Dynasonic #2
(Instant Classic)
★★★★★

DYNASONIC eliminate anything that might stand between their music and the listener. That goes for lyrics, song titles or cover design.

As drummer Mateusz Rychlicki explains: “I prefer to understand music in terms of stories, pictures or feelings and leave as much as we can to the listener.”

The trio’s completed by Lukasz Rychlicki on guitar and Marcin Ciupidro on vibraphone.

Number 2 consists of just four new tracks, lasting all of 26 minutes. “Less is more,” says Rychlicki of their “dubwave” coherently eclectic sound. A metronomic, repetitive foundation sustains free improvisations where all three instruments weave patterns that are musically rich, intriguing and surprisingly stimulating. The musicianship is exquisite, disciplined and, most importantly, innovative.

“Recorded during some intense touring, it sounds much better,” Rychlicki volunteers, and indeed there’s a sense of freedom that might have been stifled in a studio. Twenty-six minutes of immense satisfaction.

Michal Boncza

Fenton Robinson
Out Of Chicago, The Chicago Blues Master, Live & Studio Sessions 1989-1992
(JSP)
★★★★★

IN 1989, Fenton Robinson headlined the first ever Burnley Blues Festival, which attracted hardcore British and European blues fans, many there to witness the debut of the man dubbed the Mellow Blues Genius.

This set features two live sides from the Burnley show, Sonny Boy Williamson’s Help Me and T-Bone Walker’s Stormy Monday and four originals recorded for the BBC’s Paul Jones Rhythm & Blues Show.

May 1992 saw Fenton return to Europe, wowing a packed Belgian festival crowd with a contemporary blues set backed by the Son Seals Blues Band. Luckily the show was recorded and four tracks, Ghetto Train, Going To Chicago, Nite Flight and You Don’t Know What Love Is, appear on this tough live set of Chi-Town blues from this class act.

Tony Burke

Deborah Rose
The Shining Pathway
(deborahrose.co.uk)
★★★★

DEBORAH ROSE is a singer-songwriter originally from Newport but now living in Shropshire who has performed across Europe, America and Africa. In this, her third album, she brings together a collection of 10 self-penned songs reflecting themes of love, loss and transformation.

Her music is in the vein of the great female singer-songwriters from the past who Rose draws inspiration from — the track Basket of Roses was written after a visit to the cave where Joni Mitchell wrote her album Blue.  

Other notable tracks include Grace Go I, written following her work in prisons in both Britain and the US teaching songwriting to help with rehabilitation. The song Bluebeard is a modern-day retelling of the classic folk tale depicting a woman trapped in an abusive relationship.

All in all, a captivating listening experience.

Steve Johnson

Edikanfo
The Pace Setters
(Glitterbeat Records)
★★★★★

LEGENDS of Ghanaian highlife Edikanfo (“Highlight”) enjoyed their greatest success during the presidency of socialist Kwame Nkrumah, a time of freedom, pride and affirmation of national cultural identity — of the post-colonial epoch. Pace Setters is their seminal oeuvre of that time.

Highlife melodic and rhythmic structures are those of traditional Akan music but populated with jazzy horns and multiple lead guitars.

In February 1966 the West overthrew Nkrumah, imposed neocolonialism at the point of a gun and many Ghanaian musicians fled abroad, settling in the US, Nigeria and Britain.

Thatcher’s Nationality Act 1981 meant their exodus continued, on to hospitable Germany where a local highlife offshoot, burger-highlife, blossomed.

Back to Edikanfo’s classic: the elegantly pulsating Nka Bom (togetherness), percussive Gbenta or the spirited sax-driven Something Lefeh-O, all sung in Akan, will edify with their Nkrumahian positivity and sheer zest for life.

MB

The Harmed Brothers
Across The Waves
(Fluff & Gravy)
★★★★

HAILING from Ludlow, Kentucky, the Americana band built around multi-instrumentalist Alex Salcido and singer songwriter Ray Vietti recorded this, their fifth album, in Cincinnati’s historic Herzog Studios. It’s the same hallowed ground where Hank Williams and bluegrass giants Flatt & Scruggs recorded in the 1940s and 1950s.

