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5 days ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
It’s this personal dimension, often more buried in electronic/experimental music, which defines ‘Homeland’ and makes it stand out. Manchester’s I Am Fya’s new audio-visual album ‘Homeland’ is a project that’s been evolving for some time. She swaggered into the electronic, avant-pop arena with the punchy ‘A Womxn’ debut in 2019, a dark dub, twitchy glitch, post-mod RnB drill down into socio-sexual dynamics.
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1 week ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
‘Ma Gitala’, a set which sees the partnership staying true to their joyfully raw banjo-band sound, all stomping beats and crisp tunes, but also packing in new thrills. Obviously no-one has told the irrepressible Madalitso Band about the third album wobble.
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2 weeks ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
Too Small To Be So High’ delivers a series of emotional stories in the most open and sincere way, songs presented live and in the moment. Katuktu Collective/Cruel Nature Recordings/God Unknown Records–8.9Trying to keep track of Canadian experimental guitarist and composer Aidan Baker’s recorded output since his first release in 2000 is an almost impossible challenge.
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2 weeks ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
‘Laini Tani’ emerges as an album that’s singular and wilfully unique, the forging of evocative vocals, Arabic timbres, electro-acoustic vibrancy, avant-garde perspectives into a body of emotionally complex experimental pop. One Little Independent Records–9.0Where is Egyptian-born, Montreal-based producer, vocalist, composer, Nadah El Shazly likely to be heading with her second solo album ‘Laini Tani’ (out now on One Little Independent)?
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3 weeks ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
Now two years on we have ‘Beech’ with Strange still reflective, looking back at her travels, contemplating home and delivering her most flowing, mesmeric set so far.
April Records
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8.9
When an artist settles into their groove, over time the spark in their music can dim.
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1 month ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
‘An 424’ is an album rammed with personalities. It’s about people in real places rather than just painterly responses to landscapes. So let’s get philosophical. In the mid-fifties Guy Debord developed the idea of ‘Psychogeography’, the influence a place has on its inhabitants, their attitudes, values and how they go about their day to day.
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1 month ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
Kosmische undertones seep into the trio’s psyche alongside raga, early music drones and La Monte Young slow music but these influences merge and mingle to feed the album’s singularity. We Are Busy Bodies / Black Sweat Records–8.9If ever there was a singer/song-writer laureate being bandied about then surely James Yorkston would be one of the names in the frame.
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1 month ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
Soul scouring gothic Americana, acoustic songs powered by the same ingrained melodic strength and natural integrity which has been at the core of all his work. With last year taken up with a triptych of expansive Harvest Man albums released to coincide with each new moon, the irrepressible post metal pioneer Steve Von Till might have been expected to take a sabbatical and re-charge, but no.
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1 month ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
‘Land’s End Eternal’ opens out onto a vast plain of music, something you gaze upon, wonder with and see beyond. Saxophonist/composer Cole Pulice often draws on metaphors to describe their alluring electro-acoustic music. For the 2021 solo debut ‘Gloam’ they suggested the music mirrored shifting patterns of a twisting kaleidoscope whereas the follow up ‘Scry’ was closer to gazing at a stained-glass crystal ball from different angles.
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1 month ago | 
backseatmafia.com | John Parry
'A voluminous, unabridged double album of soul-jazz seeking excellence where layers of electronica, soundtrack grandeur, smooth funk and even post rock shadows converge'. Even if you’ve picked up on any of singer-songwriter/pianist Arjuna Oakes’s previous offerings, it’s unlikely you would have predicted the scale and ambition of his debut album ‘While I’m Distracted’. Not that the New Zealander’s earlier EP’s lacked flare or impact.
