Laetitia Sadier’s new solo album, Rooting for Love, out today

23 February 2024

Today sees the release of Laetitia Sadier‘s new album, Rooting for Love, through Duophonic Super 45s and Drag City.  Her first solo album in seven years, on Rooting for Love she “continues her journey of the self through time, space and collective consciousness”, as the album’s accompanying blurb describes.

Following ‘Une Autre Attente’ and ‘Panser L’inacceptable’, ‘Who + What’ is the latest single to emerge from the album, and is intended as “transformational sonic balm to aid the evolution of Earth’s traumatized civilizations”. Take a listen below.

An Alien Called Harmony announce debut self-titled EP and share first single ‘Ruminations’

22 February 2024

Photo: Sophie Jouvenaar

Drummer, composer and vocalist Momoko Gill and visual artist, filmmaker and poet Nadeem Din-Gabisi have both been an integral and highly respected part of the London’s thriving jazz and hip-hop scenes. The pair have teamed up for a new project called An Alien Called Harmony and a self-titled EP is the first fruit of this collaboration. Their debut EP, as the press release describes, “holds a mirror up to the realities of mortality and conflict, forging a hybrid sound defined by sonic playfulness, spontaneous improvisation and just a little philosophical questioning”.

The EP arrives on March 15th through New Soil x Total Refreshment Centre and for a taste of what’s to come, the pair have shared the bewitching ‘Ruminations’ as the first single. In their own words, the track is “a lush, airy fever dream, reflecting on the gap between what we intend to communicate and how it is received”. The single comes with a visualiser and you can watch below.

clipping.’s cover of J-Kwon’s ‘Tipsy’ out now

22 February 2024

Oh hell yes! clipping. have released a blistering banger. Back in 2020, the West Coast experimental hip hop trio of Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes had covered J-Kwon’s 2004 hit ‘Tipsy’, “one of the greatest party rap songs of all time,” as clipping. puts it. “We could never make a beat as hard as the original, so we took our version in another direction — something like if Skinny Puppy had somehow remixed it in the late 1980s.” Now their take has been officially released on a 7″ split single through Sub Pop Records. It also features Cooling Prongs’s cover of Ice-T’s ‘Midnight’ on the B side.

Listen to ‘Tipsy’ below, you’ll be playing it again the second it ends.

Listen to Forest Law’s first new music in four years, ‘Ooo, I’

21 February 2024

London based singer and multi-instrumentalist Forest Law has shared his first new music in four years in the shape of new single ‘Ooo, I’. The track is also the first release from a special new collaboration between Swiss based label Bongo Joe and London’s Total Refreshment Centre. Forest Law, who wrote the single in a converted fish net factory in Iceland, comments:

“’Ooo, I’ was the first piece of music that came out of me during an artist’s residency at the LungA school in Iceland. I put together a makeshift studio overlooking a fjord which got zero sunlight from November to February. Unavoidable inspiration.”

A perfect slice of what to expect from his yet to be announced new album, the catchy melodies and infectious grooves of ‘Ooo, I’ will make you wanna dance.

Moor Mother unveils new single & video ‘All the Money’

20 February 2024

Moor Mother, aka Camae Ayewa, announced last month the release of her ninth album, The Great Bailout, out March 8th through ANTI-. With the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act and the 1835 Slavery Abolition Act acting as the backdrop for the album, the composer, poet, vocalist and educator offers an incisive reflection on the brutality of British slavery, including paid reparations to slave owners.

Following the delicate, spectral, and sublime ‘Guilty’, Moor Mother has shared second single ‘All the Money’. Compelling and affecting alike, a sinister tone lurks throughout. Listing British iconic landmarks such as St Paul’s Cathedral, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Big Ben, The Tower of London, The British Museum or The Palace of Westminster, Ayewa asks, “where’d they get all the money?”. ‘All the Money’ features British-Iraqi dramatic soprano, opera composer and producer Alya Al Sultani and it comes with an accompanying video directed by filmmaker and multimedia artist Cauleen Smith. Watch it below.

Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble preview upcoming album,Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit, with third single ‘Open Me’

15 February 2024

Photo: Christopher Andrew

We’re only three weeks away from the release of Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit, a special new album celebrating the epic feat that is Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble‘s 50th anniversary. Ahead of the album’s release on March 8th through Spiritmuse Records, they have shared a third marvellous single, the closing track ‘Open Me’, only adding further to the excitement. El’Zabar, who wrote the track in honour of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble 50-year career, performed most of the instruments. Speaking about the track, he comments:

“‘Open Me’ is a meditation upon the acceptance of abundant possibilities. I wrote this music as an entry into humble beginnings of openness, where we can once again be free and let go of all barriers. Here, I’m asking of the Divine Spirit to guide and inspire within us a passageway to higher forms of expression.”

Listen to ‘Open Me’ below.