september 2025

80s bristolian band animal magic are 100% responsible for my fresh credo: post punk is jazz funk too!! getting the t-shirts made as we speak, not that i’m the first to claim this. i think for some reason this song really illuminated for me thread of how we get from my long time love of fire engines and gang of four and maximum joy and lizzy mercier descloux and bush tetras to the linga sound of it all. get it right is nuts: the sleazy low slung bass, the distortion on the horns, extremely confronting. i think animal magic were only active for a year or two but they managed a bunch of john peel appearances in that time and i totally see why. been diving into the more general output of their label, recreational records, a perfect mix of funk, dub, highlife and punk releases. what more could you actually want??

chyke martins is an incredible young woodwind player from lagos. you’re gonna wanna see this. the whole thing is worth it but if you need to be speedy i’d recommend going to 4:45 and just really taking in the freakin alto sax work for the last 2 minutes. damn!!

right?! the bass as well, from mayowa afolabi, is not shying away from attention either. this train, spain, is from their recent album africanus. decent also!

boom bapped has really got me full of immense anticipation for makaya mccraven’s new ep coming out at the end of october on international anthem, with theon cross no less!! such a theon head.

went to sicily with my parents. gorge. i shazammed this in a gelato shop in syracuse while we were sitting exhausted from a difficult day of, err, getting on a train and then having a tuktuk tour of about nineteen different churches before eating pizza rossa for lunch. tiring stuff. adriano celentano is the all time second highest selling artist in italy who reportedly introduced rock and roll to the country. here he’s on more of a disco kick, natch.

gorgeous chilled sunday morning jazzy dub 💚

this is so fucking good. the album, also titled ancestros futuros, is the third instalment in cochemea’s exploration of how his art, as a woodwind player, entwines with his family history and ancestral line as someone of with indigenous american (yaqui) roots. the way he coaxes the sax into that almost screaming tone from around 2:40. so controlled and yet so relentless! ugh!

i have heard, patrice! i’ve heard many times before. but after a week with only very select musical accompaniment in catania, listening to this through noise cancelled airpods in the king’s cross leon while i waited for my train back home was so warm and luscious, it was like hearing it again for the first time.

it is possible i am issiaka dembele’s biggest fan. idk. i just can’t get enough of what he’s doing with the balafon!! i play tounga pretty much any time i’m in charge of a dancefloor. balapop’s got an irresistible sparse electronic beat behind it. issiaka dembele, come to brazil.

speaking of come to brazil, on to one of the greatest album covers of all time. the man is bevmaxxing to such an incredible degree.

puts that tweet to shame. just three liquids babes??? have you considered seven??

anyway it’s also a brazilian boogie classic, clearly influenced by his time in LA and in fact this particular track was co-written with leon ware. fancy.

i have a new radio show! it’s called sound service station which is of course the premier petrol stop off point on the south road out of lerwick. thanks to shetland for having so many places called ‘sound’, it makes for such fruitful riffing.

sound service station will go out monthly on kitchen radio. the first episode is now available to listen back on mixcloud; i dig into some italian bits and bobs (pre-italo disco, homemade synth jazz, nu funk) after my lovely week spent in sicily and then play some highlights from this playlist etc etc.

catch me djing in one busy weekend:

• at the grub x hagglers halloween party on friday 31st october! planning an hour full of spooky-ass funk. get ur tickets now.

• an as yet not announced event on saturday 1st november. exciting! stay tuned!