This is the band’s strongest set to date, with songs of love, loss, hopelessness and nostalgia. Stand-out tracks include the opener Skyline Over, Picture Show (with a memorable guitar riff and driving  rhythm), River Town, Where You’re Going, Born a Rotten Egg (with great swirling organ) and A Staring Contest, both focusing on estranged families and a yearning for the past.

There are some memorable songs here, an easy marriage of indie rock and americana reminiscent of the glory days of The Jayhawks, Richmond Fontaine and early Wilco. They deserve attention.

TB

La-Llamas
Bread and Jam
(birnamcd.com)
★★★★

LA-LLAMAS are an Aberdonian duo consisting of Davy Cattanach from the Scottish folk group Old Blind Dogs and Paddy Buchanan from Marionettes. Together they have produced an album that is a blend of roots and Celtic music but with a flavour of americana.

With a combination of banjo and guitar these are foot-stomping tracks providing some fun lyrics in these challenging times, but also offering serious themes. Media Schmedia can be seen as a commentary on the cynicism of current journalism and politics; and Do You Need Jesus? points out that we are all still slaves to the rich man.

It’s definitely an enjoyable sound with an outdoor festival feel. Sadly, we may not experience this again for some time. At least listening to this album can help us to imagine that we’re outside.

SJ

Fra Fra
Funeral Songs
(Glitterbeat Records)
★★★★★

THE GHANAIAN quartet Fra Fra has an astonishing vocal mastery: dramatic one minute, then sorrowful and pleading and despairing the next.

These seven funeral songs, often sung in processions and almost a capella, are delivered by a lead voice immersed in polyphonic backing vocals, where the beat is punctuated by a solitary djemba drum, clapping and the entrancingly fierce and intense two-string kologo lute.

A tiny, mouth-flute made from animal horn and akan bean-filled shakers hypnotise with their melancholic monotony of slow funerary tempos.

As befits the commemoration of death, there’s both urgency and calm — simultaneously poignant and evocative, exclamatory and soothing.

The beguiling Naked, the mourning Destiny (Orphans), despairing Helpless or the conversationalist We Must Grieve Together stand out.

“Rhythm must run through our very veins to carry life,” Fra Fra say. But it also must be a vehicle,  when called upon, for commemorating death.

Beguiling.

MB

Rory Gallagher
Check Shirt Wizard – Live In ’77
(Cadet Concept)
★★★★★

A WONDERFUL live set from the people’s guitarist, recorded during his 1977 UK winter tour.

This double CD features 20 tracks cut at sold-out gigs at Hammersmith, Brighton, Sheffield and Newcastle.

Gallagher’s treasure trove of live and studio recordings is curated by keeper of the flame Donal, who ensures his brother’s legacy is treated with respect.

He was best heard live. The fans in Brighton chant his name before he powers into tracks largely from his 1976 album Calling Card.

During the blitzkrieg of electric rock and blues he calms things down, accompanying himself on just guitar or mandolin, playing blues sides by Leadbelly and Blind Boy Fuller before relaunching his electric playing on crowd-pleasers such as William Harris’s Bullfrog Blues — on which the Newcastle crowd go nuts.

Recommended. Play loud and often.

TB

Rowan Godel
Where the Wild Horses Roam
(rowangodel.co.uk)
★★★★

This debut album from Rowan Godel consists of a combination of her own compositions and some traditional folk songs from someone who started writing songs in her late teens.

Inspired by a combination of genres including folk, jazz and classical this is an impressive and inspiring first album. There are haunting renditions of traditional songs like “The Snow it Melts the Soonest” and “The Flower Girl” whilst “Lily” still has contemporary relevance with its theme of a young girl being made homeless.

But Godel’s own songs are also worth listening to. Particularly noteworthy are “Wayfaring” which has an uplifting ragtime feel and “September Skies” with its contemporary folk theme.

Accompanied by musicians including the multi-instrumentalist Benji Kirkpatrick this is a brilliant album from a young performer who we can hope to hear more of.

SJ