mood
5. Cotton Tail
6. Peace
7. Beau Dollar
8. The Near North Sid

Stro Elliot - Stro Elliot (La Villa)

London-based label, Def Pressé are very pleased to announce their partnership with legendary Library Music label KPM. Def Pressé and friends, including names like Damu the Fudgemunk, Stro Elliot (The Roots), J-Live, Blockhead, Deca, Chris Dave and many more TBA have been given exclusive access to the KPM Library. These projects will take shape as two types of record. Def Pressé Editions/KPM Crate Diggers are works built around samples from KPM releases amongst other Library Music catalogues. Def Pressé Editions/KPM Originals are brand new pieces of music, free from samples. Both of these series’ include some very special guest vocalists and musicians as well as the Producers/Arrangers themselves. All of this music will be released by Def Pressé and placed into the vaults at KPM Library Music.

Stro presents his new album, La Ville. A true glance back across the KPM catalogue and an opportunity to enjoy the vast experience Stro has creating foundational music for bands like The Roots. This is the fourth release in the KPM Crate Diggers series on Def Pressé, where artists are invited into a deep dive to choose samples from KPM’s iconic music and sound design library, sampled by Madlib, Prince Paul, MF DOOM, J Dilla, Gorillaz, and legions more. These new recordings themselves will then be entered into library music use for media - the circle of hip-hop life.

Stro Elliot’s fourth album La Villa is a dizzying and sumptuous trip through the lush grooves of hip-hop as well as the storied collection of the KPM Library, which is home to over 70 years of music and sound designs made for television, film, and radio. The fourth release in London-based label Def Pressé’s KPM Crate Diggers series, La Villa finds the Roots member, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Elliot applying an elegant touch to his sample selections—opening up his own production approach in new and dazzling ways while introducing a greater audience to the KPM Library’s limitless possibilities.

La Villa is the latest jewel in the crown of Elliot’s multifaceted career, from being a part of Colorado rap collective the Procussions to his contributions as a full-time member of hip-hop legends the Roots, which has also led to him being a mainstay on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. After the COVID-19 pandemic ground his busy schedule to a halt, however, Elliot found himself some free time to get back to his own (no pun intended) production roots. “We usually don’t stop—there’s constantly things to do,” he explains. “But during the pandemic, everyone in the band started branching out during the downtime, and for me it was a refocus. My passion is production and remixes, and during 2020 a lot was opened up creatively for me.”

While Elliot was hard at work on a separate remix project—specifically, his collection of James Brown re-imaginings Black & Loud from last year—he was contacted by the folks at Def Pressé about taking part in the KPM Crate Diggers series. “I’m very familiar with those green album covers, so being asked to do this reignited a desire to re-establish myself within a group of artists that like to create out of pre-existing material,” he explains about his enthusiasm to contribute to the project. “I came up with people who dub for vinyl, and it was always like finding little pieces of gold whenever we found those covers. They could be anything, and that’s what the KPM library meant to us. You could get something that sounded like rock, jazz, or Latin music—it was a lottery of material, you never knew what you were gonna get. 9 times out of 10, it was always something useful, and it was always worth listening to as well.”

“Being asked to reshape this material and do whatever I want with it was exactly the kind of thing you’d want to hear from anyone whose music you grew up listening to,” Elliot continues, and it’s the versatility of the KPM catalog that allowed him to truly dig in across these ten tracks. “KPM really did let me do whatever I wanted with this music. There was no expectation because their library’s been so vast in genre. Also, the majority of the music doesn’t have any vocals, so melodically you can do a lot more with it. I was able to go more experimental than some of my other projects because of that.”

The results are pure aural bliss; lead single “Monday’s Generation” is an upbeat slice of joy that rides on piping flute, shuffling guitar chords, and a percolating backbeat reminiscent of house music. “There was so much there for me to use, and sometimes as a remixer I have trouble settling on one idea—so I try to find a way to work everything in there, which turns it into a multi-part song,” Elliot explains while talking about the song’s creation. There was a lot there to pick from for this one, and I liked all of it.”

