Juno Recommends International November 2021

Review: The high class Melodies International reissue label co-run by Floating Points and Elliot Bernard is back with the seance in its Melodies Record Club series. This time it is blistering club DJ Ben UFO who gets his pick after Four Tet had his go earlier in the year. The two tunes he pick have long been staples in his set either though on the surface of it neither are typical club tunes. They have never before been available on vinyl for that reason but we're glad they are now. 'Drums' is off Laurie Spiegel's 1980 experimental album The Expanding Universe and is all oscillating synths and computer generated percussion while Olof Dreijer from the Swedish band the Knife offers 'Echoes From Mamori' on the flip, a more tropical and whimsical cut of new age licked house made from arpeggios and frog samples.

Review: Originally pressed (on a limited run) in 2013, LA Latin funk troupe Boogaloo Assassins have reissued these two spellbinding cover versions again due to public demand. Still on a highly limited run, both cuts need to be in your collection: Dawn Penn's "No No No" gets a strict samba switch with lavish percussion and consistent vocal harmonies throughout while Sonny Henry's "Evil Ways" (best known from its Santana cover) gets the dreamy instrumental treatment where the horns and glocks do the narrating over a tight bed of wood blocks, shakers and liquid Rhodes. Killer stuff and Juno is one of the few stores outside of USA which is carrying the 45. Don't Sleep !

Review: Paul Murphy's commitment to reissuing obscure, hard-to-find and sought-after Latin jazz albums is impressive. The latest high-quality album to get the treatment (courtesy of his excellent Jazz Room label) is Tata Vasquez & His Orchestra's 1979 set Ecstasy, a glorious New York fusion of salsa, Latin jazz, boogaloo and funk most famous for the two-part 'Suite Gauracho' - a piano-sporting, flute-laden affair that has variously become a favourite of both Balearic and nu-jazz DJs. Both versions are wonderful, but there's plenty of other highlights across the album, including a string of ultra-percussive affairs that have long been favourites of the jazz-dancers who flock to hear Murphy DJ.

Review: Heroic Nigerian drummer Tony Allen put out this landmark album in 1984, but the sounds bare all the hallmarks of his best 70s material. The grooves are super chunky and many say the title track here is one of Allen's best ever tunes. It has a punchy hook and political sentiment that really resonates while the rest of the tunes are not too shabby either. There wired up with electronics next to the trumpets, drums and percussion and have a super cool Celluloid Electric Africa vibe as a result. A regal and dub version is included of that title track meaning this reissue won't hang around for long.

Review: Archeo love a good archive story, not least when it comes from the annals of Italian studio history. Here is one such story featuring Manrico Mologni and Nicola Calgari, who collaborated around 1990 on a series of rich, accomplished recordings with a highly musical, multi-instrumental backbone and the swoon of chanson in its heart. Due to Manrico's serious illness, these recordings were buried on a DAT and forgotten for 30 years, only to be recalled, recovered from DAT and given their chance in the sunshine. It's very much in line with Archeo's tastes - lush, dreamy pop with a Balearic tint, lovingly mastered and presented with the serious collectors in mind.

Review: Following the success of their first collaborative album, 2017's Curao, Will 'Quantic' Holland and Colombian "folkloric" singer-songwriter India Gongora have once more joined forces for a second joint full-length. Designed as a musical exploration of "the nostalgia of impossible love", the set's uniquely eclectic, widescreen sound joins the dots between the traditional styles of Colombia's pacific coast, cumbia, rock, string-drenched South American ballads and the kind of hard-to-pigeonhole, musically intricate productions that were once the preserve of Rotary Connection's Charles Stepney. It's a terrific album all told, with Holland conjuring up genuine musical magic and Gongora delivering some of the most stunning sounding vocals of her career.

Review: Ubbo Gronewold and Tobi Kirsch are back with a second compilation of intercontinental rhythms after the success of the first one not so long ago. This one carries on where that one left off, but with the added emphasis of focussing on other European regions and including different countries than those from Vol. 1. A super broad spectrum of sound is covered as the mission goes on to connect music across borders and boundaries from Africa to Europe. There are newcomers, well known names, and a whole wealth of great jams and all of them rich in the musical traditions of Africa.

Review: Archeo love a good archive story, not least when it comes from the annals of Italian studio history. Here is one such story featuring Manrico Mologni and Nicola Calgari, who collaborated around 1990 on a series of rich, accomplished recordings with a highly musical, multi-instrumental backbone and the swoon of chanson in its heart. Due to Manrico's serious illness, these recordings were buried on a DAT and forgotten for 30 years, only to be recalled, recovered from DAT and given their chance in the sunshine. It's very much in line with Archeo's tastes - lush, dreamy pop with a Balearic tint, lovingly mastered and presented with the serious collectors in mind.

Review: La Munai Records is an independent record label and shop from Jakarta who bring the sounds of the far East to your decks with this fiery 7" from The Panturas and Sundancer. It is The Panturas who open up with an intension wall of sound made from busy percussion, heavy rock guitars and vicars lyrical deliveries. There is an exotic sense of high speed 60s funk in the grooves, too, that races you along at one hundred miles hour. On the flip is Sundancer's 'Dedare Tanjung' which also has an uptempo sense of funk to it, like it could have been used in the soundtrack to one of Kill Bill's gorier scenes.

Review: Dialogo Records continues to explore the vast back catalogue of Italian soundtrack and library music specialist Piero Umiliani, a composer famed for combining his love of jazz with all manner of global musical styles. First issued on his own Omicron label in 1975, Polinesia saw Umiliani and his band of talented session musicians give their updated, mid-1970s take on the exotica sound first made famous by Martin Denny. It's a hugely evocative and entertaining listen, with Umiliani's compositions making extensive use of lilting pedal steel, sweaty percussion, spacey analogue synthesizers, cheery chants, toe-tapping rhythms, easy listening orchestral arrangements and post-funk grooves. It's quirky and eccentric of course, but also hugely alluring and brilliantly performed.

Review: Italian singer Loredana Berte is seen as one of the pop and rock music icons in her homeland. She has had props from the likes of Rolling Stone and for a while was married to famous Swedish tennis player Bjorn Borg. Her greatest accolade is this album from 1979: its fusion of reggae, pop and rock is truly unique. Retro future synths tie up each tune while the live drums tumbled stutter. Her own acrobatic vocals light up each track as the moods range from slow and funky like 'Folle Citta' to more sentimental and lovestruck like on 'Dedicato.'