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

Brian Auger / Bumpin’ On Sunset / Strut

Strut are set to reissue, Definitely What!, the 1968 album by Hammond B3 hero, Brian Auger. Highlights include a swinging cover of The Beatles’ A Day In The Life – where the super tight rhythm section – of Dave Ambrose and Clive Thacker – lay down a brilliant break-laden version – plus Auger’s now legendary shake of Wes Montgomery’s Bumpin’ On Sunset. The latter really showcasing the bandleader’s virtuosity. His vamps adding up to, effectively, one long solo. With sharp, smart syncopation and orchestrated brass and strings, as the press release rightly points out, Auger was stretching, reaching from his mod, British R&B roots to foreshadow “jazz-funk” and create “fusion” way, way before either was even a thing.  

João Do Pife / Garoto Do Pife / Mr Bongo

Mr Bongo have singled out 2 tracks from João Do Pife’s 1975 album, Folclore Alagoano. The traditional woodwind instrument, from which João takes his stage name, leads both tunes, and both are also, apparently, highly desirable jazz dance floor prizes (the LP demands eye-watering sums). Garoto Do Pife, in particular is a playful, Puck-ish piece of tropicalia, recalling the funky energy of Tom Ze and Gal Costa. Including call-and-response with some relative of the accordion / bandoneon, it’s a catchy, lively squeezebox party starter. 

Gold Suite / Analog Swell / Citizens Of Vice

Gold Suite’s new Citizens Of Vice EP got a mention in our recent round-up of leftfield dubs, but the release contains another sure fire winner in the shape of Dan Tyler of The Idjut Boys’s Bass Invader rework of the cut Coast Along. Turning in the kind of extended disco dub / dub disco that he and his long-standing studio / DJ partner, Conrad McDonnell, have always excelled at both discovering and creating, Dan echoes congas and hand claps, wields washes of guitar – picked lead and atmospheric arcs – while teasing with tastes of the backing chorus. Riding 808 rattles and pops, and recalling the Idjut’s legendary lick of The Lighthouse Family’s Question Of Faith, this is superior sunset / sunrise boogie. Slow and seductive, a perfect still woozy the day after reprise.

Kliche / Testing The Twin / Blank Mind

Kliche’s 4-track EP, Dabrea, on Blank Mind, is, in the main, dance floor-directed and banging. Three of the tunes fusing Detroit and dub techno textures with broken post-drum & bass rhythms. The fourth number, however, Testing The Twin, while still breakbeat-driven, rolls and rattles, a little more gently. Filtered, with the sharp edges shaved off. Busy and bleep-y with an introspective, pretty, early Aphex-esque melody. 

Jamie Lidell & Luke Schneider / Left To Heaven / Northern Spy

The work of electronic musician Jamie Lidell and pedal steel maestro Luke Schneider, A Companion For The Spaces Between Dreams consists of 5 improvisations, captured over 2 days. The music, envisaged as a soundtrack to Lidell’s ketamine therapy sessions, evolves like a suite and amounts to a long soak in a soothing, relaxing sonic bath. The steel strings emitting whale song-like lullabies, and the synthetic accompaniment subtle, sympathetic. Trickling textures, modular musings, mixing with treated twanging and fresh water field recordings. The results, resonant, warm, mind massaging. Flowing, fluid, as chords cascade and delicate details get locked in disintegrating loops. Everything kind of culminates, the synergy best showcased, in the final, 14-minute piece, Left To Heaven, where low, oboe-like oscillations help create a sort of seesawing sensation, like a ship afloat, adrift on the open sea. 

Lakes & Fires / Last Dive / Republic Of Music

This latest single from Danish band Lakes & Fires is a super smooth shot of late night, laidback funk. A soothing, sexy, bass-led groove, boasting easy-listening group harmonies and library music cues, it practically glows with an authentic analogue valve `70s sound. 

Leonidas / Ambient Saucers / Hobbesmusic

This is my favourite number from Leonidas’ second solo album, Flying Saucers. While the other tunes are all expertly produced dives into deep house, it’s this beatless mix of the title track that I’ve been spinning the most. 

Blissed out and bubbling bucolically, it starts with drones and bleeps, like signals from a far, far away galaxy. Pulsing hypnotically, a TB-303 squelches and squiggles, while tape effects whizz and whirr like the titular UFOs taking flight. Spooky `50s Sci-Fi B-movie theremin accompanies samples of psychedelic explorer Terrence McKenna, as he quotes astronomer Jacques Vallee, and explains that the most important thing about “flying saucers” is that they have made people question narratives fed to them by the state. Going on to expand on the ability of the “collective overmind” to destroy programs of control. It’s proper Orb-worthy stuff.

µ-Ziq / Escorial / Balmat

Mike Paradinas is about to return to Barcelona-based imprint Balmat, with a follow up to 1977, titled 1979. The album’s been trailered by a couple of singles, one of which, Escorial, is a fine flashback to classic `90s “ambient” IDM. Paradinas countering trebly twinkling with symphonic, Smokebelch II-esque fanfares / arcs. Introducing broken bursts of orchestral percussion and, finally, a room-shaking bass boom. 

Visti`s Vinyl Collective / Sunshine In Atalaya (Be.Lanuit Dub) / Music For Dreams

The press one-sheet describes Ibiza-based DJ / producer Be.Lanuit’s dub of Visti`s Vinyl Collective’s Sunshine In Atalaya as “A Man Called Adam’s Estelle meets The Idjut Boys’ remix of The Lighthouse Family”, and that’s absolutely spot on. Just like Dan Idjut’s take on Gold Suite’s Coast Along (see above), Be.Lanuit has given the cute pop song a dynamite dub-disco extension. Echoing the congas and stripping the bulk of the programmed beats away. Introducing kalimba, warm breezes of woodwind-like keys and a classic loved-up vibe. With washes of Emma Sehested Høeg’s lovesick vocal and strummed acoustic guitar, all rooted by a really cool b-line, it’s a polish that’s created a perfect piece of poolside / seaside sunset treasure.