Hello sunshine!

Agh, this London furnace is all-consuming. Is the world still burning where you are? Walking feels like a major achievement at the moment, never mind scouring the world day and night for music to write about and play to you.

My eyeballs are stuck to my lids (out to the blepharitis crew), my body is turning a cold shower warm in seconds and food just don’t hit like it used to. A man cannot live on salads and watermelon alone. But my appreciation for linen and coconut water has reached new heights 💦

Last Friday, I got suited and booted for my best friend’s wedding. That was a test, and I’m not just talking about the speech (which went well). Imagine wearing a coat in this madness, aka being a doggy. Finchy has just thrown up and is panting by my feet as I type this. Solidarity with pooches, plants, kitchen staff and all living things under stress.

According to the UK’s Met Office, between 2015 and 2024 the number of days exceeding 30°C in the UK more than trebled compared with the 1961-1990 average. And we ain’t seen nothing yet. Look at this prediction for 2056.

The forecast across the continent is also blazing orange. “The European Environment Agency says the 27-country bloc and its governments aren’t protecting their people from extreme temperatures,” Politico reports, “assessing the threat of heat stress for the general population as critical in this decade, and ‘catastrophic’ from mid-century onward.”

We urgently need a revolution in myriad facets of industry, from manufacturing and energy production to transport, construction and urban planning. Enough talk. The fact that no more than 6% of UK homes are currently reaping watts from this scorching summer (compared to roughly 25% in the Netherlands and 22% in Belgium) makes the situation an even bigger joke.

Perhaps most of the other 94%, like me, are put off by the £5,500-£8,000 upfront cost for a standard 4kW solar PV rooftop system and the 6 to 10 years it will take to pay for itself (though assistance is available for low-income households, among others).

Weaning off fossil fuels and reducing emissions are only part of the solution. How about building and adapting homes so bedrooms are more bearable at night. Providing more shady streets lined with trees to diffuse the heat and courtyards to take shelter. Or being more merciful to public transport passengers. In London, only 40% of underground trains are air-conditioned, though you would barely notice them.

How have you been adapting and surviving? Hacks and tips appreciated.

Ok, that’s enough about the weather and ecological peril. As you can see below, there is a ridiculous amount to share, more than I could squeeze into a wobbly live session at the studio. Dive in and hit me back with your favourite moments.

A couple of gifts:

* I’m always trying to stretch the definition of “writer” and expand my practice. So I wrote a poem on the theme of exile, published to coincide with Refugee Week. Can you spare a few minutes to read it and tell me what you think, please?

* You may remember that I am a voluntary director at Sister Midnight, Lewisham’s first community-owned music venue, which opens later this year. For a new radio series called Brick by Brick, I sat down with founder Lenny Watson to join the dots between early days in a Deptford record shop, an unsuccessful campaign to buy a local pub, the many challenges in renovating an old working man’s club and why it’s taking so long. Listen here.

Stay cool but close…

Amar

*****

MARK JENKIN – Kneebone Barton [Invada]British filmmaker Mark Jenkin has garnered much praise for Cornish allegories Bait and Enys Men, but did you know he also loves messing around with tape loops? For his latest 16mm film Rose of Nevada, we again find him building unease with ease as a composer, in addition to his other duties as writer, director, cinematographer and editor. Isn’t that a bit much, you ask? Well, one man’s control freak is another’s auteur.

Jenkin knows exactly what we should be hearing from scene to scene as George MacKay and Callum Turner realise they have joined a fishing vessel that’s been lost for three decades and transported them to 1993.

His score gently ripples and drifts in ominous tones and plangent yet distant strings, perfectly conveying the disorientation of both men and a hint of the supernatural about their predicament. Quick fact: Kermode said the BFI put this weird little mystery in more than 100 cinemas nationwide.

DEITADO NA BARRA (ROUGH) (Bonus Track) [Flee] 4m 15s

Candomble is a foundational religion and spiritual belief system of Afro-Brazilian culture involving the worship of divinities known as orixás through music, dance, rituals and offerings.

Drums and chants are used to induce a trance-like state, allowing practitioners to ”channel the invisible” as master percussionist Airto once said. Oshun/Oxum was one of the first I encountered through Osunlade (see below), who is an ordained priest of the Yoruba religion Ifá. Oshun is the orixá of beauty, love and fertility.