The echoing boom-bap of “Bamboo” speaks to Elliot’s deep rap lineage, while the easygoing ambience and tight drums of “Light Work” marked the beginnings of La Villa’s creation itself. “I heard the record and it just kind of jumped out of the speakers at me,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘OK, I know what this is.’ It spoke to the hip-hop aesthetic that I always gravitate towards. It was about finding a way to chop and rearrange it that felt unique while adding a groove to it. It sparked the whole project for me.” Then there’s “Solid State,” which moves with a lovely off-kilter gait as swooning tones reverberate in the background. “I don’t know if I’ve ever made anything that felt like this before,” Elliot explains while talking about the song. “It left the door open for me to try something new as a result, and even though I was hesitant about whether it would be liked, I feel like it’s part of what kind of creative I am as a producer.”

And La Villa ultimately represents Elliot’s wielding of the tools in the KPM library to expand his own sonic horizons—testing himself and his own abilities while laying a path for an exciting future. “I’ve always been a big jazz head, and it’s always been my go-to vibe, so the idea of creating something original like this with intention was really attractive,” he says while talking about how the project represents this era of his storied career. “There was a lot of musicality involved, especially when it came to what I built around these samples—and that opened me up when it comes to what I create as a musician, too.”

Tracklist:
1. Monday’s Generation
2. HHOT
3. Solid State
4. Lonely
5. Light Work
6. Praylude
7. Bamboo
8. Frozen Four
9. Riot
10. Dream Factory

Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun

Tracklist:
1. I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A "Rap" Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time
2. The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?
3. That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild
4. BuyPoloDisorder's Daughter Wears A 3000® Button Down Embroidered
5. Ninety Three 'Til Infinity And Beyoncé
6. Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, And John Wayne Gacy
7. Ants To You, Gods To Who ?
8. Dreams Once Buried Beneath The Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens

Espen Horne - The Anatomy Of Serene Eloquence

2023 sees the return of multi-talented Norwegian producer Espen Horne to Wah Wah 45s, after a 24 year hiatus. The man behind the label’s very first release, the now seminal Magnetica, never lost his connection with the imprint and has remained very much part of the Wah Wah family, making a comeback this year with his first solo material under his own name since that club classic from 1999.

Back in the spring, the first single from the project, the gorgeous soul-jazz beauty Bakeren, featuring the stunning vocals of Resonators’ Faye Houston, quickly found a home on Gilles Peterson’s internationally renowned BBC Radio 6 show as well as that of Jazz FM legend Robbie Vincent, Bandcamp Weekly and the Fresh Finds Jazz Spotify playlist.

Following that, Bergen Sunrays, became a weekly fixture on the Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show on BBC 6 Music, with the limited 7-inch of both singles selling out within hours of release.

Next up was the wistful Den Franske Gitaren, a lugubrious soul-jazz piece with drum & bass leanings featuring Bergen based MC and vocalist Aich, which found favour with legends Laurent Garnier and Jazzanova as well as hot Japanese production outfit Dazzle Drums.

This was closely followed by the final single to be taken from the album, the stunning and outspoken vocal jazz waltzer Nada Pode Me Calar (which roughly translates to Nothing Can Shut Me Up!) featuring the sublime talent of Olav Wöllo on vocals and Juno.

And now the full album, entitled The Anatomy Of Serene Eloquence is available for your aural delectation. Recorded largely during lockdown, the LP is a sophisticated and composed piece of work that sees the Norwegian producer make connections with musicians from across Europe, and some closer to home, to collaborate on this sedate and peaceful collection of songs.

The aforementioned Faye Houston also appears on the soulful, dub flavoured Don’t Fall Asleep, a piece of music that explores the feeling of being isolated whilst sharing a mutual love and drive to explore new sonic possibilities.

Elsewhere, Olav Wöllo pops up again too, this time on O Mar E A Lua and once again singing in Portuguese to give this track a certain Tropicalia feel, as Espen explains:

“Olav Wöllo is a close friend, an excellent musician and vocalist, and a capoeira professor here in Bergen. He has spent much of his life living in Brazil and speaks Portuguese fluently. He wrote the lyrics for this tune years ago and had just been waiting for the right collaboration to come along.

We went to his lovely studio out on this remote island, made a massive gyoza meal, had some serious good wine and stayed the whole night to record his vocal harmonies and outspoken lyrics.”

The single Bergen Sunrays also appears on the album in instrumental form with featured keys courtesy of London based player Rory More - here entitled Rory’s Sunrays. His Lowrey organ adds a more melancholic feel to the track, as it does on the stunning Belle Époque, alongside the ivory work of Eirik Blåsternes - an emotional, contemplative and atmospheric track that was tested and shaped in the eclipse of Covid.

