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Raveena; smooth, cross-cultural blending
New album: Eclectic, striking mainstream label debut LP for the 27-year-old American pop artist Raveena Aurora who mixes rhythms and more from her Sikh Indian heritage with traits of R&B, soul, funk, 00s trip-hop and ambient electronica
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Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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Mario Batkovic: taking the accordion to new places on Introspectio
New album: A mesmeric, magical fusion of boundary-pushing electronica, saxophone and organ by the Swiss virtuoso solo accordion player born in Bosnia now based in Bristol, with guests including saxophonist Colin Stetson
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From the cover of Parcels’ new album Day/Night
New album: Released in last month by the Australia-Berlin electrofunk/disco quintet, a superbly catchy package of sounds, styles and danceability based on a 24-hour concept across a truly diverse 19 tracks
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Island of Noise cover
New album: Released only as a deluxe double vinyl box set with a 36-page booklet and second instrumental companion LP titled Island Of Silence, this fascinatingly experimental album by Jack Cooper is inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest
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Houeida Hedfi’s debut album Fleuves De L’Âme
New album: A gorgeous, entrancing debut by the Tunisian percussionist joined by fellow violin player Radhi Chaouali and Palestinian bouzouk player Jalal Nader in a brilliant fusion of North African, Middle Eastern and western styles to evoke the voices of rivers
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Darkly beautiful: Damon Albarn’s new album
New album: The frontman of many bands from Blur to Gorillaz returns with a new solo album suffused with slow beautiful, tender melancholy, falling piano chord progressions, jazz elements, electronica, gentle beats and wistful images
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The Solution is Restless
New album: Joan Wasser and her long-time collaborator’s brilliant, beautiful, dark, and perfectly paced blend of funk-afro-jazz with vocals, bass, piano, strings, horns, and stored sessions from the great departed afrobeat drum pioneer
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Marta Del Grandi’s debut album Until We Fossilize
New album: This delicate, beautiful debut by the Italian singer from Milan with a jazz background infuses her songs with folk and classical and eastern elements in an LP inspired by the Greek myth of Amethyst who defies the patriarchy
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Talk Memory by BADBADNOTGOOD
New album: Mind-bending, mesmeric and complex but also accessible sixth album of jazz and prog by the band from Toronto, much via improvisation but also with a collaboration by legendary Brazilian composer Arthur Verocai
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Kit Sebastian’s second album – Melodi
New album: A magical, mesmeric second album by the London-based French and Turkish pair of Kit Martin and Merve Erdem is a unique fusion of vocals, jazz, funk, psych, featuring zithers, harpsichords, congas, bongos, bulbul tarang, balalaikas, organs, and saxophone
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New album: A smooth, sophisticated silky and intimate fourth LP by the New Zealand-Australian multi-instrumentalist, high-voiced singer, producer, and songwriter that gradually moves from a soul and R&B to increasingly ethereal and experimental
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Lady Blackbird’s debut album
New album: Exquisite, slow, elegant jazz and soul in this beautiful debut by singer Marley Munroe, who has smoky power and control reminiscent of Nina Simone, in an 11-track album including seven covers, including, upright bass and Miles Davis’s pianist Deron Johnson
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Little Simz returns with her fabulous fourth album
New album: London’s Simbiatu Ajikawo returns with her fourth album, a triumph of intelligent, tough-attitude socio-political lyrics and charisma, backed with epic orchestral soundtrack with old friend and longtime producer Inflo Sault), hopefully to propel her into world stardom
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Bendik Giske
New album: An extraordinary second album by the classically trained Norwegian saxophonist, who undermines the instrument’s showy jazz cliches by employing contact microphones around his tenor to amplify noisy fingers clicking against the keys and keypads for a new world of sound
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Ishmael Ensemble
New album: Excellent, evocatively fluid follow-up to 2019’s A State of Flow by the Bristol band of Pete Cunningham and co whose mix of harp, saxophone, upright bass, vocals, percussion and more create a mesmeric mix of electronica, folk and jazz
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Leon Bridges: Gold-Diggers Sound
New album: Delicate soul mixed with R&B, Afrobeat, late-night jazz and even a dash of country come in this third LP by the 32-year-old singer, songwriter and record producer, filled with heartbreak and hope stemming from events of the past year
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L’Rain’s second album - Fatigue
New album: This second album by the Brooklyn-born multi-instrumentalist and singer Taja Cheek is an entrancing mix of keyboards, synths, and haunting vocals, a woozily wonderful and unique style of dream-like delicacy
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The third album by Hiatus Kaiyote
New album: This wonderful third album by the Melbourne band is a free-flowing beauty - like a butterfly garden of jazz, soul as well as Brazilian influences from time spent with veteran composer Arthur Verocai and Amazonian indigenous Varinawa communities
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