Candomble originates from the African ancestors brought to Brazil by Portuguese colonialists who forbade them from practicing their own beliefs. So they had to preserve these spirits under Catholic names. There were violent state crackdowns during the rule of President Vargas and until 1977 it was illegal to perform drum rituals in the streets of Bahia.

This rhythm is taken from a project called Candomble: Sacred Rhythms of Brazil.

ZENA – Temesgen [Brownswood] 8m 45s

I caught Yohan Kebede (keys, synths) of Kokoroko and Menelik Claffey (bass) at Cross the Tracks festival in May and was quickly intoxicated by their jaunty take on ethio-jazz. It’s as if Badbadnotgood and Shuggie Otis went to bandcamp in Addis Ababa with masters Hailu Mergia and Mulatu Astatke.

Zena is about respecting their musical heritage – the “tezeta” of it all – while projecting traditional sounds into the present and adding a new dimension. Let’s go with the title track from their last EP, simply because I love the reason it’s called ‘Temesgen’. A word that means “Thank God” in Amharic. I’ve never heard my mother receive good news without saying it aloud,” says Yohan. Join them in the dance asap and don’t be afraid to get your “eskita” on.

HI-TEK – Get Ta Steppin’ (featuring Mos Def and Vinia Mojica) [Coalmine] 13m 30s

Hi-Teknology should be in more conversations about the best hip-hop albums of the 2000s. A jewel from the Rawkus era when independent hip-hop was in the ascendancy, putting conscious lyricism over deft beats. It’s recently been repressed with all the trimmings on its 25th anniversary.

The Cincinnati producer first caught the ear with ‘Fortified Live’ and all-time great Black Star, before working on Talib Kweli’s solo project. On his debut solo offering, he gets to flex in all types of ways. ‘Get Ta Steppin’ is the kind of transcendent vibration that stops you in your tracks, calms the central nervous system and makes you kiss the sky. I’ve always appreciated Mos/Yasiin’s singing tone but this song would be a shadow of itself without the graceful tones of Vinia Mojica.

JACKIE MITTOO – Sky King Jack [17 North Parade] 18m 00s

How did Jackie Mittoo’s In Cold Blood come into my life? Who knows. My memory is so atomised these days, I find myself telling tales and making up stories to plug the gap. The important thing to know is that is this a heavy heavy set he cut alongside the Aggrovators – Sly & Robbie on riddim, Tommy McCook and Bobby Ellis on horns, Winston Wright on organ – with Bunny Lee producing.

Not only that, King Tubby is engineer so you know these vibrations will zing. ‘Sky King Jack’ shakes and slinks along in ghostly fashion under Jackie’s mystical runs, begging for a reload. The remastered vinyl has decent liner notes and archival images to pour over.

SONNY ROLLINS – The Cutting Edge [Milestone] 22m 05s

Despite having made a stack of albums since the 50s, many of them revered such as The Bridge and Tenor Madness (with Trane), saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins remained an ineffable enigma to me as a player. I knew him more for his rigour and dutifulness to the music that had him practicing days upon end on the Williamsburg Bridge, than for a signature sound or style.

He remained, as Peter Keepnews put it in his NYT obituary, “ultimately unclassifiable”. Sonny could bop with the best of them, full-bodied and agile an improviser as you could find, but I prefer his controversial 70’s period when he responded to the times by opening up to guitars and breakbeats.

This is the title cut from his 1974 live recording at Montreux Jazz Festival, featuring Mtume on percussion and Stanley Cowell on piano. For a spiritual séance with the man on death and other matters, read this incredible interview.

GENIUS – Bermilyia Avenue [BBE] 28m 40s

My top selection from a recent collection of lost and hidden Argentinian grooves called Danza Secreta. So many candidates on here, trust me. Props to Buenos Aires selectors Ric Piccolo and Ariel Harari. The overarching is funk, soul and cosmic disco as resistance music.

Some of you will know that the country was in the grip of a far-right, authoritarian dictatorship from the 70s into the early 80s, known as the Dirty War. The people’s spirit of rebellion manifested also as musical experimentation and a quest for new sounds and styles.

HARRIET TUBMAN – The Terror End of Beauty [Sunnyside] 32m 44s

HARRIET TUBMAN AND GEORGIA ANN MULDROW – We You Rise [Pi] 39m 05s

Listening to prolific music medium Georgia Ann Muldrow raving about Harriet Tubman on The Questlove Show compelled me to revisit their recent joint album. While a jazz major in NYC, she discovered guitarist Brandon Ross (Henry Threadgill’s Make A Move), bassist Melvin Gibbs (Black Rock Coalition, Defunkt) and “liminal thrash monster” drummer JT Lewis playing in Galapagos Arts Space, aka the juke joint of her dreams.