As with Belle Époque, La Psychosomnie is a playful yet explorative cut that examines insomnia, paralysis and hypnosis courtesy of some enigmatic French spoken word spinning around a framework of drums, bass and swirling keys.

And finally, the album offers up an alternative version of the single Den Franske Gitaren, this time featuring Martin Halla, a vocalist out of the Bergen Grieg Jazz Academy and winner of the Norwegian version of The Voice back in 2012! The perfect flip to Aich's more mournful interpretation of this bass and drum future classic.

Tracklist:
1. Bakeren (feat. Faye Houston)
2. O Mar E A Lua (feat. Olav Wöllo)
3. Bergen Sunrays (feat. Selim Mutic)
4. Belle Époque
5. Den Franske Gitaren (feat. Aich)
6. Don't Fall Asleep (feat. Faye Houston)
7. Rory's Sunrays
8. Nada Pode Me Calar (feat. Olav Wöllo)
9. La Psychosomnie
10. Den Franske Gitaren (feat. Martin Halla)

VA - Spiritual Jazz 15: A Tribute to 'Trane

Many artists achieve greatness but very few produce work that is so moving it's considered sacred. Whether you choose to call them hymns, psalms or spirituals, their songs are a healing force for troubled times. We feel close to these prophets, in recognition of their uncommon labours. It is as if they have given all of themselves, body and soul, through music.

We can safely say that our Spiritual Jazz series would not exist without the inspiration and leadership of the spiritual messiah that is John Coltrane. It can therefore only be right and proper that we dedicate a whole album to his legacy and lasting influence. Spiritual Jazz 15 – A Tribute to 'Trane shines a spotlight on the reverence in which the saxophonist is held in so many ways.

On one hand our selection displays cover versions of his songs performed by the musicians he inspired; disciples to Coltrane the messiah, who chose to give praise to the one who laid a foundation for them. The listener will also encounter original music written in honour of Coltrane that underlines the endless presence he has had among artists from different backgrounds and eras.

The preacher may have ascended to a higher plane, but his congregation is still right down here on the ground. Ten songs to lift the spirits of everyone, everywhere.

Tracklist:
1. Norman Connors - Welcome
2. Clifford Jordon - John Coltrane
3. Sonny Fortune - Ole
4. The Darwin Strickland Trio - Niami
5. Gilles Torrent Jazztet - Terre Engloutie
6. Carsten Meinert - To Trane
7. Malachi Thompson;Africa Brass - Transition
8. Hampton Hawes - Evening Trane
9. Carmelo Garcia - Trane
10. Brother Jack McDuff - Naima

DJ Manny - Hypnotized

DJ Manny's new album 'Hypnotized' is full of fresh ideas which push the footwork format of 160bpm hyper-rhythmic music in really enjoyable new directions. He builds on the romantic themes of his last album 'Signals In My Head' and evolves them with shades of blue, taking very natural sounding experimentation into new moods and musical colour while never making the album inaccessible. Arguably this is a fine successor to the ground broken by DJ Rashad's 'Double Cup' album, which of course Manny also worked on. 'Hypnotized' solidifies Manny's style, from relaxed r'n'b rollers to moments of romantic distress - like 'WTF Goin On' and the reflective 'You N You (ft. DJ Phil)', to more intense moments like the dubstep inflected 'Ooh Baby' from the vaults, co-produced by DJ Rashad himself. Other tracks like 'Want U Bad' retool Robert Hood style minimal techno whereas dark, nervous belters like 'Turn Me Up' sound like Paul Johnson at his most wild but welded to footwork rhythms and a pumping jump up drum & bass-line. There are also moments of enjoyably hype daftness like the acid and diva head-fuck of 'Opera' or the old school Bukem style jungle homage 'Lost In Da Jungle'. 'Hypnotized' is an album that expands footwork's template with natural ease and outstanding skill.

Tracklist:
1. Hard Drive (feat. SUCIA!)
2. WTF Goin On
3. Hypnotized
4. Ooh Baby (feat. DJ Rashad)
5. I Can Luv U
6. You N You (feat. DJ Phil)
7. Overnight Flight
8. Want U Bad
9. Turn Me Up
10. Opera
11. Lost In Da Jungle
12. Deep In My Mind

Russell E.L. Butler - Call Me G

Accumulation

My body, suspended by the pressure of the ocean’s floor.

