Starkly intimate, utterly captivating early recordings by this wonderful Malian singer. Voice and acoustic guitar only; as if you were the only person in the room.
The sound has been brilliantly restored by Awesome Tapes, for its fiftieth release.
Achingly beautiful music; hotly recommended.

‘Further adventures in Organic Electronic Music by this rigorous magician of vaporous, oscillating patterns, sidereal frequencies, nebulous dust; explorer of inter-zonal paths, new dreamlike dimensions, undiscovered planets. Marrying the momentum of Kraut-Kosmische with a personal, gentle minimalism, DSR Lines specialises in rare atmospheres of rhythmic pulsation, with enveloping, spiralling sounds, luminous and radiant in their hypnotic aura, or magnificently ecstatic and ascending.’

Killer lost blaxploitation soundtrack to Calvin Lockhart’s 1974 film fiasco — deep JA funk, rocking lovers, moody dub, punchy Carib jazz, and sweet soul, bubbling together, warmed by the genius of US inspiration like Jimmy Smith, Curtis Mayfield, and The Meters. There’s a deejay version of John Holt’s Same Song, with a red-eyed nod to U-Roy and Scotty from ‘The Scorpion’. Keyboardist Leslie Butler tears up the deadly instrumental originals Funky Nigger, Negril, and Ghetto Funk (which kicked off Darker Than Blue). Boris is especially heartfelt on the acoustic version of Star (which he wrote, and Big Youth covered). Gardiner on bass and Paul Douglas on drums keep it tight as Titus Andronicus; Tommy McCook leads the horns; Sid Bucknor from Studio One is at the controls, inside Channel One.

The best of Ern’s sixties LPs. A lovely bunch of rocksteady instrumentals, featuring a cool and deadly Summertime, bumping versions of Hold Me Tight and Flamingo, a moody Story Book Children, some bluesy honky-tonk, and the far-eastern stylings of Sling Shot, to close.

Soul jazz from the jazz pianist plus trio. The first half’s a bit soft, before Aquarius marks the dawning of the funky stuff — Evil Ways, Shaft, Booty Butt — ending with a cooking cover of The Meters’ Funky Miracle.