Around two decades later, a fateful collaboration at Detroit Jazz Festival was the catalyst for Electrical Field of Love. Though Georgia’s studio output might suggest otherwise, both parties travel the spaceways between composed and improvised music, channelling spirits and feeling out unusual textures.

The trio generates a compulsive intensity that melds Get Up With It-era Miles, doom metal and Meshell Ndegeocello in dub, as ‘The Terror End of Beauty’ (Gibbs’ tribute to Sonny Sharrock) and ‘We You Rise’ testify. Definitely one to check live. Perhaps this is the Georgia we’ll get at The Pitchfork Festival in London this November. Noname and Cleo Reed are also on that bill.

LORAINE JAMES – The Book of Self-Doubt [Hyperdub] 45m 00s

Whether it’s under her own name or as Whatever the Weather, Loraine knows how to reel in the listener with her intricate, ruminative take on electronic music. Latest album Detached From the Rest of You has her opening up even more, slipping into “IDM Popstar” mode and using her voice to work through angst, insecurity and a few other issues.

I love the way melody and rhythm are constructed to flicker on tracks like this. The collaborations with Miho Hatori and Tirzah really complement the mood of this set as well.

NÍDIA & VALENTINA MAGALETTI – Ta A Bater Ya (Cosmic Analog Ensemble Version) [Latency] 47m 55s

We live for a version on Moonbeam Levels and this radical reimagining of the album Estrada is stacked with a plethora of ginormous rhythms. I missed the collaboration between the producer and drummer when it came out in 2024. But it doesn’t matter. I wager the source material would be hard to detect even if I had.

Take the title track, for instance. Could you get two more different interpretations than Sherelle’s ferocious jungle and the chuggy tropical bounce of Yu Su? I’m feeling Charif Megarbane and the Cosmic Analog Ensemble’s squelchy take on ‘Ta A Bater Ya’.

WESSELTOFT SCHWARZ – Where is the Edge? [Jazzland Recordings] 50m 30s

A pleasant discovery on some newsletter of past releases, maybe Rush Hour. I wasn’t aware that pianist and composer Bugge Wesselftoft and producer Henrik Schwarz had made a whole album together in 2011. Considering some of their past releases, it’s evident they were in close orbit and moving towards one another. There is a shared tension, which is how I would describe their collaboration Duo. ‘Where is the Edge?’ is a spontaneous club jam where the musicians trip the line between improvisation and live electronic production.

ALEX NUT PRESENTS SUM OF ITS PARTS – The Message (Boddhi Satva’s Ancestral Soul Dub Mix) [Eglo] 54m 05s

Another month, another very discerning couple of productions from Eglo main man and DJ supreme, Alex Nut. No quickfire sketches here though. Both are, in fact, a labour of love, “the culmination of years of crafting, shaping and chipping away at some very special recording sessions with some very talented musical friends,” he says.

‘Hello High’ breezes through like one of those late-night live four-four jams from Moodymann, while ‘The Message’ winds through a dense thicket of spiritual jazz frequencies and carries us to a higher state of consciousness. Players include Sam Crowe on keys, Junior Ali-Balogun on percussion and Duane Atherley on bass. I’m feeling Boddhi Satva’s dub right now with its entrancing percussion.

CHARLIE DARK – Foundation & History [Gala] 1h 00m 10s

South London’s annual dance music gathering Gala is one of the real success stories of recent years on festival circuit. Hard to believe it’s already been ten years. This living document brings together close friends and affiliates ranging from Chaos in the CBD, Joe Armon-Jones & Maxwell Owin to Dreamcastmoe and Marcellus Pitman.

The one that gave me chills though has no music. It’s “old-school SE15” community builder and music archivist Charlie Dark MBE in spoken word mode, reminiscing about Shaka playin’ heavyyy, a sound with no name shakin’ Lazerdome, SE school reunions and rivalries in the dance…

Charlie is such a charismatic storyteller – check his sessions at 180 Studios – and brings his past to life in such vivid detail. The message is clear: know your history but also plug into the now as more gets made. Fingers crossed we see this man back on stage. I missed his Have Box, Will Travel one-man play years ago. He can hold a theatre and then some.

