The ineffable instrumentals and dubs of Burial Mix numbers 6 to 12.

Burial Mix numbers 6 to 12: classic after classic, like King In My Empire, Queen In My Empire, We Been Troddin’...

Perhaps her greatest LP, recorded at FAME in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with Rick Hall and the gang, released by Cadet in 1968. A handful of belters, a couple of Don Covay songs, excellent interpretations of Steal Away and Otis’ Security… the marvellously sympathetic musicianship of Carl Banks, Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett and co… and the almighty I’d Rather Go Blind.

The vibes and marimba player with Horace Tapscott’s Arkestra, together with Adele Sebastian, Diane Reeves, and Billy Higgins, amongst others.
A late-seventies, private-press, spiritual-jazz gem, in Jazzman’s Holy Grail series.

Yarghul player Atef Swaitat and singer Abu Ali are popular Bedouin wedding musicians extending long family traditions in Jenin and the north of historic Palestine. This stomping, swirling, surging, precious music was recorded at ceremonies across the Galilee throughout the 1970s.
It’s exhilarating, giddying, and immersive.

Beginning in 1967 with El Malo, Lavoe was the vocalist on ten legendary studio albums by the Willie Colón Orchestra, before going solo in the mid-70s. Produced by Colón, this hallowed third album under his own name is a stone classic.
It kicks off with his career-defining hit El Cantante, written by Rubén Blades, taking the point of view of a star performer reflecting on his humanity and vulnerabilities when he steps off the stage. It closes with another smash: a joyful, mambo-inspired reimagining of the 1930s Cuban anthem Songoro Cosongo.
Rolling Stone magazine recently ranked Comedia number three of the 50 Greatest Salsa Albums of All Time, declaring that it transformed the genre into ‘high art… a spiritual experience.’

This is why Robert Hood is such a don.
‘A pinnacle of Detroit techno. Best-known for the lip-biting minimalism of One Circle, with its chant ‘Detroit’ and body-rocking riff-mongery, or maybe for the killer variation Explain The Style… but for us the EP’s shortest and freakiest number Modern And Ancient steals the show; a mad, half-stepping slice of Afro-futurist electro that still blows our mind today.’

‘A visionary blend of spiritual jazz, psychedelic funk, Moroccan traditions, and electronic experimentation.’

‘From 1970, the first Lightmen LP pre-dates the deep-set, maverick jazz issued by the likes of Tribe and Strata East. Mostly groove-based and cohesive, though pushing further out than you might expect from later Lightmens.’ A young Ronnie Laws is here, on the verge of hooking up with Hugh Masekela, and then Earth Wind & Fire; stylistically light years away from Pressure Sensitive, his breakout for Blue Note, in 1975. Also Bubbha Thomas on drums, Doug Harris on tenor sax, Carl Adams on trumpet, Kenny Abair on guitar, and Joe Singleton on trombone.

With Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Victor Sproles, John Hicks, and John Gilmore.
‘It’s a shame that this was the only recording by this particular lineup of the Jazz Messengers, as Gilmore’s strong blowing complements Morgan very well (AllMusic).

‘More direct than recent releases, with textures that accumulate and disintegrate with renewed urgency. A familiar trajectory, though: the irresistible pull towards dissolution, the gradual erasure of memory, the self rendered irretrievable…’

Eight poetic songs attuned to the early 1970s chanson of Brigitte Fontaine, performed by Mauricio Amarante and Marine Debilly Cerisier.