Category: classic review
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mos def – black on both sides (1999)
Prince’s wild overpromising on what the year 1999 might hold had given way to stark outlooks of either hope or destruction. After deaths on the East and West coasts, hip-hop was embarking on an ego-led, bustling bling age. Between two fractious eras, Mos Def collated everything he saw and experienced in the capricious world and […]
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lijadu sisters – danger (1976)
Watching the Lijadu Sisters in an interview is like observing two parts of the same brain popping off with thoughts: “If I’m in the kitchen singing a song, and I’m walking towards the bathroom, I hear her singing exactly the same thing”. The death of Kehinde Lijadu in 2019 signalled the physical end of a […]
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kiko dinucci – rastilho (2020)
Volatile and probing, Rastilho flew out of Mais Um Records like a rusty harpoon. Dinucci interacts with power in two ways: to honour forces such as Oxosi (the spirit associated with hunting, forests, animals) or to honour those felled by political might. Further on side one, alongside the traditional opener ‘Exu Odara,’ we hear the […]
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jake thackray – la-di-dah (1991-compilation)
On first listen, Jake Thackray’s music might seem like pure embellishment, mawkish even. The Yorkeshireman was tall, lean, and looked like a more robust Dean Martin. With his fashionably unfashionable flair, he appears into view as though a national treasure. Then comes the voice: lugubrious, rising like the Dales, and quieting into a mist. Finally, […]
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monoton – monotonprodukt 02 (1980)
In 1980, a young Austrian named Konrad Becker accentuated electronic capability amidst the tonal constraints of ‘Western music’. A year later, he acted in Das Boot. Becker is now a lecturer, among many, many other things. A single lecture of his will cast most mainline documentaries to the realm of the rudimentary. Monotonprodukt 02 conveys […]
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