Attempting to recreate the golden yesterdays of Jose Padilla`s White Isle sunsets with the tunes of today. 

JPYE / Bleu Your Mind / Claremont 56

JPYE’s long-playing follow-up to his debut, Samba With You, is a perfectly timed mix of summery pop and jazz-funk. Don’t go looking for shadows or dark corners, this is all boogie-ing beneath blue skies and soaked in sunshine. The closest the set comes to introspection is the serene synth and piano piece, Fingers Crossed. Its melody recalling Art Of Noise’s Moments In Love. 

As with his last outing, there’s a lot of proper playing on display. Nods to the `80s, folks like John Rocca and Freeez. Xcuse My French – a co-production with Da Roc – has a little latin, and Azymuth, in its keys. The album also sees the return of a few regular collaborators.  e11e lends her lyrical wisdom – “Don’t waste your life chasing money” – and jaunty whistle to Freedom Ain`t Free, and breathless, Jane Birkin-esque singing and sighs to Shiver’s slow bongo`d sleaze. Italian vocalist / percussionist, Renato Tonini fronts a trio of tracks, including my favourite, Tutto OK’s sunstroked skank. Leonidas ably assists on Lazyjack. 

Loftsoul / Unity / Loftsoul Recordings

I have very little info on this one, save a hand-stamped, white label 7. A slice of contemporary Japanese R&B, it might not be every Westerner’s cup of tea, but its totally tropical mix of great jazz guitar – care of H. Ikeuchi – head-nodding, hammock-rocking, beats – from veteran Ueda-based producer Loftsoul – and Keyco’s lilting vocal, is definitely doing it for me. Like Chronixx’s Never Give Up meets Nohelani Cypriano’s Lihue. The flip features Mbanja Ritchy rapping over a rhythm re-purposed from Fela’s Water No Get Enemy. 

Mike Salta & Mortale / Yaeyama

Mike Salta & Mortale tease with a marvelous missive from their forthcoming Music For Dreams album, Moloko Island. Yaeyama is smooth, sophisticated, latin-flavoured house – to be filed next to Jose Padilla / Cafe del Mar favourites, such as Karen Ramirez’s Troubled Girl – with elegantly looped, echoed chants, and flashy, fancy keys. Full of warmth and feel-good factor. Over its highly musical nearly 8 minutes the track brilliantly breaks down and builds up to include steel pans, electric piano, and blasts of muted Herb Alpert brass. I can honestly say that, so far, I’ve not heard these fellas put a foot wrong. 

Stryke / Introspection / Re:Discovery Records

Miami-based producer Greg Chin recorded Introspection – in one take – in a friend’s home studio in late 1993. In 1994 he licensed the track, under the alias Stryke, to Hollywood label, Moonshine Music, for their compilation, United States Of Ambience II. A beautiful bit of beatless twilight trance it’s a 9-minute epic of tumbling, tinkling sequences. Lone drum beats crashing like waves against breakers. A classical keyboard / piano refrain inducing the moment of inward meditation / reflection of the tune’s title. 

Re:Discovery have picked Introspection up, and reissued it alongside a new companion Greg has called Parts 2 & 3. These new 17 minutes start slightly sinister, with dark drones, and sustained orchestral strings. Peaking as pieces of sound are stuttered and looped in delay. The heartbeat-like boom of 21st Century bass grounds its wild racing arpeggios, and the update is more symphonic than its predecessor. Its air more nostalgic / melancholic. The intricate web that it weaves, makes for the sort of music that’ll have past lives flashing before your eyes. Loves remembered. 

Martyn Ware / Unknowable / Electronic Sound

Packaged as part of a vinyl bundle with Electronic Sound Magazine, Issue 101, was a cool 45, containing a pair of binaural recordings from Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware. The use of the “3-D” technique – pioneered by people such as Takeshi Kokubo – reflects Martyn, and his production company Illustrious’ involvement in “immersive theatre”. Unknowable is, therefore, appropriately cinematic. Thoroughly romantic and revolving around a ragged acoustic strum, the track blossoms, blooms from an intro of echoed chimes and ethereal sighs to symphonic synths and timpani drums. Its sublime, crystalline, sound design full of Fennesz-like subliminal detail, and brief glimpses of harp glissando. The closest reference point that I can come up with is AIR. 

On the other side, I Am An Insect, a collaboration between Matryn and his son Gabriel, is a snippet of an experience taken from 2016’s Forest Of Imagination Festival. So, not surprisingly, you find yourself surrounded by field recorded crackles and crickets, and buzzing bugs zoom in and out. However, these natural elements are augmented by woodwinds and pizzicato strings, and the enchanted results are not unlike the music of Lubos Fiser.*

There might only be a handful of new things here, but please don’t forget that we’ve already covered, in detail, chilled out gear from Ambient Warrior, Greg Foat & Gigi Masin, Ferdi Schuster, Finis Africae, Marvin Gaye, Group Of Gods, Malcolm McLaren, Mike Paradinas, John Rocca, and Ultramarine. 

Notes

*I know that I’ve cited this LP 100s of times. I guess that proves, either, how limited my sonic palette is, or how important this record is. I’m actually thinking about compiling a list of “fall back” musical references, such as Lubos Fiser, Fennesz, Brock Van Wey Joe’s White Clouds Drift On And On, for example, albums that in my reviews may have become cliched. 

Track-list

Greg Foat & Gigi Masin – Lee

Stryke – Introspection Part 1

Mike Paradinas – Burnt Orange

Penguin Cafe – Second Variety

Group Of Gods – Space Cowboy

Malcolm McLaren – Call A Wave (Return To Deep Ambient)

John Rocca – Open Spaces Open Minds

Ferdi Schuster – Gentle Man

William Eaton Ensemble – Kayenta Crossing

Frank Harris – Down By The Rio (Frankies Remix)

Group Of Gods – Thunder Island

Dorothy Ashby – Dust

John Rocca – Reflections Of The Sun

Martyn Ware – Unknowable

Mark Barrott – Yagi Seikatsu

Loftsoul – Unity

Ferdi Schuster – The Fuzz Version (Album Mix)

Immy Owusu – The World Is Here For You

Mike Salta & Mortale – Yaeyama

John Rocca – Close Your Eyes

Marvin Gaye – I Wanna Be Where You Are