My toes dangle just above sands that feel like the roughness of the top sheet on an unfamiliar bed. Just a few grains of this sand possess the softness of the hair my cat sheds, dusted off the floor after collecting for some days or months.

The floor possesses the grains of many nights at rest, in that space between moments where we all wait. A cloud of sand forms and settles where my foot touched; a blanket of infinite newness. The sand, in its place, somewhere else. I have tried to grasp at this cycle, but can never find a hold, though I feel the beat of every grain finding its place again.

The is and is nots of my body, wave with a current layered above another current. This perpetual motion places me in a stasis, shifting in place. This projection of myself into space, beyond my understanding, shapes every drift of hair on my body; conditions my skin; flushes my pores. My whole being dissolving into grains, floating softly to the floor.

Somewhere above, the thinnest most piercing of energies grows louder, brighter, cacophonous. Photons find their way to my chest. Vibrational waves slow at increasing rates. They penetrate my bones, the swaying, nonlinear motion dies and is buried. Motion shoots me one way and another, so quickly, I can’t feel the direction. Am I flying straight? Diagonal? Am I flailing? Breath is not something I know but it calls to me to

take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take

gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp,gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp

So that something can enter me. Propel me into whatever is next.

A new state of being?
What even is that?

All I know is what has occurred, unending, unquestioned, in this place that possesses nothing.

Not even a name.

**************************************************************************************** 

T4T LUV NRG presents “Call Me G”, the new album by Brooklyn’s Russell E.L. Butler, their first full length LP since the release of 2018’s critically acclaimed “The Home I’d Build For Myself and All My Friends” on Left Hand Path. In the intervening years, Russell has experienced an accumulation of personal subjective experiences which are explored through captivating musical modalities and expressions on this sprawling, gorgeous, and deeply emotional album. Russell’s work on “Call Me G” can be described as a unique amalgam of early NY house music, dub techno and poetry. The album’s title track, as well as its instrumentals, are a kind of storytelling for histories that continue to exist without observation as well as for secrets and the power they hold in spite of their truth being obscured and sometimes lost.

Storytellers like Russell have the ability to collapse the past and future into discrete experiences of non-linear time through the emotional landscape of music and voice. Each song contains a palatable loneliness and hurt to which many in this modern world can relate, but each track also suggests the possibility of genuine connection and the formation of the self through communing and reintegrating with the natural world. These parallel concepts are the subject of “Accumulation”, a writing by Russell which accompanies the release of the album. The emotions, conflicts and resolutions that accompany Russell’s storytelling are felt acutely on tracks such as “I’m Dancing No One Is Watching” and “Stare Into The Light Beam”, among others.

On the title song, which closes the album, Russell sings “Can you call me? Will you call me? All that I want is for you to call me by my name...My name is G.” Context is part of interpretation and thus it is left to the listener to feel in the music and lyrics the concept that what may seem erased never truly dies, the traces still exist in the thing that takes its place. The T4T LUV NRG label is in part a continuing effort to facilitate the documentation of true stories that don’t get told—rather than representing a singular vibe or genre. Russell’s album is a stunning and profound entry in this evolving catalog of music and art. The beautiful cover of “Call Me G” is based on a hand drawn portrait of the artist by Diego Guzman. 

Tracklist:
1. Secret In A Silent Voice
2. To Be Enough
3. I'm Dancing, No One Is Watching
4. Stare Into The Light Beam
5. A Brief Aside
6. The Place Where I Found You
7. Call Me G

Skalpel - Big Band Live

Beloved Polish downtempo / nu jazz masters Skalpel present an exquisite collection of the older Skalpel’s classics and some exclusive material performed live by a masterful 17-piece Big Band. Skalpel’s “Big Band Live” brings mellow, smoky vibes, hypnotic grooves and vibrant, occasionally blissful mood. Polish jazz at its best!

This live album was recorded at a sold out show in Warsaw where Skalpel’s founders, Igor Pudlo and Marcin Cichy, were joined on stage by virtuoso Big Band led by Patryk Pilasiewicz.

Big Band re-imagined Skalpel’s classics in a spirit of collective improvisation but also with an respectful attitude toward the original.

Tracklist:
1. Break In
2. High
3. Low
4. Wonderland In Alice
5. Konfusion
6. Test Drive
7. Behind The Curtain
8. Sunset
9. Sombrio
10. Flying Officer
11. On The Road
12. Simple
13. Sculpture
14. Jan Tajemnik
15. Sigma