Jabu
Jabu Remixes

Young Echo: ...Building on the foundations built over years of mutual understanding and musical endeavours as part of the Young Echo team, the London-via-Bristol rapper has been climbing that MC Escher type lyrical ladder for years now, painting pictures with word-sound in the coolest & deadliest ways, and forming his very own style.Somehow he makes it sound easy when these intricate rhymes and words spill across O$VMV$M’s skewed symphonies, dropping slapdash punchlines in the midst of highly real observations about life in the city, lights off, lights on. Manonmars, to us, depicts a lens of someone who isn’t about to conform to any stream, not about to give in to the relentless pace of capitalism, not up for the rat-race, more up for slowing time, and seeing things for what they are, a surrealist take on what could otherwise be a mundane world.I guess it’s fair to say that life can be grey sometimes - so for our own sanity, we need to make sure to add colour. Manonmars does this, with heaps of imagination and witty real-talk, fired off in bullet time, perfectly hitting that fine-line between entertainment, and deadpan seriousness - a balancing act, juggled with verbs & conjunctions, over a backdrop of timeless rhythm & melody.Perhaps a less insular album than the first self-titled record, this LP sees guest appearances from Young Echo’s ‘Guest’ and Bogues (both voices of Jabu) on vocals. Fresh Bristol blood ‘Birthmark’ and ‘Axel Holey’ appear with lyrics too, and there is a special vocal injection from Paulina Korobkiewicz, reciting writings by Polish painter and colour artist Wojciech Fangor, and drawing a connection between the music and the visual aspect of Manonmars’ practice.

boomkat: ...Sterling first volley from Bristol’s Young Echo Records, featuring Sam Kidel (Killing Sound) and Amos Childs (Jabu) backing Rider Shafique’s incisive, intimate reflections on I-Dentity in modern Britain.Perhaps best received as a clear response to the divisive, race-baiting politics our times, in both parts Shafique presents an ice-cool yet impassioned dissection of the state of playlucidly channelling his thoughts in a rooted, low-key style that resonates with the delivery and impetus of classic dub poetry from Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mutubaruka.However, this being the first release from one of the UK’s most conscientious, variegated and distinctive outfits, don’t expect them to play to convention. This is most apparent in I-Dentity, where Shafique’s ennui and haunted ontological observations intersects Sam Kidel’s miasma of coruscating strings and insectoid inflection, creating a weightless, pensile and abstract space where Shafique ruminations on the stubborn hangovers of the colonial mindset and the semantics of its redundant taxonomies resonate in a wholly unique manner, similar to the way Kidel’s juxtaposed materials in his amazing Disruptive Muzak LP for The Death of Rave.For a smart contrast, in the flip side’s Freedom Cry, Shafique spells out a more positive, stately message, hailing the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement against Jabu’s unfathomable, melting backdrop of slow, celestial jazz swoon, with the lyricist holding tight to his message at the centre of it all. If we’re totally honest, on previous records Shafique’s delivery has seemed slightly over earnest or, conversely, even too droll to us. But here it makes complete, affective sense.Highly recommended!

Efficient Space: ...Oz Echoes peels away another layer of Australia’s ‘80s DIY hive mind. The Oz Waves successor exposes a deeper circuit of micro-run cassettes, community radio archives and irrationally abandoned studio sessions, as Steele Bonus sequences a 10-track compendium of drone pop, psyche-electronics and agitated tape cut-ups.From the Sydney cassette network, The Horse He's Sick returns with an industrial car crash, alongside Wrong Kind of Stone Age’s pagan cacophony and primal riddims. M Squared dynamo Patrick Gibson appears in both Height/Dismay and Mr Knott, his respective studio-as-an-instrument collaborations with Dru Jones (Scattered Order) and ex-Slugfucker Gordon Renouf - the former’s worn out apparition hails from an instantly deleted 1981 7”, while Mr Knott entrust one of the compilation’s five previously unreleased tracks.Matt Mawson represents Brisbane music media-printed matter collective ZIP, as Adelaide’s Three D Radio grants access to their vaults of live-to-air recordings and aspiring demo submissions, rescuing the slap-happy punk-funk of The Frenzied Bricks and Jandy Rainbow’s prodigious beginnings in Les Trois Etrangers and Aeroplane Footsteps. Synchronously in Melbourne, Ash Wednesday (Karen Marks, The Metronomes) leads Modern Jazz’ improvised proto-techno and EBM pioneers Shanghai Au Go-Go home record their sardonic synth-wave.A cherry-picked cast of unusual suspects, Oz Echoes’ unfamed artist and non-band narratives are detailed by track-by-track liner notes with rarely published archival visions and artwork from Video Synth, prompting further rabbit hole ventures into this golden era of creative risk-taking and instant action.

PENG Sound Records: ...The answer to Gorgon Sound's four track EP (PengSound003), this release - Gorgon Sound VS. Dubkasm - The Versions (PengSound004) contains a counteraction version to each original title, dubbed straight off the Dubkasm mixing desk.Originally released on 2 x 12" in 2013, and available again, reissued in a limited screenprinted & hand-stamped edition vinyl edition, via our store << RWDFWD.COM >>

Limbo Tapes: ... Straight from Limbo Tapes HQ, "01" has a signature label sound at it's heart, and marks a meaningful milestone in our history as a DIY imprint as our first vinyl release.The album was crafted in the Dive Reflex Service production facility, somewhere in the depths of Bristol. Found here are bewitching and magical elements, anchored by deep melodic bass lines that propel the listener through 12 rhythmic scenes.Using a combination of tape saturated improvisations, ritualistic samples and a beautifully chilling vocal appearance from Jamileh Lee, Dive Reflex Service has conjured a meditative, reflective and at times ominous ceremony.Limited to 300 physical copies for the world. Heavyweight vinyl with full colour artwork and high quality digital download. Mastered and cut at Stardelta Audio Mastering.