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

Cantoma / Light Before / Highwood Recordings

Cantoma’s fresh 45, Light Before, comes with a variety of mixes, which run through a range of tempos – from beatless to house. The original take is a soft, blue-skied shuffle, lush with layers of instrumentation. Brass, flute, kora, and Spanish guitar accompanied by flamenco hand claps. The Night version pumps and pounds, far heavier than your average Cantoma record. Quick 6-string licks now sharing the lead with a piano. A Noche Espanola remix shimmies somewhere in between. Jaunty, bouncy, almost Afro, boogie, wth clipped electric fretwork and castanets. An Ambient Outro, kick-less but conga-ed, then isolates the electronic elements, only sharing snippets of the guitar, flashes of flute, and a hint of the horns. 

CHO CO PA CO CHO CO QUIN QUIN / Correspondances / Time Capsule

Named after a traditional Cuban folk rhythm, CHO CO PA CO CHO CO QUIN QUIN are a trio of young, Tokyo-based friends. Their new 7” EP, released on Time Capsule, is, to my ears, heavily Haruomi Hosono-influenced. The opening track, Adan no Umibe, mixes echoed chimes and hand percussion with sharply strummed guitar and shamisen. Like the YMO-founder in his “Tropical Dandy” disguise sipping umbrella-ed cocktails on an Okinawan beach beano. City pop on vacation, out in the country. Correspondances is even more laidback. Field recorded birds fluttering around some very loose bass and piano. The vibe that of Hosono’s classic Paraiso. Koe o Kikasete is a light, Latin samba. 

Lapalace / Lavender / Music To Watch Seeds Grow By

Mancunian musician Lily Mumby, aka Lapalace is the latest artist to grace Ran$om Note’s Music To Watch Seeds Grow By series. Taking Lavender as its source of inspiration the 9-track set is an unfolding, layering of low drones and trebly chimes. Organically evolving improvisations that weave in and out of field recorded fresh water streams and birdsong. Blooming Flowers is a soft, sleepy lullaby. Blurry, hazy, buzzing as if daydreaming surrounded by high summer’s busy bees and bugs. Memory Lake’s stretched shimmering sings like a Tibetan bowl ringing. Sparkles Of Light Upon The Forest Floor is appropriately twinkling. New Age Night’s repeating, relaxing ripples possess a pretty, playful classical chamber music quality. 

Los Tres Moretones / A Lo Hecho, Pecho / Palms & Charms

The Brothers Bruce team up as Los Tres Moretones. You might know Max better under his alias Essa, Barney is a Hong Kong-based professional percussionist, who together with his twin, Sam. founded the Tokyo label, Palms & Charms. They’ve collaborated in the past in different combinations, but this is first time they’ve all appeared on the same tune. The track in question, titled A Lo Hecho, Pecho, is a tight, Mediterranean-flavoured groove. Setting fluttering fusion keys, Cuban congas and timbales, plus some echoed 6-string twanging to a slow funk B-line. Its bright brass fanfares rivalling Tony Esposito’s Pagaia. 

Quinn Lamont Luke supplies the  remix, which is spaced-out and a little more chilled. Extending things slightly into a looser jam. Soaking everything in surf-like sighs and twilight starlight scintillation. Saving the key and trumpet hooks until the song’s second half. 

Virgo / System For Zodiac / Mukatsuku

Nik Weston’s Mukatsuku Records has a nice 12 out that contains 2 sides of sought after chilled Japanese electronics. Yasutaka Sato, aka Virgo’s System For Zodiac first appeared on the 1998 album Landform Code. It’s TB-303 charged techno, but its Roland’s silver box emits a tender flex. Creating counterpoint with an oasis of romantic, rippling chimes. On the flip you’ll find Modern Living’s Snowbird, one of the standouts from Music From Memory’s Virtual Dreams II compilation.