Moonbeam Levels

Hello pod people,How’s it all going? Summer is almost here in the UK, as is another political circus and a World Cup. What a time.So … I’ve been thinking about the hip-hop instrumental and 2000s’ beat culture, in particular. The spark being Flying Lotus first album 1983, which was released exactly two decades ago. That’s mad. I remember picking up the record on my first trip to NYC and thinking music would never be the same. The way I heard hip-hop would never be the same.It’s also been 20 years since Jay Dee/J Dilla passed away, just three days after the release of his momentous mixtape Donuts.This is more than a coincidence. For one thing, Lotus was interning at record Label Stones Throw around the time of Dilla’s final days and recalls dropping off a cheque at his house. Though saddened by how frail this 32-year-old legend had become, seeing all his gear lit up and Dilla still so committed to creation galvanised the young artist to get to work.I was a rookie reviews editor and writer at Straight No Chaser in the 2000s, a starchart for “interplanetary sounds, ancient to future”. It was my job to seek connections between generations and genres. It was clear that Lotus and his contemporaries, both in LA and elsewhere, were part of a lineage. The torch was being passed. Leaving Records’ Matthewdavid said as much in All Ears, Gus Sutherland’s documentary about the LA scene in 2013. “When [Donuts] came out, it was like a hit in the face. A call to action. We will not let this sound die.”In truth, Dilla had been going ‘out there’ for several years prior – embracing synths, techno, the wildest samples and odd time signatures (check Dan Charnas’ book on how he reinvented rhythm). Thinking back to Slum Village, the ’97 mix of ‘Players’ hit different, as did the raw dynamics of ‘Raise it Up’, which I used to skip on Fantastic vol 2 in my neo/smooth era!His debut studio album Welcome 2 Detroit in 2001 featured the Kraftwerkian ‘Big Booty Express’. Later came Ruff Draft and the new wave-y ‘Nothing Like This’. Common’s Electric Circus bewildered many of us when it dropped in 2002. Dilla was an executive producer on that, programming and playing on several tracks. Today, it’s widely acknowledged as what it always was: an epochal vision of what hip-hop can be. Chaotic yet liberating.This music was eons away from his work with the likes of A Tribe Called Quest and The Pharcyde, and Soulquarian collaborations with Erykah Badu and Bilal. Today, you can hear traces in releases on Lotus’ label Brainfeeder, Leaving Records, LuckyMe, Ghostly and many others.Sa-Ra deserve recognition for their experimentation, crashlanding with ‘Glorious’ and freaking the beat as early as 2004 with remixes like this for DJ Mitsu. Another pioneer is Dabrye, whose ‘Game Over’ had Dilla guesting on the mic and sounded like an enormous stargate smashing open.At their best, productions from this era were more than wonky wormholes or glitchy portals. More than sub-busting, circuit-melting departures from the sparse boom-clap, boom-bap of the 90s.Though it was thrilling to get blasted by these retro-future sonics in the club, the music that stayed with me had a more elusive quality to it, resonating far beyond the nostalgia of 8-bit frequencies that hooked a whole generation of avid gamers. It had nuance, intricacy and texture. It built a world to inhabit, conjured tension and release. Far more compelling than today’s immensely popular ‘lofi beats’, or “Starbuck music” as Lotus likes to call it.In a recent interview with Hearing Things’ Dylan Greene, he described the boundlessness of the LA scene back then. “It felt like we had so much potential to the way we were turning beats away from just rappers and crafting a producer world. I was curious to see how far we could take it.”“Dilla really opened up the possibilities of what could be done with samples,” he adds. “For so long, people were so fixated on getting a two or four-bar loop out of a sample, where he’d get little pieces of a thing and make it sound like it was a four-bar loop.”Dilla set the trajectory and gave the next generation of producers confidence to take centre stage, to be the headliner. Soon, beat culture would become “part of the fabric of pop culture” according to historian and author Laurent Fintoni. Did you know that Paul White produced for a young Charli XCX? Or that Bullion wrote one of my favourite songs of recent years with Carly Rae Jepsen?Anyway, I thought it would be fun to go back – back to the future. So here is a beat tape time capsule of some of my favourite MC-free transmissions from around 2006 to 2010. The rules are simple. No MCs. No guest vocalists. No interruptions.It’s compiled in the spirit of latter-day Dilla and where he was taking hip-hop: deep into the realms of electronic music. Though if you ask Dabrye, that’s where it’s been since the beginning.This sound convergence reached its zenith, arguably, in an East London car park during two consecutive summers. Look at those bills.By 2009, you had the likes of Lotus and Pursuit Grooves releasing on Pinch’s Bristol label Tectonic. United in bass.Ok, it’s your turn. Please reach me [at]amarofpatel on IG or in the Substack comments with memories, favourites, thoughts… I’d love to know whose influence you see where in modern music.Look out for part two, where I’ll be in conversation with one of the artists I featured.Otherwise catch me for the usual runnings on Sister Midnight FM, 26 May and 23 June from 2-4pm GMT.Stay cool. Stay close.And turn it up!A*****FLYING LOTUS – Fall in Love (c2006)FLYING LOTUS – 1983 [Brainfeeder] (2006) 3m 20s(FYI, FlyLo’s Dilla’s Still Here mix on Dublab in 2006)DIMLITE – In Groups To The Hydrandd (Album Edit) [Sonar Kollektiv] (2005) 7m 30s2TALL – Distant Shadows [The Content Label] (2008) 11m 50sHUDSON MOHAWKE – Fuse [Warp] (2009) 15m 30s(Hudson’s Heeters vol 1 also very influential in the heyday of Myspace)MIKE SLOTT – Snow Birds (2009) [Lucky Me] (2009) 18m 25sBULLION – Are You The One? [One-Handed Music] (2009) 21m 30sPAUL WHITE – unreleased beat (c2007) 24m 10sAMMONCONTACT – Infinity of Rhythm (Instrumental) [Ninja Tune] (2004) 26m 30sTAKE – In Every Way You Can [Poo-Bah] (2006) 30m 30sRAS G & THE AFRIKAN SPACE PROGRAM – El Saturn Day [Poobah] (2010) 33m 15sRAS G – Power of Thought [Poobah] (2005) 36m 00sKNXWLEDGE – Dryice (2011) 38m 05sMUHSINAH – Gogh [Rock Slinger Incorporated] (2009) 40m 10s(Tip: the full vocal version is one of my favourite songs of the era.)FLYAMSAM – The Offbeat [Ghostly International] (2009) 40m 40sDORIAN CONCEPT – Define Soft [Earstroke] (2006) 44m 00sDAK – Frthbnghtsthtnvrhppnd [Leaving Records] (2009) 47m 30sDABRYE – That’s What’s Up (instrumental) [Ghostly International] (2006) 49m 50sHARMONIC 313 – Köln [Warp] (2008) 53m 40sAZYMUTH – Melô Dos Dois Bicudos (Harmonic 313 remix) [Far Out] (2007) 57m 15sPURSUIT GROOVES – Healing Secrets (2006) 1h 01m 15sPAUL WHITE – Marshen Signals [One-Handed Music] (2010) 1h 04 50sWAAJEED – Tetris (2009) 1h 06m 35sMNDSGN – Trance Dance (featuring Devonwho) [Klipmode] (2009) 1h 09m 55sTHE BIG PAYBACK (BYRON THE AQUARIUS & ONRA) – Cosmic Travelling [Rush Hour] (2007) 1h 12m 10sFull project / BackstoryKID SUBLIME – I’m Back [Rush Hour] (2007) 1h 17m 10sGEORGIA ANN MULDROW – Frames (instrumental) [Stones Throw] (2006) 1h 20m 45s(My interview with GAM for Straight No Chaser in 2006. Possibly her first cover feature.)GEORGIA ANN MULDROW – Pad Control [Mello Music Group] (2010) 1h 22m 35sDR WHO DAT? – Deep Blaque [Viberian Experience] (2006) 1h 24m 05sSA-RA CREATIVE PARTNERS – Timeless Continuum [Plug Research] (2006) 1h 29m 30sSHAPE OF BROAD MINDS – Viberian Sun [Lex] (2007) 1h 31m 40sFLYING LOTUS – Satelllliiiiiiiiteee [Warp) (2010) 1h 33m 40sFLYING LOTUS – Glendale Galleria [Tectonic] (2009) 1h 37m 20sBLACKPOCKET – STA Simonez [Exit] (2007) 1h 40m 10sBEAT SPACEK – Alone in Da Sun [Ninja Tune] (2007) 1h 42 05sBARON ZEN – Burn Rubber (Dam Funk remix instrumental) [Stones Throw] (2007) 1h 47m 50sTOKIMONSTA – Lucid Waking [Young Art] (2010) 1h 52m 30sBULLION – Crazy Over You [One-Handed Music] (2010) 1h 55m 40sMR DIBIASE – Keep On Runnin [Fat City] (2010) 1h 58m 20sOHBLIV – Send it On Down [Thrash Flow] (2009) 2h 00m 45sDANNY BREAKS – inginging [Droppin’ Science] (2014) 2h 4m 00s^Go deeper^* A Beat Happening with Laurent Fintoni and Kutmah (whose Sacred Geometry was a landmark mix in 2009)* Bedroom Beats & B-Sides: Instrumental Hip-hop and Electronic Music at the Turn of the Century by Laurent Fintoni* How Flying Lotus Redefined What Instrumental Hip-Hop Could Sound Like* All Ears, a documentary by Gus Sutherland (dakim clip here)* Dublab’s Secondhand Sureshots featuring Ras G, Daedalus and Nobody* Beat Culture & the SP-404 (Roland short)* Mass Appeal: Rhythm Roulette (start with Paul White and Dibiase)* Questlove Show with Georgia Ann Muldrow* BTS Radio archive (shout out to Andrew Meza) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Hello,How are you feeling? As I write this little covering note, Lewisham is bathing in sunshine and the plants are about to bloom. My dog can roam in the park without his snood and I don’t have to whine (as much) about the daily clean-up, particularly those ears that swipe up all the street gunk like extra-large flannels. Finchy is a loveable rogue but he is work. The tracksuit bottoms are about to come off – by popular demand – and the light is beginning to charge my cells. You see, this is why the changing seasons are so important. I haven’t managed to submit to the quirks of each one but I do get a buzz from seeing the back of winter! All this is to say that hope is in the air, which is a distant memory to any Tottenham fan. The plan is to channel some of this extra energy into more spontaneous and frequent writing on here, especially given the dearth of freelance opportunities. In case you missed it, this reflection on Chadwick Boseman’s play Deep Azure was a decent warm-up. As was this trip to The Weight of Being, an exhibition that explores how mental health shapes creative expression. The painter and teacher John Wilson McCracken caught my attention. I have another story lined up about my local area, gentrification and the importance of holding on to the best of a place. To the music… Twice in one month? Confusing, I know. This is what happens when you are scheduled to broadcast every fourth Tuesday. What can I say? Take advantage. It’s a double-shot of a show.I am still defiant in my commitment to making life online a little more genuine and convivial, so please write back with your favourite moments, or to share whatever good news has come your way. Back at the end of April with a guest 🤞🏾Want to come on? Message me. I’m very keen to speak to SE London dwellers. The artists, activists, writers, community builders and late bloomers. If you like talking about music, even better. Stay close…Amar*****MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO – Papillon [Universal Music Jazz France]Having completed the last show featuring the tribute to the late great engineer Bob Power, I dug into more of his work and realised that not only had he helped make Peace Beyond Passion with Meshell Ndegeocello, he was also in the studio for jazz excursion The Spirit Music Jamia: The Dance of the Infidel in 2005. ‘Papillon’ features Kenny Garrett on soprano sax and Federico González Peña on keyboards. Spellbinding.GREGORY UHLMANN – Imprint [International Anthem] 11m 40sAnother month, another selection from Chicago’s International Anthem records, stewards of contemporary, forward-thinking jazz music. You may have encountered Gregory Uhlmann before as co-leader of the fiery SML, who have featured on Moonbeam Levels. Or in a trio with saxophonist Josh Johnson and bassist Sam Wilkes. His solo debut Extra Stars is full of harmonically rich and meditative compositions like ‘Imprint’, with Uhlmann trying to coax unusual sounds from stringed and other instruments. Alabaster Deplume and Anna Butterss are among the guests dropping in.BY.ALEXANDER – Bloom in Paris (featuring Charles Bukowski) [Blue Note] 14m 25sThe music of By.Alexander, aka Alex Da Kid, passed me by for a minute. Perhaps it was the fashion dimension to the project. But then I started reading all the comments from fans on IG. All that appreciation got me curious, so I paid closer attention. He has a very particular conception of jazz that he’s not afraid to disrupt or agitate through sonic experimentation. Compositions like ‘Bloom in Paris’ (featuring infamous poet Charles Bukowski) access some netherland in the mind. Well, they do for me. The expanded edition of Memories For Sale… is coming in April and his choice of guests says a lot about how wide open he is musically – Theo Coker, Rapsody and JD Reid. MIKIO MASUDA – Moon Stone [Nippin Columbia Japan] 19m 15sFor his second Nippon Columbia compilation, Tokyo archivist and artist Kunimond Takiguchi turns his attention to jazz funk. Expect to hear the full spectrum, from orchestral and baroque movements to the nighttime frisson of city pop and fusion for the fleet-footed. Names such as Eri Ohno and Jiro Inagaki will be familiar to all you diggers out there. The stargazer in me can’t look past Mikio Masuda’s ‘Moon Stone’, which recalls Lonnie Liston Smith at his most seductive. Out to Portal records for putting me on to lots of Japanese gold via Instagram. Follow them for more like this.MYSTIC JUNGLE – The Memory (featuring Roxana) [Stix] 24m 00sOff volume six of Disco Reggae, this is Periodica Records founder Mystic Jungle with Roxana doing a cover of Roy Ayers Ubiquity’s classic groove ‘The Memory’ (source LP Vibrations is tremendous, featuring genius Edwin Birdsong and bassist William Allen). I actually wanted to play a new track called ‘Mountain River’ but you’ll have to