IG CULTURE – Talkin’ Bout Mine [Kindred Spirits] 1h 2m 50s

Alex is also a seasoned broadcaster and did a really enjoyable show with IG Culture a while back. It was about time someone gave him his proper dues as a pioneer and conduit for some of the best underground Black British Music of the past 30 years.

From MC duties on Young Disciples Road to Freedom and Roots Manuva’s Brand New Second Hand, to hip-hop production for Dodge City, bruk experiments as New Sector Movements and being a driving force in the Co-Op movement, IG has consistently been on some other sh*t.

This is an old, hard-to-find tune that was a bit of a Plastic People favourite, built for flexin’ in the darkness. IG’s still at large. Check his recent remix for Kokoroko.

GRAMM – legends/nugroove (TM) [Fairtiche] 1h 7m 45s

Jan Jelinek’s Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records was a masterclass in brooding, late-night minimal house and ambience. After-dark experiments in “hypnotic repetition”. Jazz not jazz. I thought that was his debut album. But no, two years earlier in 1999, Source released Personal Rock under the name GRAMM, a more enigmatic cousin that rattles and hums, flutters and breathes down our ear canals.

Jan conceived it for “home listening” but there’s an undeniable dancefloor in the mind about this unique record. For all the geeks out there, this video on how to sound design like the man is very good.

TEENA MARIE – CASSANOVA BROWN (Yoruba Soul Mix) 1h 13m 55s

Taken from volume 23 of Osunlade’s cheeky remix series, it’s time for Lady T to get the Yoruba Soul treatment. An afro four-four flip of the ballad ‘Cassanova Brown’, which you can find on her 1983 album Robbery. Teena is one of my favourite artists of all time.

The voice alone sends me. It all began with ‘Portuguese Love’. Let me tell you about it. But we must recognise her arrangement and productions skills as well. That’s you killer grooves like this still hit so hard. Craving a feature-length documentary (mini one here). Who’s up for it?

HANNA – Beyond Infinity [Casa Voyager] 1h 20m 00s

I have been a huge fan of the elusive Warren Harris since Theo Parrish included him on a special mixtape he made for us at Straight No Chaser in the 2000s. As Hanna, he’s cultivated this unique pocket of body-and-mind music, where tracks burst out of the speakers with warm basslines, deep chords and shimmering keys, gradually taking you over. Check the Bella EP, Time Hotel and album Exquisite Style for starters. Casa Voyager got their hands on some hard-to-find releases from the early days. Take advantage.

*ELECTRIFYING MOJO – Turn the Page interlude (excerpt from The Mental Machine published in 1995-96 by J Stone Press) 1h 26m 10sDuring the 80s and 90s, Electrifying Mojo was a crucial conduit to music ranging from Parliament Funkadelic and Sly Stone to Prince, Kraftwerk, Devo, Depeche Mode, Cybrotron and what came to be known as techno. The WGPR and WJLB radio DJ would beam this extraordinary galaxy of sounds into homes with such theatre and ceremony that he had the tapers poised night after night hanging on his every word. His scale of influence is almost immeasurable. Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills, Moodyman… they all give it up to him.

Professing to be no more than “a figment of the imagination” and “a face in the crowd”, presiding over something akin to a secret society (The Midnight Funk Association), Mojo soon became the no-format radio DJ on people’s lips from Cincinnati to Ontario and beyond.

But did you know published a collection of writing in the Mid-90s? It’s called The Mental Machine, a “book-opera” of poems, prose and social commentary for African Americans of the Metro Detroit area in particular. Copies are floating around but the audiobook is the full experience.

He laments the crime, violence and prejudice that pervades society and muses on big topics such as happiness and death. He then tries to answer the question “what now?”, instilling self-belief and preaching self-actualisation.

It felt right to bring in his prophetic voice at this juncture with an excerpt called Turn the Page. Another great bit is where he talks about how the mind will not survive unless we dream. “Dreams are the wings of the mind.”

Why now? Well, Mojo is celebrated among several other local legends and grassroots community builders in a podcast series about the D called Living for the City, hosted by poetic and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib. Highly recommended. Here’s why.

ABSTRACT THOUGHT – Bermuda Triangle [Clone Aqualung Series] 1h 28m 35s

Here’s Drexciya by another name, providing more techno “music beamed through dimensional waves by abstract thought”. Labelled as Storm #4, it was first released on Kombination Research in 2003, resurfacing a few months ago and floating into my periphery.

