The Predatory Wasp
Jazz collective Kokoroko channel the greats of West Africa, building on the foundations laid by Fela Kuti, Tony Allen and Ebo Taylor and lacing together their influences into a soul shaking, horn-fueled sound. Taken from their new album Tuff Times Never Last, Da Du Dah is breezy, jazz-and-funk-laced soul ripe for BBQs and struttin’.
Breezy, sun-kissed soul from sexy crooner Durand Jones that owes a huge (and presumably knowing) debt to Sylvia Striplin’s seminal groover You Can’t Turn Me Away Taken from their new album Flowers, which is destined to soundtrack basically every BBQ I have this summer.
https://durandjonesandtheindications.bandcamp.com/album/flowers
Just discovered this ludicrously good 50 year old psych-rock banger from Dutch duo Lion. You’ve Got A Woman was the b-side to their one and only single But I Do (which is nowhere near as good) and seems to have something of a cult following, thanks in part to a 2017 reissue by the Numero Group, as part of their Eccentric Soul series and covers from indie artists Whitney in and Natalie Bergman with Beck. It’s pure, sunshine gold.
Here’s another one I missed from last year, taken from American singer, songwriter and producer Bilal’s sixth studio album Adjust Brightness: a heady blend of soul, jazz and funk through an electronic lens. Full of life and warmth, there’s also a menacing undercurrent to The Story that adds to its allure.
Here’s something else I missed from last year: Tom Findlay (of Groove Armada) and James Alexander Bright’s collaborative album Slow Dance, which moves effortlessly through 11 funk, lo-fi house and very, very sexy mid-tempo jams. Melt like butter.
The only description I can find online for Kam Theory is her Soundcloud bio which reads: “sound bender | the vibe known as Kam Theory”. But maybe that’s all anyone needs to know.
I’m not quite as enamoured with Jessy Lanza’s new album Love Hallucination as I hoped I would be, but there’s no denying the infectious brilliance of Limbo. Deeply rooted in late 70s/ early 80s funk and with a bassline to rival the best of that era, its a ridiculously hooky earworm that I’m inevitably going to be hammering for months.
A hefty dose of Anatolian funk-rock for you here, courtesy of Amsterdam-based Altin Gün whose experimentations with Turkish folk songs have seen them meander through various genres over their last few releases. Su Siziyor is taken from their new album Aşk, which is packed full of languid basslines and hazy atmospherics a la a slightly more vigorous Khruangbin.
London based 8-piece band Kokoroko released their debut album Could We Be More via Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings last week; an LP that deftly moves through afrobeat, highlife, soul, and funk across tracks, taking inspiration from a plethora of influences from within the West-African and Caribbean communities that the band grew up listening to. As with many of the tracks, Ewà Inú’s infectious energy is due to both its semi-improvised genesis and the passion of the players involved.
Taken from the new Bar Mediterraneo album by Italo-funk duo Nu Genea, Gelbi is a sparkling, effervescent delight, tripping merrily along on a rich, warm bassline with shiny synths and soaring vocals – performed by Marzouk Mejiri in their Tunisian dialect – keeping the pool party a poppin’.
The Predatory Wasp 