wait until May for that one to emerge on 7” from a very remote corner of Napoli.KJADE – Virginia is for the Lovers 28m 20sI always fall for a lackadaisical flow over a thick bass groove, the artist rappin’ about how she “died three times and came back just to write this”. KJade first popped into my world through Spotify’s begrudgingly useful Discover Weekly – ‘Sankofa’ off debut album The Sound That Trees Make. On Everything I Love, she’s in a bit more of a hurry to unload feelings and indulge desires, bluntly stating on ’Virginia is for the Lovers’, “I need you to be all over me”. Oh, FYI KJade wants you to play her music in your local café. “OMG, I love it when people tell me that,” she tweeted last month. You know what to do.ANNE CLARK – Poem for a Nuclear Romance [Dark Entries] 31m 40sImpending doom never felt so good. Anne Clark was a punk and poet who hooked up with Psychic TV affiliate David Harrow to make two albums: Changing Places in 1983 and Joined Up Writing the following year. From the latter, various versions of ‘Our Darkness’ comprise the bulk of this reissue, and you could imagine the early house and techno pioneers across the pond flipping out over the machine pulse and wanting some of that arpeggiated intensity in their tracks. But ‘Poem for a Nuclear Romance’ speaks to my plaintive heart in this moment.TIOMBÉ LOCKHART – Strange Things [Mothertongue] 36m 20sLA-based Tiombé has been a name to check for since I discovered her on the PPP album back in the early 2000s and this rare song produced by Bilal, which you can find on her unofficial debut album, The Aquarius Years. She always glides and tip-toes gracefully over heavy beats and this dub rhythm, courtesy of frequent collaborator Georgia Ann Muldrow, is no exception. Coming Forth By Day came out last year and deserves wider attention.VIRGO – The Art Roots [Mukatsuku] 40m 00sNick Weston from Mukatsuku Records has collected four classic ambient techno tracks from Form@ records on one 12” for your pleasure. I adore music like this at the moment. It calms my mind and helps me to find a flow state. Virgo is the alias of Yasutaka Sato, who adopted the moniker from 1996 to 2004 before shelving it for 20 years. With its icicle melody and robotic oscillations, ‘The Art Roots’ creates a strange yet addictive sensation. For more ambient experimental business out of Japan, listen to this NTS Special on Japan’s CD-era electronic underground.SHY ONE – Nort Wess [Touching Bass] 44m 15sShy’s new album is rightly getting lots of attention for its adept fusion of great Black British music from the past few decades, from soundsystem and street soul to grimey, UK funky and broken. I still remember getting very excited about early tunes such as ‘Waterfalls’ but if you look on Bandcamp, you’ll find unreleased material from as far back as 2010 (see below). It’s not easy to make a project feel this cohesive, particularly with such a wide array of guests dropping in (George Riley, Steve Spacek, James Massiah). But Mali is just that. Bass, Mids, Tops co-author Joe Muggs traced the roots of this record really well in his piece about lineages of sound.SHY ONE – Cardiophobia 47m 40sA precocious offering from a collection of previously unreleased beats and bleeps made between 2010 and 2011. 2562 – Stranger Than Paradise [Tectonic] 51m 25sDave Huismans (aka 2562) was one of the names I would check for regularly at the dawn of what became known as bass music around 2006-7. His releases on Tectonic quietly helped to inform the sonic architecture of this nebulous and ephemeral sound, a mutation of dubstep and techno among other influences. This scurrying monster is on an EP of previously unreleased music from that period, which Dave discovered on an old studio PC.SECOND STOREY – Viper Returns [Frustrated Funk] 56m 30sOff the Descend to Ascend 12 by Berlin-based UK producer Alec Storey, this is reminiscent of that golden period of Hessle Audio releases in the early 2010s. Made to fry bassbins.JULION DE’ANGELO – NOWnormal [Mother Tongue] 1h 01m 00sJulion’s been steadily building a rep for punchy and raw productions like ‘NOWnormal’ from his debut EP, as well as dynamite edits like this. There aren’t enough percussive trax out there these days, or afro dubs in the vein of classic MAW. The kind that DJs could use to work the crowd over with, before reeling us in with an irresistible vocal.KEVAN ADRIAN – Give It Up (Grusane Dub) [Rush Hour] 1h 08m 10sThere’s a great story behind this joyous floorfiller, made by Nigerian-born Kevan Frost while working as a session man in 90’s London. In place of pay, he would be given free time to record and the self-taught musician knocked out ‘Give It Up’ in just two days using C-Lab on his old Atari, the Akai S-1000 sampler and a few instruments. Decades later, a friend of Chicago DJ Mark Grusane found a copy in the Africa Record Centre in Brooklyn and handed it to him. Mark recognised its magic and added his touch on two road-tested versions.THOSE GUYS – Tonite (Coloured Girls Mix) [MCA] 1h 13m 20sFinally, this classic Basement Boys production from 1991 is getting a reissue. You won’t find many more boomin’ house records that play with time as boldly. ‘Tonite’ is so well constructed, from girls’ chitchat about givin’ it up in a Buick and doin’ it in the dark, to the intoxicating piano-led middle section – lights down low, sweat drippin’ off the walls of Shelter or Zanzibar – into that sensual drop-down where everyone can feel just a little bit sexier. K-HAND – On a Journey [Acacia] 1h 22m 05sOut to my old Straight No Chaser colleague Andy Thomas for puttin’ plenty respect on the names of Detroit’s house/techno queens in his Bandcamp article. Among them, Kelli Hand was someone I’ve looked up to for many years for her staunch independence (Acacia was her label, started in 1990) and work ethic. Gone too soon. It felt right to put a little K-Hand in the air so let’s go straight to my favourite from her debut album. Jungle pressure by way of Innerzone Orchestra. As deep and heavy as anything ever released “from a well-known place” as Kelli put it, regardless of gender. Don’t ignore The Art of Music, though, particularly ‘Messenger’ and ‘2 Low Key (12-inch mix)’ off Fantasy. Mixmag gave us their top 20 a while back, which collates her signature swing and how she could move your body in all types of ways.XYLITOL – Falling [Planet Mu] 1h 26m 10sTaken from Catherine Backhouse’s second album on Planet Mu as Xylitol, ‘Falling’ brings the propulsive force of jungle together with the Kosmische drift and Mitteleuropean melancholy of influences such as minimal synth composer Miaux. It was the Sarajevo-born Belgian musician’s directness and lightness of touch that Backhouse felt a deep kinship with on this project. A paradox she sought to emulate on Blumenfantasie. Mission accomplished.URBAN JUNGLE – Back in the Days (Sexy Ladys Mix) [Jungle Mania] 1h 32m 05sI was having a jungle Sunday, as you do, and this one bubbled up to the surface. Originally made as a dubplate for the ravers in 1994 by a young Mark Ryder, using a vocal sample from Lil Louis’ ‘The Luv U Wanted’, this is the definition of a roller.FREEDOM – Can’t You See [Miles Away] 1h 38m 35sUplifting soul boogie bangers like ‘Can’t You See’ are truly priceless. Made by a group who met at Jackson State University in 1975, their 1977 debut single has a killer arrangement and may have been inspired by The Emotions. They would go on to wow crowds across the American South and record four albums on Malaco records. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

KWES – Orange Blue [Warp]I consider one-time Lewisham resident Kwes a singer-songwriter at the root, because that’s how I first met him in 2009 with the track ‘Tissues’. On more recent Warp releases he’s been experimenting with an ever-widening palette of noises, creating these little idiosyncratic universes of sound, tuff but sweet. ‘LGOYH’, last heard on his Rye Lane Soundtrack a few years ago, showed his earnest lyricism could still tug on the heartstrings in a very British way. But instrumental snippets like ‘Wave at Boats’ hinted at where he might go next – ambience with a featherlight touch. Latest album Kinds offers nine colour-coded variations on a theme, for all the synesthesiasts out there.DUVAL TIMOTHY & CJ MIRRA – Passing On [Carrying Colour] 4m 50sThe kind of score that has you rushing to the cinema for full audio-visual immersion, this is Duval Timothy and CJ Mirra with ‘Passing On’ from Akinola Davis Jr’s debut feature film My Father’s Shadow, which was written by his brother Wale. I’ve yet to watch it but it’ll happen. Always interested in complex father-son stories. Aren’t they always? Set over a single day in Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, Akin’s debut follows an estranged father guiding his two young sons across the city as political unrest threatens their journey home.SULAH JORDAN – Leaves in the Trees [Test Pressing Arts] 11m 00sHappy to see that Oakland artist Sulah Jordan’s EP Lady Bug from 2023 is getting the vinyl treatment on Test Pressing’s offshoot label Test Pressing Arts. I included ‘Musee Melancolique’ in a previous edition of Moonbeam Levels after being seduced by the iridescent beauty of that debut, which transported me to some cove shaded by tropical leaves. So why not this track next?FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO & VITTOR SANTOS ORQUESTRA – Trenzinho Imaginário [Far Out] 15m 05sVILA is the very classy collaboration between guitarist Fabiano Do Nascimento and trombonist/arranger Vittor Santos, who leads a 16-piece orchestra here to breathtaking heights. It’s inspired by the former’s upbringing in a Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood called Catete and exudes a beguiling mix of grandeur and homeliness. The swirling strings of melody, to me, represent the best of big band Brazil.TILAYE GEBRE & THE DAHLAK BAND – Tizita [Muzikawi/Mr Bongo] 18m 00sThe product of one-take live sessions that Tilaye would conduct with his band at the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa in the 70s, ‘Tizita’ is the saxophonist, composer and arranger at his most winsome and romantic. The lo-fi haziness of the recording lends a little eeriness to proceedings. Check the extensive liner notes for more about his path in music.BRENT FAIYAZ – Butterflies [ISO Supremacy/UnitedMasters] 27m 35sBrent is one of those artists from the post-MySpace era that I would discover almost daily on blogs and YouTube. I think it was the Black Child EP that hipped me to his use of heavy atmospherics in the pleasure centre of R&B and rap. He’s now ascended to the realm of pop superstar (man’s got more than five million IG followers), making tracks such as ‘Pure Fantasy’, which, as one commenter wrote, has him “fully in his MJ bag”. Others are in disbelief that the same guy who wrote ‘Wish You Well’ is now falling in love with superwomen on ‘Butterflies’, which I had to include for that audacious intro alone. There’s a whole team that produced this track, but the project is executive produced by Mr Instant Vintage, Raphael Saadiq.CHARLOTTE DAY WILSON – Selfish [XL] 31m 30sLet’s stay in song mode with something from Patchwork, the latest self-produced album from Charlotte Day Wilson, who just has this undeniable gift for aching melodies. All it took was one guest spot on a BADBADNOTGOOD record in 2016 to know she’s a ride-or-die artist. An old soul with an alluring tone. Remember, she made Van and Earn catch feelings again in Atlanta. Tempos shift across this project but the writing is rock-solid, from the refined slow jam ‘If Only’ to the doo-doodoo two-step that propels ‘Selfish’ and then evaporates.GENA – Douwannabwithastar [Lex] 35m 10sThe Pleasure is Yours, the full-length remote collab between Liv.e and Karriem Riggins, is out now. As satisfying and uplifting a collection of boomin’ ditties as you will hear this year. There are styles for miles, so it’s almost impossible to pin down. All I will add is that it’s soul-deep top to bottom and sounds like Karriem’s workin’ the kit right next to you. God Energy, Naturally Amazing, uh huh. Fun fact: the project name is inspired by Tisha Campbell’s character in the TV show Martin. “Specifically how Martin Lawrence would say Gina [Payne’s] name”, Liv.e told Hearing Things. “That’s how these songs make me feel.”