Mr Bongo Record Club - Volume 2

Mr Bongo Record Club - Volume 2

Mr Bongo

As far as feverishly anticipated follow ups go, Mr Bongo's sophomore Record Club release is up there with Stranger Things, Blade Runner and the next round of charges to be levelled at the Drumpf administration.

Speaking of feverish, what better word to describe Elbernita 'Zwinkie' Star's Awake O Zion, an Afro-tinged Disco juggernaut that sets the tone for a right old party. That's just what is in store here, 14 tracks (or 18 if you cop the CD version) of infectious African and Latin grooves and rump-rattling rumpus, all influenced by the global Disco phenomenon that swept the globe around the time of these recordings.

Volume One sold out in minutes and was picked by Lauren Laverne as her album of the day on 6 Music. This time round, we've got even more Disco and Soul in favour of a few more traditional sounds, which is marvellous news for anyone throwing a dancing party. 

Highlights are many but Kiru Stars (Julius Kang’ethe) by Family Planning is sublime, while Dee Edwards' Put Your Love On the Line stands out, not only as the only American track featured, but as a bona fide stomper. Elias Rahbani And His Orchestra's Liza… Liza is also particularly curious - is it Bollywood? Genuinely not sure. Anyway, it's all bloody brilliant, go buy.

TRACKLIST (VINYL 2-LP): A1. Elbernita ‘twinkie’ Clark – Awake O Zion (full length, original version) / A2. Dee Edwards – Put Your Love On The Line / A3. Anubis – Ecology / B1. Guy Cuevas – Ebony Game / B2. Kiru Stars (Julius Kang’ethe) – Family Planning / B3. Teaspoon & The Waves – Oh Yeh Soweto / C1. Leny Andrade – Não Adianta / C2. Rosa Maria – Samba Maneiro / C3. Tom & Dito – Obrigado Corcovado / C4. Inezita Barroso – Maracatu Elegante / C5. Joao Diaz – Capoeira / C6. The Equatics – Merry Go Round / D1. Elias Rahbani And His Orchestra – Liza… Liza / D2. The Beaters – Harari

TRACKLIST, (CD): 1. Luiz Henrique – Mas Que Nada / 2. Elbernita ‘twinkie’ Clark – Awake O Zion / 3. Guy Cuevas – Ebony Game / 4. Kiru Stars (Julius Kang’ethe) – Family Planning / 5. Kelenkye Band – Jungle Music / 6. Effi Duke & The Love Family – The Time Is Come / 7. Anubis – Ecology / 8. Dee Edwards – Put Your Love On The Line / 9. Teaspoon & The Waves – Oh Yeh Soweto / 10. Oby Onyioha – Enjoy Your Life / 11. Leny Andrade – Não Adianta / 12. Rosa Maria – Samba Maneiro / 13. Tom & Dito – Obrigado Corcovado / 14. Inezita Barroso – Maracatu Elegante / 15. Joao Diaz – Capoeira / 16. Elias Rahbani And His Orchestra – Liza… Liza / 17. The Beaters – Harari / 18. The Equatics – Merry Go Round

MNP - Ratto Nero / Beard

Delights (APDLT666)

Brightonian psych-funk trio MNP release their sophomore 7" on Delights, and it's a barrage of sludgy grooves and melon-twisting melodies. Grungy as hell, menacing and lo-fi, it's music right out of a Tarantino fight scene. So intensely evocative is A-side Ratto Nero, it provokes vivid scenes in the listener's imagination, wherein bearded outlaws lay waste to a sleepy desert town until the alcoholic-but-righteous Sheriff enters the fray, spilling the blood of the hoodlums one slo-mo frame at a time  - or have I just had too much coffee this morning? Alternate A-side Beard is no less evocative, this time with a creeping, almost Pink Panther-esque jaunt to it's wistfully abrasive broodiness. Suggestions for genre descriptions as follows: Grunge-funk. Instrumental Death-Hop. Slasher-Soul. Spur-gaze.