I would happily take a ride on any of these tunes, but warning – some are more bumpy than others. Let’s just start with number one, ‘Bermuda Triangle’, to which James Stinson and Gerald Donald wanted you to complete the following: “What if the triangle pivoted over the island of Jamaica, what would become of the population?” Read on at Drexciya Research Lab.

SHEEFY MCFLY – You’re Mine (featuring Bethlove) [Cape St Francis] 1h 34m 55s

We’re at the upper limit of my bpm range here but Detroit mover and shaker Sheefy McFly’s EP Baddies Only is so fun I had to include something from it. Conceived as a love letter to the women of the city’s underground, this is full-on ghettotechtopia. The Amp Fiddler collaborator and AUX88 remixer pounding us with the boom-clap and calling in vocalists such as Bethlove (whose original Sheefy flipped into an underground hit), DJ Mobetta and Lola Damone.

If you’re into gettin’ “turnt” and behaving badly, this is the release for you. Sheefy is also a visual artist. That’s his mural Detroit Never Left on the sleeve.

MARVIN JUPITER – Keep to Myself 1h 38m 20s

No time to rest on laurels after causing a stir with those bruk-y remixes of D’Angelo and Don-E. The NW London producer has dropped two bombs this month – very much the standard bearer for a new generation who like their soul tuff but sweet for the dance.

I can hear multiple phases of Black British Music in the mix, particularly broken legends such as Neon Phusion and Bugz who placed equal importance on the song and the sonics. Out to the players making it lively: Dino Econimides on guitar, Joseph Oti-Akenteng on trumpet and Marvin on Rhodes & Juno 106.

You can check some of Marvin’s DNA on a recent NTS show, covering for Bradley Zero on Rhythm Section.

THE HUMAN EGG – Love Like This [Mucho Gusto] 1h 42m 30s

DJ Spinna introduced Gilles Peterson ‘Love Like This’ a while back so when the Brooklyn native came on GP’s radio show to talk about his transition from early Jigmastas hip-hop days to success in the house and electronic dance worlds, he pulled out the space disco cut. The whole album is a trip, conceived in 1978 by Jean-Pierre Massiera and Bernard Torelli, and coming over like the score to a jazz-funk-rockopera.

PJ CITY – Straight Forward (Non-Stop) (DJ Nature Re-Edit) [Mr Bongo] 1h 46m 30s

A standout from the very stacked eighth volume of Mr Bongo Record Club compilation series. Milo (aka DJ Nature) knows how to move the floor, particularly with the bottom end. You might be familiar with his chugging house productions but give credit to his edits too, like ‘Billy C’.

This one, originally released in 1986 on Chicago’s Rise Records, lives up to its title. Nature extends the sizzling disco groove to incite all the shufflers and shimmiers to show out. Also, check Kenny Dope’s edit of The Sylvers (RIP Foster), Tappa Zukie’s ‘Visions of Love’ and that London summer-ready reggae mix of Take Three.

CHUCK BYNUM – You Worked A Miracle [The Sound Council] 1h 52m 05s

I’ve been a fan of BRICK since day dot, particularly the photography. I had no idea they had branched out into excavating and releasing music. ‘You Worked A Miracle’ sounded like the realisation or culmination of something profound for its creator, Chuck Bynum. It’s one of those songs that imparts wisdom, speaks perseverance and hard-earned personal triumph.

The hazy video, featuring Bynum alone and in thrall to the music, was filmed in 1990 during an Arts-in-Correction programme. It’s a perfect encapsulation of what it feels like to lose yourself in this track. One play later, I sprinted off in hot pursuit of his story.

And what a story. How a gifted artist went from playing with the likes of Marvin Gaye and DJ Rogers to serving a life sentence in California State Penitentiary for possession of cocaine.

This wonderful oral history by Sam Butler surveys the long road to this release. What it took for Chuck to make this music, how it brought a family together and the collectors who kept the faith.

GENESIS OWUSU – Most Normal American Voter [Ourness] 2h 1m 30s

There’s a riot going on, a “stampede” you might say, and Genesis is at the forefront. Previous album Smiling with No Teeth was a favourite of mine in 2021. I was instantly drawn to its rebellious and subversive spirit, and the plethora of styles deployed in service to it. Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge manages to feel more cohesive and yet even more effusive and volatile.

He’s lamenting the state of the world again, railing against all the “blue-check mania” (‘PIRATE RADIO’) and calling out so-called leaders who flex over nothing (‘BIG DOG’). Catharsis might be around the corner though. In more reflective moments, there’s nostalgia for simpler times when “we ain’t have much but we made it something” (‘4LIFE’).