** Tribute to Bob Power **A TRIBE CALLED QUEST – Rhythm (Devoted to the Art of Moving Butts instrumental) [Not on Label] 38m 00sWe recently lost one of the great mixing engineers of the past 30 years plus. You may not know the name but you will definitely have savoured Bob Power’s work if you were raised on a similar diet to me. First up, A Tribe Called Quest’s Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. On the back of the former, he’s given the nickname “LOCKED”. No doubt, a nod to his powers of precision, focus and the ability to get sh*t with finesse.Then there was De La Soul’s Bulhoone Mindstate and De La Soul is Dead, The Roots’ Illadelph Half Life and Things Fall Apart, Baduizm, Brown Sugar, Dee-lite, Meshell Ndegeocello’s Comfort Woman and Peace Beyond Passion, Common’s Like Water For Chocolate, Ozomatli’s Embrace The Chaos, India Arie’s Acoustic Soul…His mastery of dynamic range, pitch, timbre, clarity and frequency balance ensured the artist’s sonic vision was coming through just as clearly as their musical one. And he also knew when to get out of the way. Let’s hear from man himself and then run through a few underappreciated moments of his greatness. Plug in your best phones or speakers and listen closely.For more on Bob, check this interview where he gives a very telling anecdote about recording Chaka Khan. Chip Fu, who worked with Bob on Fu-schnickens’s first Jive album, breaks down what made him so good in the studio here.A TRIBE CALLED QUEST – The Chase Pt 2 [Jive] 42m 40s“Bob Power, you there? Adjust the bass and treble, make my s**t sound clear!”A TRIBE CALLED QUEST – Same Ol’ Thing [Jive] 46m 01sTHE ROOTS – Distortion to Static [Geffen] 50m 05s“Redder than pork, comin’ to New York to mix, It’s Bob Power with the snares and kicks to fix.”MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO – Andromedia & The Milky Way [Maverick] 53m 58s** tribute ends **BRIAN AUGER’S OBLIVION EXPRESS – Total Eclipse [Strut] 75m 55sIt’s been a while since I’ve listened to anything Brian Auger-related. In my early loop-digging days I would stumble on some of his 60’s releases with Julie Driscoll and Trinity. In the next decade, the British organist and composer strode confidently into the age of jazz rock, forming the Oblivion Express. Strut has reissued their self-titled offering and on there is one of the group’s finest grooves (‘Total Eclipse’), which we’re gonna ride for the full 11 minutes to appreciate the rhythm section of bassist Barry Dean and drummer Robbie McIntosh. Though guitarist Jim Mullen is all up in this track, saying don’t forget about me.ROLAND BRIVAL – Créole Gypsy [Soundway] 1h 09 20sOsunlade introduced me to the resonant timbre of Roland Brival with his Yoruba Soul remix of ‘Sakitayo’ in 2004. The Martinique poet and painter’s Jon Lucien x Leon Thomas incantations instantly put me in a trance and hinted at a rich musical heritage. And so it was that in 1980 he made a spiritual jazz opus about his Créole identity, love and colonial injustices that became a private press obscurity. Until now…HUNEE – The World [Rush Hour] 1h 17m 05sI think it was Rush Hour who served me this flashback to 2015 Hunee. I knew of his reputation as a marathon DJ and selector at the time, but I skipped over his album Hunch Music. Listening more than ten years after its release, there is a nagging sense of unease or introspection in tracks like ‘Bruises’ and this one, which samples June Tyson on Sun Ra’s ‘After The End of The World’, beckoning us into whatever comes next. A track for precarious times, right.SHACKLETON – The Dream in Fragments [AD93] 1h 23m 00sAfter dropping one of Shackleton’s many versions of Saagara in the last show, I couldn’t resist giving the trance master a little more airtime with this, ‘The Soul of Everything’, taken from AD93 album Euphoria Bound. The PR blurb for it chooses some very apt words to describe its mood … or should that be mode? Dissolution, erasure, disintegration… Yes, something is being shed or cast off in this set and it all feels necessary. To make way for renewal.NONDI – Tree Festival [Planet Mu] 1h 27m 15sComing out of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Nondi makes these very raw but melodic rhythm trax that draw from juke, footwork and IDM among other sources. Think Aphex, Actress, Rashad… Ringing, rumbling, clattering into your ears and down the spine, it’s a full-body experience. ‘Tree Festival’ is my eargasm of choice. Check out Nondi’s first Planet Mu release Flood City Trax as well.DJ FOOD – Peace (Harvey’s 30 Something Mix [Mr Bongo] 1h 30m 25sA standout track from Luke Una’s third volume of É Soul Cultura. A psychedelic coolout track that I haven’t heard since picking up Harvey’s Late Night Sessions mix years ago. Always open to some gratuitous shredding, especially when it pops up in unexpected places. Luke’s been playing some proper parties around the world recently, restoring my faith in the floor. Go dance with him.WILLIE COLÓN – Set Fire To Me (Inferno Dub) [A&M] 1h 38m 25sPure Afro-Cuban sounds rarely make an appearance on Moonbeam Levels. We should rectify that because I do love heavy brass sections and tuff percussion. When it comes to 70’s Nuyorican artists, the Fania All-Stars still wear the crown because watching Our Latin Thing was my initiation. Chief among them was the late trombonist, producer and singer-songwriter Willie Colón, a fierce proponent of the Puerto Rican community, who wasn’t afraid to challenge the status quo. I could have chosen something from his Rubén Blades collaboration Siembra, the biggest salsa record of all time. Or barrio badboy groove ‘Calle Luna Calle Sol’. But the first track I associate with him is the outlier ‘Set Fire To Me’ – an NYC Loft classic from 1986. An eyes-closed, deep-in-the-dance masterpiece.** Tribute to Ebo Taylor ** 1h 48m 15sWhere to begin with someone who has been a standard bearer of Ghanaian music for more than half a century? The late Ebo Taylor took the music of ‘King of Highlife’ ET Mensah and traditional Fante rhythms into dynamic new territory with his jazz-informed conception of afrobeat and funk.Miles Davis and John Coltrane were big influences on those horn lines that became hallmarks of his arrangements for the Essiebons label. But then so was the propulsive sound of James Brown who was making intense, emphatic statements in black music using the minor mode. (This Afropop Worldwide radio special on the deep funk connection in Ghana is very informative and entertaining.)Taylor attended Eric Gilder School of Music in 60’s London, where a certain Fela Kuti, studying at Trinity College, would reason with him on harmony. At the same time, he would be studying Dvorak’s “From the New World” Symphony No 9 in detail. Taylor wanted to both honour the past and stride ahead, drawing inspiration from warrior songs, nursery rhymes and political events… To do it his way, like Fela insisted they should as West Africans.As recently as 2024, he was in the studio recording his 16th album with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammed. This tribute, published by their management company Art Don’t Sleep, paints a tender portrait of “Uncle Ebo” – a warm, humble, dignified elder who was still “commanding stages at 89”. ‘Love & Death’ is foundational music and often the first pick from his catalogue. Here are some other favourites to close the show.EBO TAYLOR – Amponsah [Strut] 1h 49 43sI always get swept up by the brassy fanfare on this closing cut from Taylor’s self-titled debut album in 1977. A more muscular and full-blooded incarnation of highlife, bolstered by a resounding chant. I wish I knew who was in the band.EBO TAYLOR & THE PELIKANS – Egya Edu [Strut] 1h 56m 35sAn all-too-brief collaboration with a 12-piece band from the Cape Coast region of Ghana. It’s one of the first to feature Taylor on vocals (in a mixture of English and Fante) but it’s his guitar playing that adds a little extra electricity to this number.GYEDU-BLAY AMBOLLEY – Fa No Dem Ara [Strut] 2h 03m 45sAnother Essiebons classic with Ambolley purveying his James Brown-inflected Simigwa sound with Taylor on co-writing and producing duties. The horn arrangements, in particular, are infectious and life-giving.EBO TAYLOR & THE SWEET BEANS – Odofo Nyi Akyiri Biara [Analog Africa] 2h 08m 20sTaylor was Essiebions in-house arranger and producer for several years, hooking up here with one of the label’s deadliest backing bands for a fiery 10 minutes of afro-funk. I think that’s Pat Thomas on vocals.EBO TAYLOR – Peace on Earth [Strut] 2h 18m 55sThere’s something both ominous and reassuring about this simmering standout from Twer Nyame in 1978, with its undulating bassline and pitter-pattering percussion. Taylor meandering all over the session as the chorus repeats in come-what-may fashion, “Don’t know where we’re going…” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

After easing into the new year with a home-based episode of Moonbeam Levels, the plan was to come to the Sister Midnight FM studio with a special guest in tow for February. One of Lewisham’s greatest success stories who has ventured far and wide in his pursuit of a sound to call his own. But it wasn’t to be, so I had to pivot at the last minute.I’ve been listening to a lot of Jill Scott recently as a new album is here. In particular, one disc of live music that I have obsessed over since its release in 2001. It got me thinking about how often I prefer to reach for live renditions of songs. Wondering which artists can hold a crowd better than others, or seeing who’s most willing to deviate from studio recordings.I thought, why not share a couple of hours’ worth of the ones I always come back to? Unfortunately, most of my live tracks are on CD, which we don’t use in the studio, so this is more of a limited sampler culled from whatever I could get my hands on quickly. The focus is soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, which are at the core of my being.But, hey, I am a man of many moods and sounds. Why not make this a series? Expect me to stretch out much further in volume two – from BB King, Gil Scott Heron and Erykah Badu to Toumani Diabate, Majid Bekkas and Hermeto Pascoal.For now, enjoy this testimony to some awe-inspiring moments of human connection.And do send me some of your favourites, either to [at]amarofpatel on IG or in the comments section.Back on SMFM on 3 March at 2pm GMT. Subscribers, I’ll get the show out to you soon after. Laters,Amar*****JACO PASTORIUS – Jaco’s Solo/SlangA mesmeric solo performance from the maverick genius while on stage at Santa Barbara County Bowl during Joni Mitchell’s Shadows & Light tour in 1979. Jaco was her musical director at the time, wrestling with a few demons and prone to tyrannical episodes from what I’ve read. But who else could coax these vibrations from their fretless bass? Space Echo working overtime here.DWELE – Red Clay Revisited (live at Maida Vale, 2004)Recorded at Maida Vale in Summer 2003 for Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide show in front of a studio audience, this after-dark broadcast remains one of the greatest radio sessions I’ve ever experienced ‘live’. Just a magical atmosphere, a star ascending, beguiling his audience, musicianship to the fore. This one is a riff on Freddie Hubbard’s original composition ‘Red Clay’, featuring the great Roy Hargrove on trumpet who is dearly missed (and let me tell you why). Dwele G we need you back, sir. Something’s off in the world.PRINCE – 17 Days (piano and a mic version) [NPG/Warner]You can’t do a live music special and not include the artist who raised the bar highest night after night on copious tours. And then did it again just hours later at one of his infamous afterparties. Sometimes, all it took was a bluesy solo guitar interlude to send me. Most of my top selections are on CD so I’ve cheated a little bit and included this studio rendition. But it might as well be live because the way he gives goosebumps by summoning such visceral energy on his own, drip-feeding the track as he kick-drums on the piano, is all about being the moment.ARETHA FRANKLIN – Wholy Holy [Atlantic]On Amazing Grace, the biggest-selling gospel record of all time, we hear the Queen of Soul taking it back to her church roots as she stirs the crowd to shiver-inducing, hand-to-the-heavens glory, backed by Cornell Dupree on guitar, Chuck Rainey on bass, Bernard Purdie on drums and the 30-strong Southern California Community Choir led by mentor Reverend James Cleveland. Their cover of ‘Wholy Holy’ (from Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On) is where the concert became a truly transcendent for me. There is perhaps no greater testament to the power of faith and communion through voice than this landmark. You must watch the documentary.DONNY HATHAWAY – I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know (live, 1971) [Atlantic]My favourite vocalist of all time. The intensity and sincerity Donny Hathaway could radiate through his voice struck me from day one. These Songs For You Live, a compilation of performances that flows like one concert, is one of his first albums I bought. I wrote about the other one here. Such a wonderful group of musicians backing him including Phil Upchurch and Cornell Dupree again on guitar, Willie Weeks on bass and Fred White (later of Earth, Wind & Fire) on drums.BILL WITHERS – Grandma’s Hands (live at Carnegie Hall, 1973) [Sussex]This is the other live album I played obsessively as a young adult, always beaming at the rapport Uncle Bill had with his audience. That alone was worth listening to on repeat. But when you throw in storytelling like the intro to Grandma’s Hands’, his simply yet profound lyricism and the quality of the musicianship around him (most evident on a rousing ‘Harlem/Cold Baloney’), this set will stand the test of time and be aspired to by artists for generations to come.D’ANGELO & THE SOULTRONICS – One Mo Gin (live in LA, 2000)From day one, D’s integrity was sky-high. The intention was to make art. For the son and grandson of Pentecostal preachers, catching the spirit and moving people were birthright and vocation – from the pulpit side to the stage. Just listen to this extended rendition of ‘One Mo Gin’ from 2000 in LA. The artist in deep meditation as a vocalist, pouring over each line, oblivious to the lustfulness of the crowd just inches away from him. The way this Voodoo staple is extended and indulged in is pure ecstasy. I wrote a lengthy reflection and created a words-and-music special for my man here.MAXWELL – This Woman’s Work (live on MTV Unplugged, 1997) [Columbia]Originally written by Kate Bush for her album The Sensual World and used before that in a film called She’s Having A Baby, ‘This Woman’s Work’ was turned inside out by Maxwell and his band on MTV Unplugged in 1997. It’s surely in the running for best cover of all time. Bush imagined a man waiting for his wife to give birth and “being left on their own in a big way”. He has to grow up suddenly and release he could be a better human being. Maxwell expands the emotional scope of the track to place the man in an even more vulnerable place, perhaps contemplating the loss of someone important, and trying to convey