MUSIC | Records – Jazz & World JAZZ & WORLD
JAZZ IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS We Out Here (Brownswood) ●●●●●
A snapshot of London’s new wave of jazz, We Out Here was recorded in three days under the guiding hand of Shabaka Hutchings. The British-Barbadian reedist’s own contribution, ‘Black Skin, Black Masks,’ is a highlight, its expansive grooves, snaking clarinets and elegant piano elevated by artful abstraction. Hutchings’ Sons Of Kemet bandmate Theon Cross brings swaggering grime tuba to ‘Brockley’, one of several tracks that show the influence of London bass and club culture. Moses Boyd’s ‘Sirens’ is the album’s deepest dive into electronica, with palm-muted guitar and crunchy drum loops pricking at the surface of swelling synth pads. Dub horns and dirty synth bass raise the pressure, before raw tenor sax and frenetic hard bop drums tear the roof off. Other tracks are less adventurous, but no less enjoyable, from Ezra Collective’s Afrobeat-influenced 'Pure Shade' to the sweet Afro-Caribbean guitar of Kokoroko’s ‘Abusey Junction’. JAZZ TONY BEVAN & KIM MOORE Rime (Foghorn Records) ●●●●●
Since moving to Glasgow in 2016, the mighty saxophonist Tony Bevan has run the improvised music event Help Me I’m Melting!, where he collaborates with musicians from the Scottish, UK, and international scenes. Rime is the first vinyl release from the sessions, lovingly presented on Bevan’s own Foghorn label. This August 2016 set sees Bevan commune with Kim Moore (WOLF, Zoey Van Goey). Moore uses pedals to layer melodic fragments over textural drones, while Bevan patiently explores a range of bass saxophone timbres, from guttural parps to long, fluttering tones. There’s some beautifully sensitive duo playing, where lyrical phrases emerge from sustained tonal clusters. Elsewhere, it gets pretty gnarly, with Moore’s distorted viola and Bevan’s breathy slobber conjuring images of a steel mill sinking into a stormy ocean. The final section is stunning, with Bevan’s grainy soprano saxophone soaring and braying over Moore’s ghostly orchestra. WORLD FELA KUTI Box Set #4 Curated by Erkykah Badu (Knitting Factory Records) ●●●●●
The Fela Kuti reissue programme continues with a seven LP selection by the mighty Erykah Badu, spanning 1976 to 1992, and the dissolution of the revolutionary Afrika ’70 band and the formation of Egypt ’80. This series has been particularly valuable in highlighting overlooked albums from the Afrobeat pioneer’s voluminous catalogue such as 1977’s Johnny Must Drop, with its heavy percussion workouts, and 1984’s Army Arrangement, where deceptively cool grooves erupt into wild organ solos. Alongside these gems are stone cold classics like 1976’s Yellow Fever, where Kuti tears it up on saxophone over Tony Allen’s indelible groove.
WORLD GUY ONE #1 (Philopon) ●●●●●
A star in Ghana, Guy One is perhaps best known to international audiences from his collaborations with fellow countryman King Ayisoba. One’s take on Frafra music is more rural and traditional than Ayisoba’s amplified urban kologo, but on #1 he expands his horizons with the help of Berlin funk specialist Max Weissenfeldt, adding brassy horn parts, electronics and drum kit to the mix. Afrobeat meets dub on ‘Nongre Nongre Sugre Sugre’, while ‘Bangere Tomme’ complements the gutsy twang of One’s kologo with jittery guitar. Killer grooves abound, but One’s keening and urgent voice is the main attraction. WORLD NEGRO LEO Action Lekking (QTV) ●●●●●
Negro Leo was among the Brazilian contingent at Glasgow’s Counterflows 2015, where he performed with Rio De Janeiro’s Chinese Cookie Poets. That set had an angular post-punk feel, but Leo’s latest sounds more like a warped update of tropicalia, as he rants tunefully over spirited acoustic guitar and a rhythm section that sounds like a free jazz damaged Os Mutantes. Wonky electronics and falsetto outbursts add to the album’s mind-warping appeal. A terrific underground pop album, infusing the weirder side of Caetano Veloso and Jards Macalé with the outsider spirit of Syd Barrett and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. (All reviews by Stewart Smith) 78 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018
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THE HONEY FARM
Anyone who caught one of their shows in 2017 will know that all-female trio the Honey Farm are some of the most exciting new voices in Scottish rap. Frank, fearless and very funny, twentysomethings Gael (aka SweetHardt Dowt, ‘like a fag- end’), Bee (Pimpsess hAsha) and Gracie (Bitta DisGrace), and their male producer Robin (DJ Honeybadger), are brilliantly unbowed. SweetHardt Dowt tells us their story so far
On being country bumpkins We’ve known each other forever. Robin and Gracie are brother and sister, and I’ve known them since we were babies. Bee went to the same school as us (Dunbar Grammar) and I first met her on a production of Bugsy Malone. We all live in Dunbar now, but we grew up on the rural outskirts of the town. We’re total bumpkins. I grew up in a hippie family, listening to Donovan, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and stuff. On discovering rap, and relating to it as women When I was ten I discovered Eminem, and that was the first music that was really mine. I used to rap along to those first two records all through my teens, but it wasn’t until years later that I started seriously listening to rap; that was when Bee and I started writing together. I think I found a lot of rap inaccessible to girls, but if you’re not relating to mainstream hip hop, then you have to find what you do like. We love BWP (Bytches With Problems) and we’re really inspired by MIA, Die Antwoord and Princess Nokia. Now that I rap, I find it easier to relate to all rap in some way, to be really impressed with the flows and the beats. I love Necro, Ill Bill, Busta Rhymes and absolutely love Immortal Technique.
On starting out Bee and I had this song called ‘Pussy All Day’, which we’d written on ukulele and mandolin. It was quite a sweet love song about being sick of men and wishing we could be a couple, but not being gay. It was Gracie who pushed us to do it as a rap. Bee and I used to text raps to each other as a laugh, and we practised them to metronome videos on YouTube, but we’d never imagined we could do it in front of people.
On being fierce We mostly write about stuff that we come across in our lives, as women. We’ve got sexy songs, but I worry that people think we’re doing that to be shocking and get attention. As three women, we’re going to be sexualised no matter what we say, so we might as well own it and define what we’re into and what we’re not into. (As told to David Pollock) ■ Yoko Pwno x The Honey Farm, Teviot Underground, Edinburgh, Sat 3 Mar.