Music from the Concrete Bunker: April 2021

A quick roundup of short reviews from Concrete Islands HQ, with releases from International Anthem, Soma, Ghost Box, Strut and Jazzland

In an attempt not to be crushed under the mental weight of my current review pile, I siphoned off some choice releases for examination. So here are a handful of short reviews that cross genre boundaries and cover a fair bit of ground as a result.

Electric Jalaba – El Hal / The Feeling (Strut)

Take Maleem Mahmoud Ghania’s The Trance of Seven Colors, replace Pharoah Sanders with a Juno synthesiser and head for your nearest globally-leaning dancefloor. If you’re lucky this might land you in the space occupied by El Hal / The Feeling, wherein singer and guimbri player Simo Lagnawi leads Electric Jalaba through a dubbed-out suite of outsider disco meets Gnawa. Prepare to be spirited away.

Quail + AISHA – Sunna EP (Soma)

The Sunna EP is where synaptic connections are disrupted by bone-rattling techno emissions from the Sub Club’s Animal Farm ressies Quail + AISHA. Perception altered, the body becomes an infinite dancefloor. Think Innerspace reworked by William Gibson, where miniaturised rave cosmonauts journey through a Covid vaccination needle to discover heavy sounds for a brighter future.

Tortusa – Bre (Jazzland)

Field recordings and found sound textures grown into organic inner-soundscapes and sometimes-jazz out of Norway. Exists somewhere in the unknown universe alongside Angelo Badalamenti’s Fire Walk With Me score as reconfigured by Floating Points and Pierre Bastien.

Beautify Junkyards & Belbury Poly – Painting Box (Ghost Box)

The record plays. Thoughts loosen, their intricate wonders blossom about the room. Afternoon levitation; dreaming in the rain; conversations with well dressed animals; tea sipped outside the pages of the book inside the story. For the Jim Jupp-produced Incredible String Band cover by Beautify Junkyards and Belbury Poly is a living and breathing imagination machine.

Carlos Niño & Friends – More Energy Fields, Current (International Anthem)

A collaborative deep dive into unconscious waters by Carlos Niño and fellow Los Angeles instrumentalists, More Energy Fields, Current is music that is in tune with the universe. Listeners must not expect the sounds to wash over them however, but should instead be prepared to submerge in pursuit of enlightenment. Ambient and New Age flow, bubbling beats, third-eye-opening electronics, and spiritual jazz leanings come together to form an ever-shifting entity with depths to spare. In other words, high vibrations for lucid dreamers.

That’s it from the concrete bunker for now. Stay safe out there folks.