their pain through a fragile falsetto. The concert is a fun watch. An urban hang suite, for real. So is this on BET.ODETTA – All The Pretty Horses (live at Carnegie Hall, 1960) [Vanguard]Odetta, who was a big inspiration to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in the 50s, forged her own path in American folk music by incorporating blues and spirituals into her repertoire. And by delivering deeply resounding performances like this captivating set at Carnegie Hall. Gently propelled by bassist Bill Lee (father of Spike), you can hear the unique timbre of her voice stretching across aisles, ocean and ages. Sombre yet dignified, this live version of ‘All The Pretty Horses’ from the Odetta at the Gate of Horn LP featured on the first edition of my Singers, Songs & Strings series from around 2010.PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC – Mothership Connection/Swing Down Sweet Chariot (live on P-Funk Earth Tour, Houston Summit, 1976)One of those live experiences that probably would have changed your life. Seeing The Mothership land as Glen Goins takes it to church, I’d have come out believing anything was possible. George Clinton and his Parliament Funkadelic all-stars were on a mission “to save a dying world from a funkless hell”, taking black music places it had never gone before (Sun Ra not withstanding perhaps). Extraterrestrial brothers mining outer space for that uncut funk. I could study the p-funk universe at length. The different characters, the wild fashion, Pedro Bell’s artwork and liner notes… My philosophy eternal: “free your mind and your ass will follow.” Put documentary One Nation Under A Groove on your watchlist.THE ROOTS – Proceed (Live at Elysée Montmatre, Paris, 1999) [MCA]My expectations of hip-hop were transformed by this all-the-way-live recording of The Roots in Paris. The musicality and jazz chops each instrumentalist brought to beats and rhymes. I’d never heard anything like it before. Bass vibrating in the pit of the stomach, keys making the skin tingle, hi-hats fizzing through the air… The showstopper on here is probably Jill Scott’s performance on ‘You Got Me’, but it’s the arrangement and raw sonics of ‘Proceed’ that still get be buzzing.JILL SCOTT – Love Rain Suite (live at DAR Constitution Hall, Washington, 2001) [Hidden Beach]Speaking of which… My inspiration for doing this show can still go toe to toe with anyone on any stage. I am a huge fan of her first album and was fortunate to see her perform it live in London a couple of years ago. Poet first, singer second, she puts so much of herself into each song, each performance, that’s why the bond is so strong. And Jill loves flipping originals. My first experience of that was her 826+ double CD. This version of secret track ‘Love Rain’, recorded in Washington during her Words & Sounds tour, just soars and soars, then twists and turns into a whole other movement. You better get in line for those To Whom This May Concern gig tickets.MAZE – You (live at Saenger Theatre, New Orleans, 1980) [Capitol]Singing along to Uncle Frankie – I have many soul uncs – feels so good. This tune is among the band’s most cherished and has soundtracked many a cookout and kitchen bop since its debut in 1977. Maze had a special relationship with New Orleans, going on to headline the Essence Fest there for more than 20 years and closing the Congo Square stage at Jazz Fest for 11 consecutive years. When it came time to record a live album in 1980, there was only one city in the running. ‘You’ is a contrite declaration of love for someone who loves you “through thick and thin” and, as such, will always be a meaningful one to get down to. Watch the full live performance for Ron Smith’s joyous solo. And check Maze forerunners Raw Soul doing their “whole thing” on YouTube (thanks, Questlove).BEMBE SEGUE – Mother of the Future (live at Jazz Café, London, 2006) [Expansion]Bembe has been an in-demand vocalist and writer for several producers who pioneered what became known as the West London sound, spanning broken beat to nu-jazz and bruk. The likes of IG Culture, Dego, Bugz in the Attic and Mark De Clive-Lowe. A spiritual jazz classic originally written byCarlos Garnett and supercharged byNorman Connors, ‘Mother of the Future’ was dialled up even more by Bembe and an unknown group of musicians, becoming a tuff workout for the dancers to come alive to. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Ello!One twelfth of 2026 has already gone 🤯 How’s it been for you? January is always what I would call hard yards. Slowly thawing from Christmas, chasing the light and straining to act on all those resolutions – though rituals are far more important, ok.Getting back to basics is my way of trying to ease in. Part of that is renewing my commitment to these monthly radio sessions. The gradual process of accumulating from all around, then weaving it all into something that feels cohesive and satisfying to you, even if some of it isn’t your vibe. As a writer, sharing acquired knowledge is a big part of everything I do. So, I will always have notes and links to set you off on your own voyage of discovery.This year I would like to have more open-ended conversations ‘on air’ with neighbours and strangers, dipping into the culture and events that provoked the art that fascinates me. Previous guests include musician Sam Akpro and FOLK author Stef Macbeth. I’d like to talk more about the struggle to make work amid all the financial precarity, inner and outer conflict that exists. Is that you? Come on the show. Perhaps, you’ll see more of me, quite literally. I hear algorithms like faces, and people seem more interested in being talked to than written for (when it comes to phone browsing, anyway). None of this tiny mic-holding affectation, however. It’s called a lapel for a reason 🤦🏽‍♂️This episode is an amalgam. A bit of housecleaning as I open the window and let out a winter surplus of sounds. Inevitable tributes to more departed heroes, plus a look over the horizon to upcoming releases and rising stars. As I explain on the broadcast, the February edition is a special gift for the subscribers, recorded at home on a primitive mixer, so apologies for the erratic levels. If you would like to listen live, I’ll be back on Sister Midnight FM every four weeks from 3 February 2-4pm (GMT). Working on a special guest…Please let me know you’re into and what you would like to hear more of, either in the comments or by sending a message [at]amarofpatel through socials. Equally, if you subscribed to read more of what I am not providing enough of … well … I am a people pleaser. Try me.As a board member, I am duty-bound to mention that we have opened the next round of crowdfunding to renovate an old working man’s club in central Catford, my neighbourhood in South East London, and turn it into the borough’s first community-owned music venue.Shares are available from £25 and give you a real stake in how things are run. If you believe in solidarity, equity, mutual benefit and giving venues a legitimate chance of long-term security, community ownership is the way ahead. And guess what: invest before 31 March and your amount will be match-funded by both Music Venue Trust and Co-operatives UK's Energy Efficiency Sharematch, turning our £25,000 target into £75,000. Join a community of more than 1,000 members and let’s kick open the doors. Stay close,Amar***YOSHIAKI OCHI – Anywhere [WRWTFWW]Ochi’s 1990 album Natural Sonic gets a loving reissue courtesy of WRWTFWW. A high point of so-called environmental music, created when he was in-house composer and performer for Issey Miyake. An interesting fact that hints at the artist’s elemental nature. This is a primal and deeply resonant record that offers vital breathing space. All water, wood, earth and stone. FYI, there is a Natural Sonic 2.SAAGARA – Earth, Water and the Holy Groove (Shackleton Version) [Glitterbeat][4m 50s]There are few better than Shackleton when it comes to reimagining the possibilities of percussion in electronic music. Every once in a while, I pull out my ‘Blood On My Hands’ 12”, crank it up and let the endless trance take me.Saagara asked the man from Lancashire to remix one of their tracks from 3 and he responded with his own version of the album. Now that is dedication to your craft. Shackleton also has a new album of rumbling, clattering skull disco out on AD93, called Euphoria Bound.GRACE JONES – Private Life (dub version) [Island][10m 15s]Sly and Robbie can lay claim to being the most-recorded artists in history with great confidence. Not many rhythm sections could run the gamut from Bob Marley, Junior Murvin and Chaka Demus & Pliers to The Rolling Stones, Serge Gainsbourg and Marianne Faithfull. For disco dub disciples like myself, they are perhaps most loved for their time in the Compass Point All Stars and the three genre-bending albums they recorded with the inimitable Grace Jones. This version of Chrissie Hynde’s song is bloodfire, the late drummer peppering the riddim with the rata-tat-tat. Other Sly-related releases to check out include Raiders of the Lost Dub (Black Uhuru, in particular), A Dub Experience, Riddims collection 1978-80 and Gwen Guthrie’s Larry Levan-enhanced Padlock EP (one of the best-engineered records of all time).HUGH B & THE MODERN POP EMSEMBLE – Young Donny[18m 15s]I think Hugh B and the crew performed a version of this live set from Australia on Charlie Bones’ Do You breakfast show. A lovely way to start the day. Blissful, bleached-out, guitar-laced grooves in the key of Steve Hiett and JJ Cale, made for reflecting in the sunshine. Or imagining somewhere you can. They do an energising cover of Stereolab’s ‘Brakhage’ but ‘Young Donny’ is calling to me. Fun fact: Hugh has also produced house music under the name Hubert Clarke Jr. Check this one put out by my friends Wolf Music.LISANE BAHIR – Lisané Bahir ልሳነ ባሕር [Flying Carpet][23m 00s]Fourth album in and Lisane has used analogue modular synth to summon his Ethio-jazz ancestors and transport them to a distant musical dimension. In their new context, these traditional scales feel born again. The record’s textures so tactile as they waft into the ears. The title track sounds like Tangerine Dream hooking up in the studio with Hailu Mergia.PHIL UPCHURCH – Black Gold [Cadet][29m 00s]This is probably the first track I heard that was credited to the late guitarist and composer when I was following the tributaries of Charles Stepney and The Rotary Connection’s “I Am The Black Gold of the Sun’. Dusty Groove put me on to his eponymous solo debut and said in no uncertain terms that this was a seminal recording in the history of Chicago soul, blues and rock. They weren’t wrong. Step arranged, conducted and produced this session. He also wrote ‘Black Gold’, the psychedelic seed of what would become the aforementioned anthem. Here, Upchurch was “backed by 36 pieces, including 20 strings and five voices”, as the liner notes tell us, and the result is “sheer electricity”. A quick look on Discogs reveals that Upchurch has more than 600 credits, almost 200 of which are for writing and arrangement. He co-wrote ‘Voices Inside (Everything is Everything)’, made famous by Donny Hathaway and ‘Afro Harping’ with Dorothy Ashby. The kind of prolific artist who goes underappreciated. PS If you haven’t heard this Stepney podcast I helped to make, treat yourself. I tried to get Phil involved but he was busy working on his autobiography, which I will be picking up if/when it comes.UPCHURCH & TENNYSON – Don’t I Know You [Kudu][34m 20s]A mid-tempo banger that I discovered in the early 2000s on a compilation. Keyboardist Tennyson Stephens was a perfect foil for Upchurch, who eschewed any grandstanding on the guitar in favour of a more symbiotic exchange from track to track. ‘Don’t I Know You’ recalls Curtis Mayfield and wouldn’t feel out of place on a classic Blaxploitation soundtrack. The rest of the album is strong, spritely – not-too-smooth soul jazz arranged by Bob James. It also features another version of ‘Black Gold’, which echoes the refrain of his first on that self-titled Cadet LP that Stepney produced.NAISSOO FREEFORM QUINTET – White [NooPop][37m 12s]I’ll take any chance to show a little love to musicians from Estonia, a country I have visited and toured a bit on my limited DJ excursions. Jazz heritage runs deep across different parts of the Baltic state and this set led by keys player Tõnu Naissoo is among the more expansive ones I have heard. The vibe segues from Mwandishi 70’s fusion to the astral reveries of Lonnie Liston Smith. Moog, Fender Rhodes and ARP Odyssey in full effect, with Meelis Vind’s bass clarinet adding an ear-catching counterpoint on this one. Destination out.THE CONTEMPORARY JAZZ QUINTET – Unknown Track #3 [BBE][45m 40s]A high-tension and sinuous standout from DJ Amir’s second volume of The Sound of Detroit, which shares more precious recordings from the gone-too-soon Strata label that brought us Lyman Woodard Organisation’s Saturday Night Special and Kenny Cox’s Clap Clap among other diggers’ delights. Things get very interesting halfway through here – someone must have sampled that bass riff! There’s also music from The Soulmates, Keith Boone and Fito Foster. Volume one is here in case you missed it.FLEA – A Plea [Nonesuch][54m 35s]Anyone familiar with Michael Balzary and the origins of Flea will know that there is a jazz man in him eager to burst out. He doubted he could go there but with the support of some prime exponents of the form including Deantoni Parks on drums, Anna Butterss on bass and Jeff Parker on guitar, he’s flying. The sentiment behind this rousing number is the energy I would like to carry into 2026. “Make something beautiful. I don’t care if it’s a little scrap of squiggly crayon on a paper. Make something