Now here comes the rage again. Kanye supporters, incels, death cult zombies, the Musk, the King… They can all get it. So what now? Nothing else for it but reject numbness and keep climbing “with Sisyphean boulders” (‘ONE4ALL’). Why? For the love. “Joy as an act of resistance, even when the party’s over (‘RUNNIN OUTTA TIME).” I think ‘Hellstar’ is my favourite song but we ain’t goin’ out like that. It’s time for some ‘Most Normal American Voter’ energy’.

+++++

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

KNATS – Never Gonna Be A Boxer [Gearbox]

Sandwiched between Arlo Parks and Shania Twain on Later with Jools Holland, I discovered Geordie jazz outfit Knats the other night playing this one. Their attitude and energy were undeniable – punchy, shapeshifting and unapologetically from the north (thank gawd).

Young Stan Woodward is a sharp frontman, prodding and cajoling with bass in hand, while childhood friend and co-arranger King David Ike-Elechi switches up the rhythm with ease. You’ve also got Sandro Shar on keys and George Johnson standing tall on tenor sax.

Second album A Great Day in Newcastle is out on Gearbox, produced by Geordie Greep, which makes proper sense. The addition of Cooper Robson’s commentary really works, adding both everyday Tyneside grit and wit (check opener ‘7 Bridges to Burn’).

Knats are touring the UK throughout the rest of the year, stopping by The Exchange in Bristol, MOTH Club in London and Future Yard in Birkenhead among other places. Get involved.

SONS OF JUMIRA – Jaliyah’s Lament (live at NOIIS) [Super-Sonic Jazz]

Fans of Alice Coltrane’s A Monastic Trio will reach a comparable bliss with Sons of Jumira. Here, the Dutch trio of Julian Tjon Sack Kie (double bass), Mill Voyance (drums, percussion) and Ranie Ribeiro (harp) channel Jaliyah, a West African Mandinka storytelling practice of the Jali (griot). There is such a serene balance between the players on this live recording at NOIIS in Switzerland.

THE VISITORS – Fables of Africa [Craft]

Out of print since its original release on the legendary Muse Records in 1975, this project by spiritual saxophone brothers Earl (tenor) and Carl Grubbs (alto) is life-affirming music. To be expected when you’ve been mentored by deep ones Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane.

The quintet features the lyrical Joe Bonner (‘You Gotta Have Freedom’) on piano, Victor Lewis on drums and John Lee on bass. Cut from the original tapes on 180g vinyl, Motherland will have you enraptured by its melodic richness, free spirit and upwards motion.

BOARDS OF CANADA – Prophecy at 1420MHz [Warp]

To come back after 13 years with an album so replete with curious tones and textures is quite a statement of continued intent from one of electronic music’s most revered acts. I make no lofty claims about where it stands in their catalogue but I’m surprised by how polarised the reception has been among critics.

Nothing comes close to the feeling of hearing ‘Roygbiv’ off Music Has The Right To Children for the first time, but it’s not “hold music’ or “dreary” as one writer groaned. It would benefit from fewer cliched sound samples as on ‘Naraka’, certainly, but the depth of atmosphere and melodic richness win out.

DUMAMA – Eating The Other [Soundway]

I have been through Towards an Expanse several times trying to select a track but it feels disrespectful to only choose one when clearly the album was conceived to be travelled in one go.

Six years on from Kechou collaboration buffering juju, Eastern Cape’s Gugu Duma ponders how we preserve ritual, memory and ancestry across an ever-shifting album that seems to simultaneously pull us back to the past and way into the future. From Xhosa oral tradition and uhadi playing to sonic speculations on circular time, activated by key collaborator Nandi Ndlovu’s sound experiments.

‘Eating The Other’ is one of the more abrasive moments. Inspired by bell hooks, the song reflects on a society that “remains ill despite having the resources to heal”. Post-punk energy, underpinned by a chant the artist’s grandmother sang over the phone before she passed.

Duma isn’t just a purveyor of “nomadic future folk”. She is also a researcher and facilitator. Her 2020 contribution to the Embodied Arts Festival asked a simple yet intriguing question: “How many lives live in our bodies?” Towards An Expanse feels like a continuation of that – an electro-acoustic meditation on “autonomy, agency and liberating the violence of colonial archival practice”, in her words. It’s a tremendous achievement on every level.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com