With so much good music coming through thick and fast, it’s easy for new music to drop online and go unnoticed. To help prevent this, we’ve picked five releases that you need to hear. Stream music from Penya, Hello World Choir, MAST, Hampshire & Foat and Run Child Run. If you like what you hear, support the artists.
Penya – Super Liminal
Afro-latin electronic collective Penya has released their debut album via On The Corner titled Super Liminal. With African rhythms, Latin grooves, chants and raw energy, this LP should not be missed. For those who like it funky and left of centre!
★★★★☆
Hello World Choir
Hello World Choir is a project based choir in Cairo, initiated in late 2015 by Maria Sideri. Taking influences from traditional Sudanese folk, pop & electronic music, Shagara draws the listener in a tapestry of English and Arabic text that was written and translated together with the choir. This wonderful album is something you really need to hear. Please don’t sleep on this one.
★★★★☆
MAST – Thelonious Sphere Monk
MAST’s Thelonious Sphere Monk is a cosmic journey reinterpreting the great Thelonious Monk Song Book in celebration of his 100th birthday. The sixteen track album features a stellar line-up of musical talent like Jonah Levine, Jason Fraticelli, Brian Marsella, Makaya McCraven and more accompany MAST, with stunning results. An ambitious album that delivers in spades.
★★★★☆
Hampshire & Foat – The Honeybear
After releasing one of our favourite albums of 20017 in ‘Galaxies Like Grains of Sand’, Hampshire and Foat return with a new masterpiece. The pair retreated back to the Isle of Wight to start work on a long-discussed concept album based on a fictional children’s book The Honey Bear. Each track a chapter of the book, hypnotic folk pieces mixed with ambient field recordings that they collected around the beaches, cliffs and gardens of the island. We’re only in January, but this album will be on our year-end list. Really worth checking out.
★★★★☆
Run Child Run – Vanishing Point
After five years of exploration, Ian Sims has shared his debut album under the moniker of Run Child Run. A meditative and deeply engaging listen, Sims pulls out all the stops on his debut project.
★★★★☆