beautiful and see somebody. Give it to somebody.” Album Sonora is on the way at the end of March.DJ HARRISON – Recycled [Stones Throw][1h 02m 15s]The Richmond producer returns with more so-good-it-could-have-been-sampled grooves, organic and effervescent. His music continues to explore the lineage of black music in a way that feels more of the moment than retrospective pastiche. New album Electrosoul lands somewhere between an eclectic mixtape and starry radio show, and was born after Devonne had sudden health issues. The experience reaffirmed something in him and ‘Recycled’ was one of the first fruits of his renewed creativity after a lengthy hospital stay. Like a good architect, he sees the big picture and knows what goes where. And who to bring in when – among them Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Yaya Bey and Kiefer and Fly Anakin.GENA – HOWWEFLOW [Lex][1h 06m 15s]Lots of buzz around this class collab between Liv.e and Karriem Riggins (sparked at Detroit Jazz Festival), and it’s justified. ‘Circlesz’ hooked me in with its finger-snapping breeziness last year but ‘HOWWEFLOW’ has the grand and intergalactic stomp that’s fit for striding into a new year. That majestic chorus reminds me of superfreaks Sa-Ra (who also have new music out). We have a whole album’s worth of this head-nod soul to look forward to. The Pleasure is Yours drops in late February.JILL SCOTT – Pressha [Blues Babe][1h 08m 44s]Jilly from Philly is everywhere – from COLORS to Camden Town – and I love it. One of those generational artists you grow with, her debut album will forever be one of my great record shop blind buys. An artist who instantly came through with such vulnerability, honesty and sensitivity, and yet someone who could fire your spirit with the promise of a new day. Poet first, singer second, her ability to tell stories and unpack emotions is eternal judging by the material I have heard on To Whom This May Concern. The chord dissonance, as she put it, is delicious on this track. The perfect platform for the artist to speak on some sh*t. Shy One’s interview with Jill is worth a listen if you’d like to know where the artist is coming from in 2026. PS Out to my 826+ crew – disc one should be in the conversation about the greatest live albums of the 21st Century.ALEX NUT – andthenitstarted (featuring James Mollison) [Eglo][1h 12m 50s]Listening to the Eglo Records boss’s impressive first EP, I can almost trace his influences after years of tuning in to his NTS and Rinse shows and probably attending the same nights at Plastic People, before we’d even met. You can hear Alex trying to respect the beat, use space evocatively and move soulfulness a little to the left. Looking forward to hearing more. In your own time.JEAN-CLAUDE PETIT – The Age of the Breaking Down [WEA][1h 17m 15s]Plucked from Favorite recordings label founder Charles Maurice’s latest compilation Endless, which gathers hard-to-find records from liminal spaces between the jazz-funk, ambient and electronic fields, Petit’s cosmic jam is a helluva ride. All the great keys sounds of the era are in the mix, from ARP Odyssey to clavinet. Quite a departure from the scores to Jean De Florette and Cyrano de Bergerec, which help make his name. Maurice’s French Disco Boogie and AOR collections are also worth a look.MAURICE POTO DUODONGO – Yelele [Editions De Lux][1h 22m 10s]The Lost Album from 1987 may have come out previously on Crammed Discs but in limited quantities. Anyway, the headline is that this is seriously fun and bursting with ideas. A synth R&B meets Congolese rumba record with a sprinkle of Wally Badarou, made after Maurice had moved to Brussels. You can hear an artist eagerly funnelling all their influences into “an unstoppable current” of a session. ““Music has no frontier,” he says. “You take what you like. Prince, Fela, Papa Wemba – there is no contradiction. It’s all part of the sound.”VOX POPULI – Alternative Fresh [Dark Entries][1h 26m 40s]Trust Dark Entries to find those weird little oddities on DIY cassette tapes of yesteryear, gathering dust in some forgotten corner of the world. Vox Populi’s members had roots in Palestine, Greece and Tehran but came together in Paris in the early 80s, melding new wave electronics, post-punk rhythm and industrial grit. The result was hypnotic, kinetic and elusive records like their sixth album, Sucre de Pastèque.HONOUR – U&Me (decemberseventeen) [PAN][1h 29m 40s]A respin for one of 2023’s standout, slow-burn albums. With Àlááfíà, the Chicago-based artist frequency-hopped through a collage of guitar drone, ambient wash, gospel, field recordings, conversation fragments, trap-y beats, rap and RnB references. The result was more than a mournful and often opaque dedication to his beloved grandmother. As the lo-fi sketches crash or vaporise into one another, they form this diasporic sound continuum that will feel compelling – transcendent, dare I say – to anyone that floats between worlds. Into Dean Blunt, Space Afrika and Mica Levi on a dark one? You need this.KEN ISHII – Endless Season [R&S][1h 34m 10s]Last year was the 30th anniversary of Jelly Tones, Ken’s pioneering album of electronic-to-ambient soundscapes that would have entranced fans of Warp’s Artifical Intelligence among many others in the mood for something other than bangin’ techno, something more abstract, after the rave. ‘Endless Season’ makes me feel like the star of my own sci-fi manga film, or perhaps that’s just the memories of Koji Morimoto’s MTV Europe award-winning video for ’Extra’ replaying in my mind.LUKID – Toy Surge [Death Is Not the End][1h 40m 30s]Whether it’s solo or as one half of Rezzett, Lukid knows how to send air participles exploding all over the place with his electrostatic frequencies. This is music built with machines but infused with the messy soul of humankind. Underloop passes from beatless, bleeping washes of sound to thudding pulsations to more frenetic out-of-body experiences. Never ordinary, always out there.YU SU – Bonita [Short Span][1h 43m 50s]Has Yu Su been staying up late? The Vancouver-to-London transplant has upped the bpms and crept closer to the dancefloor on this release. Apparently conceived to play out at festivals such as Mutek you can still hear her aptitude for texture and warmth coming through. ‘Bonita’ has the extra intimacy I crave in the dark as the tempo builds.PEVEN EVERETT & TONY TOUCH – No Wonder (Yoruba Soul Mix) [Funkbox][1h 48m 00s]Anything Peven does, I am all over it. He’s a living legend who writes, sings, plays and performs like few others. But when Osunlade applies his Yoruba Soul touch, then I move double-time to pick it up. This BBE collection is timeless, particularly his version of Roy Ayers’ ‘Searching’. Then there’s the unreleased catalogue, which I am working through. Prince’s ‘Movie Star’ is hot. Osunlade’s take on PE’s collaboration with Tony Touch is warm and uplifting, like the sun coming up on a day off.APHRODISIAC – Song of the Siren [Nu Groove][1h 53m 40s]I had to slip something in from the late Ronald ‘Rhano’ Burrell, who, along with brother Rheji, came to define the sound of late 80s’ NYC house as The Burrell Brothers on Nu Groove. A mark of real quality to check for (listen to Gerd Janson’s mix for confirmation). They brought a unique combination of sensuality, rawness and precision to their productions. Musicality also – the brothers joining their first band together at 13. Aside from solo aliases such as KATO and Equation, it was as Aphrodisiac that he made this classic. Mystical and transcendent. Did you know the brothers worked with Toni Braxton and Aaliyah? Check this interview with Lenny Fontana and beam at their longstanding integrity and an I-don’t-give-a-f*ck mentality.JAZZANOVA – That Night (featuring Vikter Duplaix) (Wahoo Remix) [JCR][1h 58m 00s]Someday I’ll have to reflect on the influence of this German supergroup on electronic music, ‘future jazz’ and myself. Their first remixes collection still sounds revolutionary from the off – a flurry of ideas beyond borders and a will to take originals someplace else. Early original productions such as ‘Fedime’s Flight’ continue to carry an ineffable aura. What to pick from the deluxe reissue of debut album In Between hmmm… This remix by Georg Levin and Dixon was my tune from back in the day and we don’t hear enough Duplaix on the mic so let’s run this one.BLAKE BAXTER – When A Thought Becomes You [Mint Condition][2h 5m 00s]Keep an eye out for Tresor reissues of classic trax from The Prince of Techno, including special EP Dream Sequence-X and his 1995 album Dream Sequence. Still unheralded for his influence. I can rarely look past this sexy number, first released on UR in 1991. Here’s Blake doin’ it live in 2019. Interesting interview here.GLENN UNDERGROUND – Sound Struck [Peacefrog][2h 10m 30s]Glenn’s classic debut album Atmosfear has its 30th anniversary this year and should be in more hands and on more decks. Thankfully, Peacefrog knows what’s up and decided to reissue it on some very smokey double vinyl. Joyous, uplifting house music rooted in the discotheque, stacked with those signature layers of keys from the Chicago OG and Strictly Jaz Unit founder.VELVIT – Testament [Exit][2h 16m 20s]Out to Simon See for sending this EP my way; always unearthing things I may have missed or never knew existed. Velvit is an alias of D&B champion dBridge, born from his “recent sonic explorations with the Elektron hardware”. Gospel house is about as close as I’ll get to ecstatic fervour. With ‘Testament’ he’s added tech-stures to the mix, which takes this kind of track into another dimension. Ok, let us pray…MU-ZIQ – Houzz 14 [Balmat][2h 21m 55s]Tucked into a mostly calm and abstract set from Plant Mu founder Mike Paradinas, recording under µ-Ziq, is this acid whirlpool of a house cut. It’s giving me the energy I need to make the hard yards in winter, with the promise of reaching euphoria in little over four minutes.HOT CARGO – What’s In It For Me? (long mix) [Still Music][2h 25m 30s]When I started getting heavily into dubby disco and boogie in the early 2000s, one mysterious record I obsessed over and relentlessly pursued was a Faze Action edit of The Jammer’s ‘Be Mine Tonight’. The man behind that project? Richie Weeks, an NYC triple threat who could write, arrange and produce dancefloor dynamite. He also performed at Studio 54 and Paradise Garage. Yeah, he was in the thick of it. This Hot Cargo track is previously unreleased and part of a third volume of tracks selected from his personal archive. This RA documentary offers a valuable insight into Richie’s career and struggles in the industry.THE STONE ROSES – Something’s Burning [Sony][2h 33m 55s]For my money, the best thing that the Roses ever recorded, perhaps apart from ‘I Wanna Be Adored’. Certainly one of dearly departed Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield’s most seductive basslines, runnin’ the Manc voodoo down at length with drummer Reni and the gang. ‘Something’s Burning’ is on the b-sides and rarities compilation Turns to Stone. If you want to get to know “Manniechester’s” favourite son a bit better, a man for whom “laughter was his number one pursuit” as bandmate and lifelong friend Ian Brown put it, listen to his and Bobby Gillespie’s eulogies. For Roses lore, try documentary Made of Stone or any podcast featuring Mani. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Season’s greetings!As I was climbing a mountain in Wales last weekend with my doggie (more on that soon), I had to miss studio day at Sister Midnight FM. Short of time and eager to offer something to counter the winter chill, I thought, why not release volume five of Singers, Songs & Strings?This is a series I started in 2010 to celebrate the bare beauty and sacred mystery of songwriting. Mostly acoustic but not always. Sometimes instrumental and occasionally veering into the electronic and ambient ether.Lots of names you will recognise here, including Jeff Buckley, PJ Harvey, Can and Sinead O’Connor. But I have also folded in some more obscure moments from the likes of Cy Timmons, Skip Prokop and Hako Yamasaki. All braided together into that signature ML odyssey. Something high-tuft for you to stretch out on. I hope it’s good to you and at least one of these tunes induces a sweet little reverie.Round and round the burning circleAll the seasons, one, two and threeAutumn comes and then the WinterSpring is born and wanders free’Milk & Honey’ – Jackson C FrankThe mathematicians among you will note that there should be four other volumes before this. If you would like them, let me know in the comments or DM me at [at] amarofpatel on IG.Back in January with a more ancient-to-future selection, but you can expect a dispatch before then. Stay close,Amar***DAVID HORRIDGE – At First Sight [Smiling C]DOROTHY CARTER – Along The River [Palto Flats] 3m 10sCY TIMMONS – Nowhere [Erewhon Music] 8m 36sMARIA RITA – Canção De Garoa [Mr Bongo] 17m 00sJEFF BUCKLEY – Opened Once [Columbia] 18m 30sHAKO YAMASAKI – Komori Uta [WRWTFWW] 21m 47sMARC RIBOT – Sobo (composed by Frantz Casseus) [Knockwurst] 25m 43sLINDA PERHACS – Parallelograms [Kapp] 29m 55sANDRE GIBSON & UNIVERSAL TOGETHERNESS BAND – Valentine Lover [Numero] 34m 09sLINDA LEWIS – It’s A Frame [Reprise] 35m 48sSKIP PROKOP – Blue Boy [NTS] 39m 21sJUST US – Just A Thought 43m 55sCHARLIE MEGIRA – Smile Now, Cry Later [Numero] 48m 40sCAN – She Brings The Rain [Spoon] 52m 28sULTRA VIOLET – How Do You Do (Children Of The Most High) [Light in the Attic] 56m 40sBO HARWOOD & JOHN CASSAVETES – No One Around To Hear It [Efficient Space] 1h 00m 55sTHE REPLACEMENTS – Sadly Beautiful [Sire] 1h 04m 13sEVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL – My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains [Blanco y Negro] 1h 07m 22sDEAN