Various
Incantations

boomkat: ...E B U joins imaginary dots between Delia Derbyshire, Black Zone Myth Chant and Tapes on a charmingly smudged debut for Ossia and co’s No CornerIn her own language of bittersweet, downbeat psychedelia, Bristol’s E B U speaks gently but directly to altered states of consciousness in a style she terms “swamp pop”. It’s not weird for the sake of it, but rather in a drowsy, hypnagogic way that feels effortlessly natural. All her melodies and harmonies shimmer with a lysergic, iridescent timbral thizz, radiating in rainbows and pink/blue hues on the back of your eyelids (because we almost guarantee you will be lulled to eyes shut, half-mast or rollin in backa skull by the end of 2nd song). Most crucially, though, for all the ‘60s connotations with LSD and The Radiophonic Workshop references, plus the label’s own nods to Alejandro Jodorowsky and Laurie Anderson, the music feels fresh, operating in its own liminal temporality, rather than being cloyed by cliché. That’s always high praise, and we’re sure many others will feel this, too.Properly hallucinatory bizz - bravo.

Pacific Theatre: ...Australian Soul Jazz holy grail from 1968! Limited to 300 copies w/wide. Dinked (large hole) version. Two high energy Mod burners, both originals taken from the forthcoming album 'Whatever It's Worth'. Debut release on Pacific Theatre Encore, the reissue label started by Melbourne's contemporary funk / soul lynchpin Australian Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos, Menagerie, Lanu, ex Cookin' On 3 Burners).Lead by Australia's own rival to Jimmy Smith and Jimmy Witherspoon, the '68 line up of Col Nolan & The Soul Syndicate would prove to be an Australian jazz super-group, consisting of John Sangster on drums / percussion (whose own late '60s Festival albums are highly collectable), John Allan on bass, Col Loughnan on sax and Jimmy Doyle on guitar (the latter two were also in mid Oz '70s jazz-rock giants, Ayers Rock).

EM Records: ...Clan Caimán returns to EM Records for their second album, continuing the instinctive evolution of their music: a wordless, timeless, gently pulsing and sweetly melodic soundworld, based on composer Emilio Haro’s vision of a band playing the music of an imaginary undiscovered ethnic group. Woven together by Haro’s self-made kalimbafón, a tuned percussion instrument, these five Argentinian musicians also use threads of lap steel, guitars, bass and percussion to knit their beyond-genre textures, seemingly ageless despite being recorded in December 2019. Available on CD, digital download and 12’’ LP, the latter cut at Berlin’s famed Dubplates and Mastering. “Asoma” is perfect music for imaginary voyages during travel-restricted times.

boomkat: ...A varied set of jazz and gospel infused funky soul, Two Sisters From Bagdad was composed and orchestrated by two precocious young talents, E.J. Garrison and Rhodia McAdoo. It’s an album full of surprises, and is notorious for the heavy funk workout Though’s Were The Days. Not only have Jazzman Records unearthed and faithfully reissued this true obscurity as the 26th part of their ongoing “Holy Grail” series, but through interviews with Garrison and McAdoo themselves, they have uncovered the beguiling back story to the music, the play and the life and times of its original creator, the late LaVice Hendricks. As always the detail is revealed for the first time in Jazzman Records’ extensive new sleeve notes.”

boomkat: ...Killer art-skool avant-pop from 1981,sung in made-up languages and dished up for the first time by Concentric Circles - the personal imprint of Freedom To Spend’s Jed Bindeman, following his issue of Carola Baer’s home-brewed synth-pop masterpiece. Kudos to Bindeman for reaching the point, after just a couple of releases, where we're convinced beyond any doubt that everything on this label is gonna be gold.