OK, definitely too much coffee.

Pre-order here!

Hidden Orchestra - East London Street

Hidden Orchestra - East London StreetTru Thoughts

I love Hidden Orchestra. I love Game of Throne, too. If only there were some way of enjoying them both together...

Enter East London Street, the third single from the brilliant Dawn Chorus album that came out in June. It has trademark field recordings, snaking, melancholic strings and academic arrangements in abundance. It also sounds really rather like the Ramin Djawadi-penned GoT theme. Double the win, right?

Asbest the Moor King - Mind of a Few

Asbest The Moor King - Mind of a Few

Self-released

Brightonian Asbest the Moor King returns with his most accomplished record to date. It's a sample heavy, reclined and raw exposition of a much-maligned genre.

UK Hip-Hop is a peculiar entity. The yanks have a kind of natural aptitude that renders most of their efforts listenable, even when unspectacular, at least to those partial to the genre. The British are generally horrendous. The average UKHH record is almost certainly going to make you cringe more than it makes you draw gunfingers. Another song about weed: check. Another stoned monologue explaining how the system isn't very nice to poor people: check. At it's worst, and most common, it's a jaded, impotently angry and soporific style of music that has lost almost all relevancy, particularly now that Grime has injected such vitality into street music.

Despite this, it still engenders a particular satisfaction when it comes correct. When it's not trying to be something it isn't, and goes out with an uncompromising game-plan. Jehst, Braintax, Rodney P and of course Roots Manuva. Ty, Chester P, Blak Twang and Skinnyman. These guys, and many more, have served up some truly brilliant, unique and inherently British examples of the Hip-Hop genre. Of course, their output has been variously consistent, and ensuing live performances can veer from stupefyingly brilliant, to simply stupefied... but those moments of chaotic magic give any US exponents a run for their doo-rags.

UK Hip-Hop is far from dead, even set against the ultra-commercialized Pop-Hop that claims the popular affection.

There's the virulent, vital Grime, with superstars Skepta, Boy Better Know and so on. Brass-band toting Hip-Hop live acts such as the tremendous Lazy Habits, Disraeli and The Small Gods (RIP) and The Mouse Outfit, and the party-starting beats and breaks of 6Music favourites The Allergies are testament to the perennial appeal of the genre.

What we haven't seen, for a very long time, is much in the way of credible 'conscious rap'. Enter Asbest the Moor King, with new album Mind of a Few.

Despite welcome similarities to indie American legends such as Deep Puddle Dynamics, Slug and Alias, there's a proper Britishness on display here. Not so much a poverty-stricken council estate Britishness, as a weed-smoke and urban poetry one. A British dedication to an American-originated artform, really. Asbest and friends care about the Elements of Hip-Hop, as the occasional odes to Graffiti culture, Freestyling and Breaking attest. Yet more than a hackneyed fetishisation, there's something scholarly going on here. Asbest's rhymes are dense and delivered with the conviction of a man who has studied his artform in depth. The beats are crafted with skill and a sample-spotter's nous. It's not about doing something brand new; it's about attempting to perfect something established.

The result is a record that could sound cliched, and occasionally does, yet crucially is delivered with such evident commitment to the craft that we end up with something genuinely mellifluous. Harkening back to a time of relative simplicity; a time of skateboards, skinning up and sketching out, Mind of a Few is an accomplished example of a style that thrives in an outsider state. Dooz Kawa and Marcus Mandible provide some standout guest-raps alongside James Reindeer and Speech Urchin, with Asbest himself on the boards for everything else.

Fans of Anticon, Anti-Pop Consortium and Diverse will be well-served, as will anyone interested in the concept of intelligent, impassioned hip-hop that avoids patronizing its listeners with bumper sticker wisdom.

Available on cassette and digital from Asbest's Bandcamp