BLUNT – Woosah [Rough Trade] 1h 10m 10sTHE ROCHES – Hammond Song (featuring Robert Fripp) [Warner] 1h 13m 05sSINEAD O’CONNOR – Black Boys On Mopeds [Chrysalis] 1h 18m 30sPJ HARVEY – Beautiful Feeling (Peel Session 2000) 1h 22m 21sRY COODER – Houston in Two Seconds [Warner] 1h 26m 10sNICK HAKIM – Needy Bees (live on NPR Tiny Desk) 1h 28m 10sEDDIE FLOYD – I Will Always Have Faith In You [Stax] 1h 31m 28sJACKSON C FRANK – Milk & Honey [Antarctica Starts Here] 1h 33m 28sGUNS N ROSES – Patience [Geffen] 1h 37m 06sFRED NEILL – Faretheewell (Fred’s Tune) [Capitol] 1h 42m 54sKAREN DALTON – Are You Leaving For The Country [LITA] 1h 46m 53sFAIRPORT CONVENTION – Who Knows Where The Time Goes [Woodworm] 1h 50m 00sLOU REED – Coney Island Baby [RCA Victor] 1h 55m 00s This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Last Tuesday was heavy. Already in the quicksand of loss, I had a very physical response to the news that D’Angelo had left us. I stood in the kitchen for almost half an hour, winded, pacing around… Freshly chopped onions and garlic left to dry out as a chilling air suddenly enveloped the night and swiped my appetite.This wasn’t some melodramatic reaction to the end of a parasocial relationship. This is a man I have admired, studied, grown with (and through) over more than a quarter of a century. I was once told that things made with heart will reach the heart, which is to say that communion of that magnitude forms a significant bond that is worth grieving.I’ve bought the albums, made the T-shirt, cut out the magazine pages and put them on the wall, sung his words everywhere from Brixton Academy to my bathroom. It was fandom in full effect. Devotion.I still remember my first track. It was ‘Me & Those Dreamin’ Eyes of Mine’ on a Kiss Smooth Grooves double cassette compilation in 1996. Back then, I was in thrall to the bump and swing of RnB. The voice was immaculate, even to my novice ears, but it was all a bit too smooth and refined for me up against a Tony! Toni! Toné! ‘Let’s Get Down’ or Brownstone’s ‘If You Love Me’. If I had bothered to check the album, I would have discovered a subtle edge to the man’s music, melded with the raw essence of soul that stood out amid all the polish and posturing of the day. Ok, ‘Sh*t, Damn, Motherf*cker’ ain’t so subtle. D talkin’ about gettin’ his nine… “I weren’t no choir boy,” he would later tell us. A few years later, my uni mate Helen (aka Babs) handed me Brown Sugar. Digging in the crates by then and following the many tributaries of hip-hop that reached back to the ancestors – producers reimagining them for a new age – I was ready to receive it. The one-time MC was a child of hip-hop, among other things, lest we forget. And he carried that musicologist’s curiosity throughout his career, always striving to connect the dots. He could trace the funk back to Otis Redding, see Sly Stone as “Ray Charles on acid”, sense rock god Jimi Hendrix was a blues man at heart and hear The Meters in Marley Marl. At his audition for Jocelyn Cooper’s Midnight Songs publishing company, D’Angelo performed a Jodeci track, a gospel song and something by Miles Davis. He was 17 at the time. Trawl back far enough in his life and it all begins to make sense. D may have come from the church and gospel on the south side of Richmond, Virginia, but his musical ambitions lay on the frontier. At one point, he wanted to become a concert pianist. By the end of the 90s, I wasn’t just listening to albums … I was analysing them, ‘training’ to become a music journalist and trying to encapsulate how these sounds made me feel. The soul boy within had progressed from popular releases to lesser-appreciated ones. Let’s say a Here, My Dear after Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, or a Fulfillingness’ First Finale after Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. Ahead-of-their-time masterpieces were also in the mix, including There’s A Riot Goin’ On and Band of Gypsys. The Godfather stoked my urge for funk and a syncopated groove, an instinct fully surrendered to years after first shakin’ my moneymaker to this Sony ad. When I wore a T-shirt with the iconic label “A James Brown Production”, I meant it. Some days, I would holla or just scream in his inimitable way, just to connect to that energy where I felt so alive, uninhibited and in the moment. He led me to Prince, who burst out of the shadows of Michael Jackson – in my mind, anyway – as I began to appreciate musicianship, arrangement and synthesis more. A friend and I would scour the net for live performances, like this one from the Parade tour or this bizarre encounter that wasn’t so easy to find before social media. Or vintage Stevie taking studio recordings someplace else. I wasn’t the only one studying. Stories of the making of D’s magnum opus Voodoo are beyond fable at this point. How he, co-pilot Questlove and others would spend weeks on end in the late 90s watching tapes of their “yodas” in action, soaking up black genius before jamming through the night at Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios. A bandcamp-cum-academy environment that produced more than 70 hours of music most of us have never heard.That one I was not ready for back in 2000. Its murkiness, shifting states and the opacity of the vocals threw me off. But I was beckoned by Voodoo’s ritualistic opening and how ‘Playa Playa’ combined Roy Hargrove’s sweet horn arrangements with the gritty groove laid down by Pino Palladino and Questlove. I could feel James in ‘Chicken Grease’, with its nod to Black Caesar in the ad libs, and went nuts for Voodoo’s audacious outlier ‘Spanish Joint’ from first play. The uncompromising commitment to his craft and aesthetic was compelling. D set out to seek what his heroes sought. To allow himself to be a conduit for the spirits of the past. The recording of that album was like a three-year seance. Speaking to Vibe around the release, he cast off any concerns about sophomore jinx, instead plotting a path way into the future with the tools handed down to him. “The way he [Sam Cooke] would do his vocals, with his musicians all playing major chords … And he would just come out of nowhere in this minor key — it’s hard to put in words the effect that has on you – the chills. It’s just evolutionary… I want to be free like that.”Here’s the thing about D’Angelo and why his loss feels so devastating. He didn’t settle for emulating the sound of the masters. His inspirations were launchpads. How many of us could hear Hendrix in ‘The Root’?From day one, his integrity was sky-high. The intention was to make art. For the son and grandson of Pentecostal preachers, catching the spirit and moving people were birthright and vocation – from the pulpit side to the stage. Just listen to ‘One Mo Gin’ live in LA from 2000. Image was secondary. In that Vibe article, the writer Dream Hampton recalls D holding her hand throughout a two-hour conversation and says, “He hears what you’re saying, but what he really wants to do is feel you.” He loved giving guys a pound every 20 or 30 seconds, as DJ Premier told her. The Alchemist recently shared a hilarious weed story about that. After spending so long in the past, I was looking around for someone to step up – to take it there. He was the one. D wanted to find his own conception of black music: sensual, spiritual, dynamic, liberating. To f*ck with time and texture, forming rhythms and intonations only he could imbue. To fuse the technical ingenuity of those early 70’s soul masterpieces with the ecstatic fervour and spectacle of a Prince, p-funk or Fela Kuti stage show. He was willing to shoulder the responsibility of leadership and open himself up to scrutiny, not least through his own eyes. A God-fearing young man who dared to step out of his comfort zone behind the keys and transform himself into this carnal effigy onstage, if it could serve the music. But knowing how all that adulation and power had corrupted forbears such as Marvin Gaye. Risking possession by dark spirits that threatened to render him a false idol, torment and consume him. Speaking to GQ in 2014, D said, “There are forces going on that I don’t think a lot of motherf*ckers who make music today are aware of. The stage is our pulpit, and you can use all of that energy and that music and the lights and the colours and the sound. But you know, you’ve got to be careful.”Psalm 23:4 was D’s “creed”. tattooed on his left arm. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” In the end, his faith saw him through, which is why ‘Prayer’ from Black Messiah is one of the artist’s greatest personal triumphs. I know that you will make it to the promised land, ohBut you gotta pray, you gotta prayOh, you gotta pray for redemption, LordLord, keep me away from temptationDeliver us from evil, oh yeahAnd all this confusion around meGive me peaceI believe in loveThe mark of a great artist, to my mind, is someone who commits to growth, unwavering in the face of public expectation and industry demands. As they learn, we learn with them. And so it was with D’Angelo. His exquisite taste in covers led me to Parliament Funkadelic, Ohio Players, Curtis Mayfield deep cuts and gospel acts such as The Hawkins and The Pilgrim Jubilees. He would sprinkle source code into intros and interludes at shows. Speaking to writer Nelson George in one interview before Black Messiah dropped almost 15 years after Voodoo, he vowed to carry the torch and teach the youth. Who talks like that nowadays? Who is willing to wait, no matter how frustrated their fans become?”Who is willing to flout convention, the call for relentless consumption and instant gratification, to go away and tussle with that art until to takes the form it needs to, no matter how slow or arduous the process? To risk being ridiculed, forgotten or, worse still, hurt?Looking around, there is a distinct lack of musicians who seem willing or able to transcend their influences. Industry forces may be a big factor in the restless urge for visibility and productivity over patient craft and wilful withdrawal. But standing for something and having a higher purpose are still critical. If that’s you, we need you now.Oops. So much for writing a short covering note 🤦🏽‍♂️ I took my time, as I did with this show, in the spirit of D. So over the next four hours, I am going to present the many dimensions of a remarkable artist. It will be more thematic than chronological. Travelling back and forth feels appropriate for a star so in their own orbit. There will be demos, outtakes, covers, key studio recordings, lots of live renditions (where he did some of his greatest work) and revelations along the way. Dedicated to his family, close friends and collaborators. This is how and why D’Angelo took it there 🙏🏾 🕊️ 🖤 THE SOULTRONICS – Fall N Love (Live in LA, 2000)D’ANGELO – Africa [demo]– D on growing up in Richmond and church beginnings –– D does The Violinaires’ ‘The Upper Way’ –– D on learning to let the spirit come through you –D’ANGELO, RAPHAEL SAADIQ, ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMED, SPANKY ALFORD & QUESTLOVE – Lady (Fire outro live on Chris Rock Show, 1997)D’ANGELO & THE SOUL DISCIPLES – Don’t Let Jesus Down– D on grandmother Alberta’s encouragement –D’ANGELO – Alright [EMI]ANGIE STONE – Everyday [Arista]– On hip-hop being the nucleus and why love is gangsta –D’ANGELO – Lady (DJ Premier Remix featuring AZ) [EMI]COMMON – Ghetto Heaven (featuring D’Angelo) [MCA]GZA – Cold World featuring D’Angelo (Rza Mix)[Geffen]THE ROOTS – The Notic (featuring D’Angelo & Erykah Badu) [Dysfunctional Youth]– Questlove on ‘auditioning’ for D @ The Soul Train Awards in 1996 –– D on the funk and James Brown the foundation –D’ANGELO, QUESTLOVE & CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE – Funky Drummer (Voodoo Outtakes)D’ANGELO – Ghetto Music (Voodoo Outtakes featuring Q-Tip)D’ANGELO – Instrumental 5 (Voodoo outtakes)– D on being influenced by Prince’s influences –D’ANGELO – Playa Playa [Virgin]– Voodoo promo –D’ANGELO – The Root [Virgin]D’ANGELO – Chicken Grease [Virgin]– D on playing live and being free –D’ANGELO & THE SOULTRONICS – Feel Like Makin Love (live in Stockholm, 2000)D’ANGELO & THE VANGUARD – Ain’t That Easy / Vanguard Theme (live at North Sea Jazz Festival 2015)D’ANGELO – Can’t Hide Love (live at the Jazz Café, London, 1995) [EMI]D’ANGELO & QUESTLOVE – Woman’s Gotta Have It / The Line (live at Brooklyn Bowl, 2013)D’ANGELO – Sh*t, Damn, Motherfu*ker (live in Stockholm, 2000)– D on ‘Devil’s Pie and the cotton fields –D’ANGELO & THE SOULTRONICS – Devil’s Pie (live in Stockholm, 2000)– D on the blues thread –D’ANGELO – 1000 Deaths (demo)D’ANGELO & THE VANGUARD – I’ve Been Watching You (live at Zenith Paris, 2012)RH FACTOR – I’ll Stay [Verve]– Soul Mate interlude –RAPHAEL SAADIQ – Be Here (featuring D’Angelo) [Universal]­– D on falsetto –D’ANGELO & PRINCESS – Sometimes It Snows in April (live on Tonight with Jimmy Fallon)D’ANGELO – I’m So Glad You’re Mine/Lady (live at Jazz Café, London, 1995) [Virgin]D’ANGELO & THE VANGUARD – Really Love (live at North Sea Jazz Festival 2015)D’ANGELO & THE SOULTRONICS – One Mo Gin (live in LA, 2000)– D makes “black music”RED HOT & RIOT – Water No Get Enemy (featuring D’Angelo) [Red Hot Organization]D’ANGELO – Spanish Joint [Virgin]– D on his cave and being a one-take dudeD’ANGELO & THE VANGUARD – Prayer [RCA]– D on religion vs God –D’ANGELO & THE VANGUARD – Another Life [RCA]– D on music as a calling –D’ANGELO – Untitled (piano version live at North Sea Jazz Festival, 2012)J DILLA – So Far To Go (featuring Common & D’Angelo) [BBE]D’ANGELO & THE VANGUARD – Welcome to the Show (live on Liberation Tour 2012 in Washington) (background)BLACK MEN UNITED – U Will Know [Mercury]***Source material / Course MaterialRBMA lecture in 2014Interview with Nelson George