Welcome to our latest ‘Between The Cracks’. You can read a bit about each album and play it on the website via the Bandcamp player. As always, please support the artists by purchasing their music. We hope you enjoy reading and listening!
Albums
TWÏNS – The Human Jazz
We recently introduced you to TWÏNS, who dazzled with his interpretation of the 1971 Alice Coltrane track ‘Something About John Coltrane’. He returns with ‘The Human Jazz’, his debut album. It’s an exquisite melding of psychedelic dream pop, devotional tape recordings and spiritual jazz. If you think combining the music of Can, The Beatles and Alice Coltrane with a slice of Zamrock and other East African styles is a good idea; then this is perfect for you.
Alina Bzhezhinska & HipHarpCollective – Reflections
There have been some excellent harp-led releases recently, and Alina Bzhezhinska and her HipHarpCollective’s cool jazz with contemporary melodies and fresh hip-hop beats on BBE Music is another corker. Some parts are spiritual, free-form jazz experimentation, 90s Acid Jazz and Trip-Hop, all brought together in this album. One not to miss.
Clear Path Ensemble – Solar Eclipse
This was an easy choice as one of our recommendations for this week. Clear Path Ensemble bottles the energy of Wellington’s burgeoning jazz movement and distils it into moody morsels of differing styles. From electric jazz to ambient, experimental, house and funk – it’s a DIY, jam-session attitude towards composition, as the band members freely cherry-pick from a vast orchard of influences. It’s an album you should take the time to sit down and soak up.
Hubert Daviz – A Diezel Odyssey
I’d seriously overlooked this album when it dropped back in May. Cologne-based beatmaker Hubert Daviz once again unleashed his trademark slowed and reverb sound onto the world with ‘A Diezel Odyssey’. Not only do we love his lo-fi hip-hop sound with psychedelic grooves, but we also love that his artwork is always just as stimulating. Fans of Wun Two, Retrogott and Knowsum should take note.
Dan Kurfirst – Arkinetics
Drummer/composer Dan Kurfirst steps out from the shadows and becomes a bandleader to create a deeply meditative piece of work. Following in the footsteps of his mentor Adam Rudolph, he applies Rudolph’s creative approach to fusing jazz and world music. Throw in some hip-hop and a bit of jazz-rock, and you have an eclectically-enticing musical journey that makes for a crazily good listen.
Sélébéyone – Xaybu: The Unseen
I have had this on repeat for a week. Featuring an impressive lineup, international avant-rap collective Sélébéyone return with a second album. The quartet comprised of MCs HPrizm (New York City) and Gaston Bandimic (Dakar), and saxophonists Steve Lehman (Los Angeles) and Maciek Lasserre (Paris) somehow manages to be even more carefree and adventurous than their acclaimed 2016 eponymous release. If you’re looking for an experimental hip-hop outsider jazz fix, this one’s for you!
9ms – II
‘II’ is the second album by drum experimentalists Simon Popp and Florian König, aka ‘9ms’. Following their debut ‘Pleats’, the Munich-based musicians further expanded their toolbox of synthesisers, effects and tonal percussion to create a fusion of Trip Hop, Krautrock and Dub.
Beat Tape
Enver Göyken – Ozan
Shapes Of Rhythm presents the second full-length beat tape from electronic producer BodyMoves, released under his birth name Enver Goyken. Ozan (travelling wise poet in Turkish) examines the Turkish side of his heritage. Take a 30-minute journey through the country’s history, culture and roots – such a vibe throughout.
EP’s
Simon Popp & Marja Burchard – Percussive Maintenance (2)
Drummer Simon Popp and Squama Recordings recently returned with the second episode in their Percussive Maintenance series. The monthly event at the labels studio space at ZIRKA in Munich sees Popp invite fellow artists to collaborate in an open format. The second episode featured vibraphone player Marja Burchard from Embryo. A limited cassette and digital version of the improv session is now available.
MossGatherer – Out There
If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise. If you go down in the woods today, you might come across London-based beatmaker MossGatherer. His new EP ‘Out There’ depicts mysterious disappearances in the deep woods, people mysteriously vanishing without a trace, leaving behind only questions about what lies beyond metaphysics. We rarely get excited about a beat tape these days, but when psychedelia meets analogue textures, organic drums and tripped-out grooves, we’re happy to jump back on board.
