Gétatchèw Mèkurya
Ethiopian Urban Modern Music Vol.5 (2023 Repress)

One-time regular at Plastic People’s influential CDr events, Henry Keen brings the broken beat and jazz soul sauce to his 2nd solo album after some 25 years of productions.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Housed in a gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeves. The Bebop crew is just trying to make a buck. This motley lot of intergalactic loners teams up to track down fugitives and turn them in for cold hard cash. Spike is a hero whose cool façade hides a dark and deadly past. The pilot Jet is a bruiser of a brute who can't wait to collect the next bounty. Faye Valentine is a femme fatale prone to breaking hearts and separating fools from their money. Along for the ride are the brilliant, but weird, hacker Ed and a super-genius Welsh Corgi named Ein. On their own, any one of them is likely to get lost in the sprawl of space, but together, they're they most entertaining gang of bounty hunters in the year 2071. Composed and performed by Yoko Kanno and the band Seatbelts, the music of Cowboy Bebop is one of the signature elements of the series. The energetic jazz-infused pieces rip and roar across the stars and are as indispensable as the crew of the Bebop themselves.

The concept behind the debut album by Neapolitan producer Paolo Petrella, (also known for Fratelli Malibu, SuperMegaFuckinMachine, and Nu Genea's live band bass player) is both straightforward and unparalleled. It involves re-imagining Renato Carosone's iconic hits infused with the vibrant essence of Cumbia. An original and fresh perspective of the history of Napoli, re-thinking traditions while blending cultures, like an imaginary colony of South Americans living in Napoli’s fishermen neighborhood of Santa Lucia.Cumbia Luciana sounds like the manifestation of a dream, as the poem on the liner notes recites: “It's 3pm in the afternoon, the sea is calm and there are some clouds in the sky from time to time the sounds of mopeds can be heard in the street. A boy is in his bedroom and out of boredom keeps time by tapping his fingers on the bed frame.He leaves the house for a walk keeping the sea on his side. Rumor has it that ten days ago immigrants arrived from Peru,the boy walks and listens it's Sunday, day of celebration, it's 3.30pm the boy walks and listens he is interrupted by a whole new sound, never heard before from a window of a ground floor house men are playing, the boy stands under that window for a while”