HAILU MERGIA - Yegojam Marnesh / Yegle Nesh (Awesome Tapes From Africa) Very Limited bonus 7” (100 copies only). Comes in a plain white paper sleeve. 2 Extra tracks from first new album in 15 years. Original compositions. Features diverse facets of Mergia’s performances. This bonus 7” of extra tracks are a sonic complement to Hailu Mergia’s new album. Where the album scales angular heights between modern jazz and Ethiopian harmonies, these two tracks explore the heavier side of Mergia’s trio work with drummer Tony Buck and Bassist Mike Majkowski. The band has toured the world together over the last few years following Mergia’s reissuing some of his classic recordings via Awesome Tapes From Africa.
ONRA - Chinoiseries (Label Rouge) Comentários: Brilliantly odd instrumental hip hop album here from Onra, compiled and constructed around vintage Vietnamese pop records picked up in flea markets on a trip to the far east. 32 short tracks make up "Chinoiseries", each of them clocking in at the 1 or 2 minute mark and delivering a tight selection of beats that somehow bring to mind J Dilla, Rza, Madlib, Moondog, MF Doom and the Sublime Frequencies label rolled into one beautifully incoherent package. Having a ravenous appetite for the "Radio Transmission" style beloved of the aforementioned Sublime Frequencies crew, we might be perfectly primed for this sort of thing, but while the dusty exotica, folk and plastic pop of the source material here could so easily have ended up sounding like the sterile plunderphonic coffee table beats that typified so much instrumental hip hop in the late 90's, Onra manages to harness the mystifying magic of the original material and
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