MUSIC | Records – Jazz & World JAZZ & WORLD
JAZZ IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS Irreversible Entanglements (International Anthem/Don Giovanni) ●●●●●
Camae Ayewa follows her extraordinary releases as Moor Mother with this arresting album of radical poetry and free jazz. Formed in early 2015 to perform at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event, the group also features saxophonist Keir Neuringer, bassist Luke Stewart, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes. The poetry and jazz format recalls Amiri Baraka’s incendiary collaborations with Sunny Murray and the New York Art Quartet, but Irreversible Entanglements have a distinctive sound of their own. The musicians create remarkable settings for Ayewa’s unflinching accounts of black trauma, survival and power, from the barrelling drum rolls of ‘Chicago to Texas’, to the distorted industrial howls of the harrowing ‘Projects’. Ayewa is an extraordinary poet and performer, delivering her vivid imagery and fragmented narratives with a ferocious combination of rhythm and rage. On ‘Enough’, her voice becomes an instrument, screaming as the horns upset a hornets’ nest. JAZZ BANANA OIL The B.O.’s (Winning Sperm Party) ●●●●●
Jazz fusion from the Glasgow underground: who’d have thunk it? The trio of Joe Howe (Ben Butler & Mousepad) on sax, Niall Morris (Sham Gate) on electric bass, and Laurie Pitt (Golden Teacher, The Modern Institute) on drums, aim to ‘sound like Mothers of Invention without all the toxic masculinity.’ From Zappa’s sexist ruins, Banana Oil salvage a wiggy tunefulness and playful sense of structure, channelling it all through the no wave jazz of James Chance and The Lounge Lizards. Viewed from another angle, the group offer a scrappier take on the contemporary jazz of Shabaka Hutchings and Polar Bear, taking their knotty unison themes and propulsive grooves into the garage. ‘Kiss from a Seal’ is more than just a good pun: Morris’s squelchy bass really does sound like someone locking lips with a pinniped, and the piece is a winning combination of melody, skronk and groove. WORLD MDOU MOCTAR Sousoume Tamachek (Sahel Sounds) ●●●●●
In 2015, Nigerien guitar hero Mdou Moctar starred in Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai, a homage to Purple Rain that was the world’s first Tuareg language film. Rather than follow it with a full band album based on his dynamite live shows, Moctar has turned left with the atmospheric desert balladry of Sousoume Tamachek. Electric guitars swirl and flow over cycling acoustic riffs and the steady pulse of calabash percussion, creating a mesmeric setting for Moctar’s hushed vocal melodies. The intimacy of the recording is magical, as if you’re right there with Moctar, under Saharan skies.
WORLD SAZ’ISO At Least Wave Your Handkerchief at Me (Glitterbeat) ●●●●●
Subtitled ‘the joys and sorrows of Southern Albanian song’ this is a gorgeous, life-affirming album from Saz’iso, masters of the Saze tradition. Hailing from Albania’s isolated mountain regions, Saze is one of Europe’s richest folk traditions, defined by the iso-polyphony of its singers, and an instrumental palette of violin, clarinet, lute and frame drum. Donika Pecallari, Adrianna Thanou and Robert Tralo sing keening laments and hypnotic arabesques with grace and fire, their voices rising and falling in intricate, otherworldly polyphony. Aurel Qirjo’s violin and Telando Feto’s clarinet snake around each other, breaking free for solos and gutsy riffs. A revelation.
WORLD VARIOUS Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk) ●●●●●
Habibi Funk is a crate diggers’ invention, covering everything from the demented Moroccan garage rock of Fadoul’s ‘Bsslama Hbibti’ to the smooth Tunisian reggae of Dalton’s ‘Soul Brother’. Bob Destiny’s ‘Wang Dang’ is a frenzied R&B rave up, while Al Massrieen’s ‘Sah’ is blissed out Egyptian disco. I can live without the misogynist yacht rock of Lebanese duo Samir & Abboud’s ‘Games’, but Algerian singer Ahmed Malek’s ‘Tape 19.11’ is a real gem, featuring spiralling clarinet melodies over crunchy lo-fi organ funk. (All reviews by Stewart Smith) 106 THE LIST 1 Nov 2017–31 Jan 2018
EXPOSURE
L-SPACE
Their idiosyncratic electronic dream pop mixes ghostly vocals with big synthy sounds to create raw, personal songs about the future. Influenced by the likes of Mogwai, Radiohead and Sigur Rós, L-space put together speculative tunes that are worth a closer listen. We caught up with singer Lily Higham to chat musical pals, the creative process, and how they'd really describe their sound.
On their sound Dramatic, ethereal, noisy electro pop about a better future. On writing songs To get into the songwriting zone, I listen to some chilled-out tunes and have a nip of whisky. I usually write lyrics last and it’s a mixture of thinking really hard and not thinking at all. I like to write about the future and speculative ideas, but at the same time making it personal and human. Right now we’re working on a song about the ‘grey goo’ end of the world scenario, but it’s also about self destruction and other things more relatable than out of control nanobots.
On their Scottish music peers Recently we played with Cracked Hands and she was amazing. Sounded like a scrambled Grimes.
On the Scottish scene While there’s always great live music to go and see, if you want to stay at home wrapped up against the cold Scottish winds there are so many great Scottish bands to find online doing interesting stuff. There are independent record labels releasing amazing music and putting on events, like Last Night From Glasgow, Song, By Toad, Olive Grove, Lost Map and Gerry Loves Records.
On what to expect next We've got some great gigs coming up, playing Broadcast, Nice’n’Sleazy’s and Henry’s Cellar Bar. After that we'll be working on the music video for our first single with Last Night from Glasgow which is coming out in February with the album following in September. Exciting times! (As told to Kirstyn Smith) ■ L-space support Mt Doubt, Broadcast, Glasgow, Sat 4 Nov; they play the Sun Rose album launch, Nice’n’Sleazy’s, Fri 17 Nov; Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Fri 24 Nov.