The Predatory Wasp
I first heard this only a couple of days ago, and it has already brought a ludicrous amount of joy into my life. As my brother said when I sent it to him: “It’s the DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ x Blood Orange x Two Bears mashup I didn’t know I needed, but absolutely do”. I’d also add Prince and Jai Paul to those reference points. High praise indeed, and deserving of every word.
Despite existing in my head under a label of “Cannons but more low-key’, even I realise that this is doing Tokyo Tea Room a disservice. Their new album Feel Forever is a complete joy, full of bouncy, rubbery basslines and plenty of yearning. I’m off to see them in Bristol in a few weeks, and I expect I’ll have a bloody good time.
GENA (short for “God Energy, Naturally Amazing,”) is a new collaborative project from drummer and producer Karriem Riggins and singer-songwriter, rapper, and producer Liv.e. Their debut The Pleasure Is Yours is informed by jazz, soul, and hip-hop, with enough electronic weirdness to keep me happy. There’s definitely something about this that feels special, I’m just not entirely sure I love it yet. What I do know however is that This Is So Crazy is insanely good, coming in like Prince’s I Could Die For You as seen through a spectral haze.
https://genagenagena.bandcamp.com/album/the-pleasure-is-yours
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.