on the funkInterview with Tavis Smiley in 2015George Whipple interview in 2000Devil’s Pie documentary directed by Carine BijlsmaVoodoo EPKQuestlove’s Okayplayer notes on the making of Voodoo (early 2000s)Author Touré has a great story about baby D’s prodigious talent”D’Angelo’s older brother Luther told me that when he was 10 and Michael (D’Angelo) was 3, Luther came home to find Michael at the piano in their house playing a real song…” Saul Williams, who wrote the liner notes for Voodoo, spotlights the late musician’s love of language”D had a sense that poets were haunted the same way he was, by spirits and voices. These were not frightening visitations, rather it was a way of communing multidimensionally.”Tour manager Alan ‘Pops’ Leeds on D’s artistic integrity and always staying true to his roots”Against the grain of bland modern R&B, D’Angelo preserved the Gospel essence of early soul music, mixing it with every other genre of Black music without ever leaving the church. I don’t care what the lyrics said, I don’t care what the song was about, I ALWAYS heard the church in there. He couldn’t help it.”Lauryn Hill, with whom D sang ‘Nothing Even Matters’, explains how he broke new ground as a Black male“Thank you for charting the course and for making space during a time when no similar space really existed. You imaged [sic] a unity of strength and sensitivity in Black manhood to a generation that only saw itself as having to be one or the other.”Inspiration George Clinton quickly gets to the essence of D’s brilliance”He didn’t just make music — he channeled the ancestors, he bent time, and he put that soul on wax like nobody else.”Hanif Abdurraqib on D’s appreciation of lineage and why art as salvation is not owed to anyone until it’s complete.”I fear for how far people have strayed from deep, thoughtful, curious and joyful engagement with art and become people who simply consume a product and then move to the next product, and I fear for this because at that rate of consumption, the person isn’t even an extension of the person who made it anymore, the person is the product.”ayan artan on the cost of nonchalance and what it takes to produce work worth loving “i had elders who sung love songs for girls like me, and writers who made me the centre even before i had the confidence to insist on it myself. who of this generation can i point to that would make my baby cousin feel the same way i did listening to really love?”Harmony Holiday contemplates his hobbling, harrowing journey through the recording industry and his destiny “And you and Prince both demanded unreasonable perfection from the body, suffered for that resonance, and were refused a future perfect in the end, taken from this purgatorial grift of a planet just when you might have been released from the tyranny of labels and contracts and left in the true messiah role to trouble their blunt saturnine standards. That’s the sparrow’s incontrovertible flight pattern, the virility of evil plans, the liberated minstrel turned minister gone rogue into quicksand.”What special memories does D’Angelo hold for you? How will you remember him? I’d love to know. Please share below. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Ello you,How’s things? I am still chasing my dog’s tail while dealing with death admin and the grief of it all. Meanwhile, Winter is coming in fast and there I am being yanked around a soggy London park at 7.30am in shorts and sodden shoes. A man at odds with the world and out of season. On Friday, I returned to Dad’s place to continue the clearout and was overwhelmed by an avalanche of food tubs, plastic bags, ancient tissues, compression stockings, mobility equipment… I can’t be the only one who stands there in such moments, paralysed by the enormity of the task ahead and wishing you could just f*ck it all off and run away.It feels like a punishment, to be honest. Then you stumble on a handwritten card to your absent father from their neighbours’ kids, saying, “We made you a rainbow for your window. We hope it makes you smile.” Or their YMCA card featuring that (rare) smile above the words “Positive Placements Mentor” (the first I’d heard of it). Or a note with the word “Antidisestablishmentarianism” scrawled on it because… Why? I wonder what other curios I’ll find in all his clutter and what they will trigger?In the midst of my ennui [the struggle feels more gallant en français], doing live radio might have felt like a chore. And in the early stages, it often is. Trying to reflect my world in sound over the past month, gathering unusual music that feels meaningful to me and presenting it in a personal way. On air and in words.But into the second hour of this meandering and introspective show, I began to feel calmer and more present. Out to Alyssa for the encouragement in the studio. Perhaps these two hours will offer you a release of some kind. Come along.I am hoping to have a few quests in the upcoming months, including artist feeo (see below) and a special on the club night I used to help run in Brighton. We must document these rights of passage. They are our culture.In other news, I’m planning a hike around Snowdon with my best mate and the little monster, and a youth music project in Lewisham featuring a few local legends. More on all that soon.👋🏾RYUICHI SAKAMOTO/ALVA NOTO – The Sheltering Sky (Alva Noto Remodel) [Milan]Let’s reset the room with a gently sweeping, chiming tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto by collaborator Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai). A cover of the great man’s theme to Bertolucci’s 1990 film of the same name. Sakamoto san is never far from my thoughts. A guiding spirit who was a humble and devoted artist that embraced change and evolved through time. To The Moon & Back, a compilation from a few years ago, also features interpretations by David Sylvian, Thundercat, Cinematic Orchestra, Fennesz…JOHN MARTYN & DANNY THOMPSON – Solid Air (Transatlantic Sessions) [Iona] [4m 57s]It was through John Martyn’s music that I first heard Danny Thompson – this track, in fact – and he almost stole the show. I was transfixed by his expressive bass playing. The virtuoso, who worked with Kate Bush, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake and Toumani Diabate among countless others, passed recently and I wanted to pay tribute with a few selections. This rendition of a Martyn standard was captured as part of a BBC Scotland programme called the Transatlantic Sessions. There were two series but only the second resulted in music being released. ‘Solid Air’ isn’t on either of those CDs – but it’s out there on film. Watch the chemistry rekindled between two old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years after a fallout. A poignant reconciliation happening before our eyes at the Montgreenan Mansion House Hotel in Kilwinning, Ayrshire. Thompson described this as the most satisfying musical moment of his career and John as his most important collaborator. “If John Martyn had been the only person that I worked with, it would have given me everything out of music that I could ever want.” 💜Danny was also a geezer, who had stories for days. PENTANGLE – Reflection (live) [11m 38s]As insidious as Google can be with its all-seeing eye, the behemoth did give us YouTube and the platform continues to unearth gems that have me time-travelling wide-eyed in the middle of the night. While searching for Danny Thompson, I came across this 1972 Belgian TV special with Pentangle, one of his first bands. What a mighty intro. No wonder several of his bandmates are grinning along. Pentangle’s fusion of folk, jazz, blues and rock remains unique and unmatched on these shores. The five points of light were Thompson on bass, Terry Cox on drums, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn on guitars and Jacqui McShee on vocals. Her phrasing is so beguiling. Not too familiar with Pentangle? Then start with their 1969 album Basket of Light.DANNY THOMPSON – Minor Escapade [Hannibal] [23m 45s]Between 1987 and 2012, Thompson also recorded six solo albums. This is my pick from his 1987 release Whatever, featuring Tony Roberts on reeds and Bernie Holland on guitar.BIZIMUNGU DIEUDONNE – Inyange Ibarusha Kwera [Mississippi] [29m 02s]Vintage tape vibes out of 80’s Rwanda here. Bizimungu Dieudonne with wife Agnes Umbibizi plus family and friends. Praise songs and extended electric jams sit comfortably alongside one another on Inzovu Y’Imirindi. The story behind this release is tinged with sadness as everyone on the record lost their lives during the genocide and because of the savagery of the Hutu militia. But Bizimungu and Agnes’ daughter Noella was left with one treasured artefact – the masters for this album. Out to Mississippi Records for the cultural preservation and celebration.TOM SKINNER – The Maxim (featuring Meshell Ndegeocello) [Brownswood] [36m 50s]The Smile, Sons of Kemet, Wildflower, Hello Skinny, Owini Sigoma Band… How many projects and guises can you squeeze into one still fresh-faced career? Kaleidoscopic Visions, the second album under his own name, sees Tom Skinner reflecting on his journey thus far and finding interesting passages down the way. Coming along on this expedition are Tom Herbert on bass, Chelsea Carmichael on tenor sax and flute and Kareem Dayes on cello. I share his adoration for Meshell Ndegeocello, a collaborator on this track who he first encountered at Glastonbury in 1994. Now his friend and the artist I have seen more than any other in my life. “The Maxim is a 10-minute meditation on time,” Skinner tells us. “An incantation and exploration of human existence ­– addressing birth, life and death in one breath.” You can feel that depth of inquiry between the notes as they loop around us in a gentle spiral. I recommend watching the accompanying video by Sam Blair, which is constructed from Super 8 footage shot by Skinner’s grandfather around the UK and California in the 1960s and 1970s. Blair intuited the significance of ‘The Maxim’, saying, “There was a sense of Tom crossing a personal and musical threshold. ‘The Maxim’ itself is so ambitious and sweeping as a piece of music, so delicate and defiant and rich with meaning, I didn’t dare to make a literal interpretation of it, but instead we made a video that’s in a kind of parallel dance with the track.”FEEO – Requiem [AD93] [45m 10s]FEEO – Here [AD93] [51m 23s]Sam Akpro, who I did a special with earlier in the year, put me on to feeo, one of the featured artists on his debut Evenfall. The experimental singer-songwriter and producer has followed up her 2024 EP Run Over with an audacious album called Goodness, which brings together elements of the organic, electronic, ambient and drone. The result is a very intricate and elusive body of work, its beauty lying far beyond surface consumption. A bold move for a debut solo album. In feeo’s words, it’s “an exploration of simultaneous yet opposing states of being: darkness and lightness, obscurity and visibility and most fundamentally, solitude and togetherness.” Goodness was mixed by feeo, who also created the artwork. A truly personal offering. I need the lyric sheets – words to be unravelled. feeo plays Café Oto on 10 October. If her state51 set is anything to go by, that one will be very live and in the moment.JAY ELECTRONICA – Letter to Mars [Roc Nation] [58m 32s]From A Written Testimony: Mars, The Inhabited Planet, this is my pick of the flurry of unreleased music shared by the enigmatic Jay Electronica. A poetic monologue over a beatless mood piece, where we can appreciate his mic control and imperious diction. Three albums dropped in seven days or whatever. Is it Christmas already?THOUGHT LEADERSHIP – XX [Be With] [1m 3m 10s]Thanks to Rob at Be With for sending this over at the 11th hour. Diggers and collectors will know this label for reissuing in-demand yet hard-to-get albums across the sound spectrum, from Ian Carr with Nucleus to Bahamadia and Lewis Taylor. Immaculate too. Here is the first-ever vinyl pressing of a twanging instrumentals cassette tape by Thought Leadership. I can see the waves rolling up to the shore as the sun takes its sweet time to set. Coming on 14 November but you can pre-order now. A limited run of 300.RN HARRIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BAND – Portrait of Tracy [1h 7m 00s]I approach Instagram browsing with caution and usually bounce within five minutes or so. But thanks to my friend Miguel, who swears he’s barely on there, I found out about the RN Harris Elementary School Band, directed by a teacher called Tim Lorelli, in Durham, North Carolina. Joyous, beautiful, often very heavy covers of hip-hop tracks and sample sources. Erykah Badu’s ‘The Healer’ and De La Soul’s ‘Stakes Is High’ come to mind. Check out the archive and donate to keep these lessons bangin’ out across the world and putting instruments in young hands.KEIYAA – Take It [XL] [1h 8m 35s]Playing this one for anyone who owns Forever, Ya Girl – a life preserver from 2020 and a modern classic that I’ve been falling in love with all over again. Let’s call it homework in preparation for KeiyaA’s next album. “Hooke’s Law is the spiral of life,” says the Chicago artist. “This is about being. This is about all my parts coexisting together in harmony … this is an invitation to repeat, fail and start again.” What can we expect? Something more rhymically dynamic, unpredictable and combustible on the evidence of tracks like ‘Take It’. Join us for group therapy and sound bathing on 13 November in London at Corsica Studios, which will soon be no more (in its current form, anyway).ANAIIS – Call Me (a)(B) [5dB] [1h 14m 20s]Anaiis’ new album Devotion & The Black Divine has arrived and it feels like a warm embrace and an honest heart-to-heart. She’s in conversation with us and the world through this music. I love the flow, the interludes, the other voices that float in and out of the mix. I could have chosen any of the tracks but went with the curious title ‘Call Me (a)(B)’.DEMAE – Closer [FAMM] [1h 20m 10s]From a AA side by one of London’s best songwriters and fly individuals, here is Demae with ‘Closer.’ Check the visuals on YouTube. Art direction is always A1. All part of the experience. Time to give that Madlib mixtape another blast.DWELE – Find Me, Beep Me [1h 24m 15s]I swear I had this on record somewhere but can’t find it. Big up Simon see for bringing this vintage Dwele back into my life on a compilation of low-key releases by Dwele, put together by BamaLoveSoul. That MySpace shoutout got me in my feels. We had a good time circa 2006. I didn’t find my daddy on there but I do remember chatting to Maxwell, A&R’ing a compilation through it… Who was in your top eight then?WALLY BADAROU – The Daiquiri Diaries (Vintage Extended) [Diskotopia] [1h 27m 25s]From the Unnamed Trilogy of previously unreleased solo work, this is the synth mystic Wally Badarou, who’s played on important records by Grace Jones, Talking Heads, Fela Kuti, Level 42 and Robert Palmer. The new sensations he manages to create with his instruments and patches – some intense, others subtle – are remarkable. This one emerged in 2017 but is evergreen. What a decadent title: ‘The Daquiri Diaries (Vintage Extended)’. His Red Bull Music Academy lecture is worth a (re)watch.SPIRITS REJOICE – Confusions [Frederiksberg] [1h 32m 40s]Vibrant jazz fusion out of South Africa, salvaged from the 1970s. If you like your horns leading the dance, then this one’s for you. Frederiksberg released this in 2023 but it was a recent discovery of mine, probably through a mailout by the always dependable Rush Hour. There’s a hefty crew in session on ‘Confusions’ and I must shout out a few musicians in particular, including Duke Makasi on tenor and soprano sax, Robbie Jansen on alto sax, Sipho Gumede on bass and Gilbert Matthews on drums. Go see what else they have played on.BRAINTICKET – Places of Light [Above Board Projects] [1h 38m 54s]One of the more obscure tracks from the Optimo 25 compilation, which marked a quarter of a century of the anything-goes night in Glasgow’s Sub Club, started in 1997 by the late JD Twitch and Jonny Wilkes. We lost Keith (JD) recently and the outpouring of love and respect was very touching.Lauren Martin, writing for The Guardian, got to the crux of his divine talent. DJ Magazine collected tributes and recollections from friends such as Tim Sweeney who said “There was no ego, only service to the music and the people making it.” And Philip Sherburne, who writes Futurism Restated on here, has done God’s work by compiling a spectacular list of JD mixes. There’s also a post-punk special of his on NTS that’s compulsory for fans of 23 Skidoo, Maximum Joy and many of their contemporaries you might not know.Optimo were incomparable in how they could pull together the punk, funk, electro and slightly weird, blowing dance music wide open. And Keith, mix after mix, revolutionised what a DJ could be and get away with. I never made it to Optimo but author Stef Macbeth, a friend of the show, has regaled me with a few stories, proudly wearing his “No DFA without Optimo” T-shirt at a recent book launch.But back to Brainticket and ‘Places of Light’, a groove-heavy, hallucinogenic dose of krautrock, which you can find on an album called Cottonwoodhill from 1971. Lots of panned flute and ominous incantations over a tuff rhythm section. File under trippy (well, the cover says it all).2000BLACK – Constant Disappointment [2000Black] [1h 43m 10s]Seeing us down the home straight is the ever-reliable 2000Black. Chief rocka Dego, Kaidi Tatham and co blessing us with that raw jazz-boogie-house-sumthin outta London Town. The album is called 27 and features 4Hero family Lady Alma on a track. LOL title. I feel you, Dego.PRIMAL SCREAM – Circus of Life (A JD Twitch Remix) [BMG] [1h 47m 38s]Another one for JD Twitch who I first came to through his remixes. It wasn’t this one but his twist on ‘Circus of Life’, from Primal Scream’s 12th studio album Come Ahead, is the essence of the man. A cosmic, chugging wig out that will breathe new life into you.MARK DE CLIVE-LOWE – Control [Be With] [1h 55h 50s]Mark is one of the hardest-working musicians out there. I know, because I receive his regular mailouts, which are stacked with gigs and studio collaborations like this one with Shigeto and my girl, Melanie Charles. He’s an intrepid New Zealander who became part of the extended West London family in the early 2000s, when genres such as broken beat and future jazz were taking shape and mutating night after night. It was a fluid mindset Mark adopted and carried forward. Here he is with Bembe Segue and Tawiah refixing one of his best contributions to the scene, ‘Relax (Unwind)’ in 2007.I probably first met ‘Mashi’ at the weekly live session Jazz Re:freshed on Portabello Rd (now at Ninety One Living Room). His debut album came my way while working at Straight No Chaser magazine, which was like a fanzine for so much of this music here and abroad, especially before the Internet and social media.Six Degrees is an audio travelogue or sonic diary of Mark’s year abroad in 1998. Soaking up the Afro-Cuban rhythms of Havana, the jazz heritage of New York, crate-digging in San Francisco, getting busy in London studios and basement clubs. A musical awakening, that’s for sure. MPC2000, Fender Rhodes and synths in hand, he paid homage to forebears such as Lonnie Liston Smith and The Mizell Brothers while speculating on the shape of things to come.Listening now, 25 years later, this music still sounds so fresh, fizzing out of the liminal spaces between house, hip-hop, jazz, and bruk. ‘Control’ owes a small debt to the angular jungle and drum’n’bass spun by Grooverider and Jumpin Jack Frost in the smoky darkness of places like Rage.Another limited edition reissue from Be With. Be quick. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Hello friends, It’s almost knitwear season in the UK. Let’s look to the positives, eh. Can I play you some music? This was partly recorded live in the SE London studios of Sister Midnight FM, before my pup cut the broadcast. Naughty boy. But ‘mixtape’ is part of the ML concept, so we pivoted in the aftermath. Please let me know what you’re into! ✌🏾MAL WALDRON – Candy Girl [Strut]Those familiar with the Mal Waldron of late 50’s hard bop or the modal compositions recorded later in Japan might be taken aback by the volatility of this curio, recorded during his self-imposed exile in Paris after a debilitating breakdown. I read it was so bad that he had to teach himself how to play piano again.Originally a super-limited release on the Calumet label, Candy Girl was recorded spontaneously in the studio of French producer Pierre Jaubert with members of the Lafayette Afro Rock band. Bassist Lafayette Hudson, drummer Donny Donable, and keyboardist Frank Abel on clavinet, Moog and more.In a spritely set, it’s the title track that has stayed with me. A minor key wander by Waldron on electric piano. Look out for the vinyl dropping this week on Strut Records. For more electric Mal, try The Call.DANIEL ODUNTAN – Kilohertz – Variations on a Constant Madness [06m 25s]Over the past decade and more, Daniel has been incubating his idea to depict the changing face of Southwark in SE London through audio and visuals. Encountering lots of speed bumps and roadblocks along the way. What started as a photographic study has expanded into an ensemble. The project is called Soul Complex Unfinished and I think this recording was from the session I attended in Peckham a while back. We had studio don Sean Montgomery Dietz on bass, Deronne White on Flute, man like Ashley Henry on them keys and Daniel on modular synthesiser, drums and bass. Phew.And the process continues to unfold. Daniel will be having an open rehearsal on Friday 12 September from 7pm at Reference Point off The Strand. Joining him will be frequent collaborator Roxanne Tataei and Jerald Coop Cooper of Hood Century. A space to think aloud, explore the black mundane and respond to the moment. Come be part of a living archive.PINO PALLADINO & BLAKE MILLS – Heat Sink [Impulse!] [14m 40s]Bass daddy Pino Palladino and California guitarist-engineer Blake Mills follow up 2021’s Notes With Attachments with That Wasn't A Dream. Their goal on this one was to develop sparser arrangements, punctuated by Mills' prototype fretless baritone sustainer guitar. Time just comes and goes during this track. One to meditate on.SARATHY KORWAR – We Take Things For Granted [Otherland] [23m 50s]From There is Beauty, There Already, which drops on 7/11 on his own new imprint Otherland, this is Sarathy Korwar in reset mode. After four far-reaching albums, he’s attempting to find his voice again as a composer through live drums and percussion. Tabla, South Indian clay pot ghatam…With only a smattering of human voices and electronics through the 70’s Buchla Easel. It’s got me thinking of unique records such as the Don Cherry and Latif Khan collaboration Music / Sangam.An album for deep listening as Pauline Oliveros implored us to do. One to inhabit from beginning to end for sure, no skips, noticing different variations each time.Catch him during the London Jazz Festival on 15 November at the ICA.THEON CROSS – Wings (live at Blue Note New York) [New Soil][27m 15s]I had a very wholesome evening in one of my local places of worship, St Lawrence Church, Catford, watching tuba player and composer Theon Cross and Rosie Turton playing at the Jazz Hang alongside prodigious members of Lewisham Music Jazz Band, Pulse of the Planet (Prendergast Ladywell School) and Trinity Laban Jazz Ensemble.Proof, if any were needed, why it’s so important to support schemes like this to get instruments in the hands of the youth and collaborating with one another as well as graduates like Theon. Respect to Tomorrows Warriors as well for the mentorship they offer. Each one teach one.This is Theon and band letting fly on his debut at Blue Note in NYC. A heavyweight rib tickler.VENNA – Prophet [Cashmere Thoughts][34m 25s]Debut album from composer, saxophonist, vocalist Venna. I love how he’s patiently been honing his craft, drip-feeding us with transcendent releases like ‘Prophet’.Being very clear about what he wants to say and how he wants to present his art, from his choice of collaborators (rhythm section Yussef Dayes and Rocco Palladino) to the travelogue videos that are like lo-fi odysseys. There’s romance to his sound – not the meet-cute kind, more in the sense of a divine connection to place and time.“Every experience, every memory, every conversation, anything new, any encounter has influenced how this album sounds,” Venna says.Debut album coming on 5 September.TRES LECHES – Telescope [Brainfeeder][39m 10s]On first listen, this album of smooth Haitus Kaiyote covers may veer dangerously close to easy listening elevator music but there’s something about its utilitarian origins and off-the-cuff aesthetic that charms me.Recorded in hotel and green rooms on tour by HK members Paul Bender and Simon Mavin together with ComputerJay, it was envisioned as a soundtrack to an imaginary supermarket for the band’s Love Heart Cheat Code. This is my pick. Breezy.OFFICER JOHN – Stay [Wah Wah Wino][42m 30s]Love and respect to Do You’s Charlie Bones for introducing Officer John to me. They did a lovely live session in his Hackney HQ, which you should listen back to. CB always manages to create a communal experience across the internet.This is called ‘Stay’, taken from a five-track 12”, which includes a remix from Morgan Buckley. Coming in Autumn ’25. ‘Handle’ has also been on loop. One for all you daydream believers.SILVER APPLES – Lovefingers [Jackpot][45m 15s]For an album so foundational to electronic music, one that predates Krautrock and all of that, I don’t hear much about Silver Apples. The 60’s duo of Simeon Coxe III on synth and drummer Danny Taylor. Experimental, psychedelic yet open to all. Someone used the word “fantasia” to describe the mood and I’m with it. Jackpot Records have released a limited-edition vinyl. Smoke-coloured, of course.LADY BLACKBIRD VS CROOKED MAN – When The Game is Played on You [Foundation Music][49m 05s]Crooked Man Richard Barratt follows up that loping remix for Cymande with this hi-tension flip for Lady Blackbird. Playing this one for the chief, Ross Allen. Owner of two of the best ears in the business. As he says, Crooked Man has a way of taking originals to a different place, into the deep. Have a listen to the Lady’s album Slang Spirituals. It’s got divine power.LEON VYNEHALL – Scab (featuring Tyson) [Ooze Inc][54m 50s]New one from Leon inna likkle dancehall situation, with Tyson guesting on the vocals. She’s really growing as a songwriter and always picks great collaborators. Leon’s next album In Daytona Yellow is coming on 19 September. Jeshi is among the other guests on there.Look out for Tyson also guesting on the Verses GT release that LuckyMe are putting out soon.JAMES MASSIAH MEETS LORD TUSK – Might Be The One (Version) [Accidental Meetings][1h 00m 40s]Lord Tusk and James Massiah join forces again after last year’s ‘Open Up’. One for the steppers who like to hang by the speaker stacks and get fried by frequencies. Some limited-edition black 7s are still available. Click the title above and head to Bandcamp.DIJON – Yamaha [Warner][1h 04m 45s]Ah, the rush. How much ecstasy can you pack into one tune? Dijon on some early 80’s Prince flex. My guy. New album Baby is waiting for you, exploding with big feels. Mk.gee is on co-writing and co-producing duties. Repeat after me: we deserve nice things.I like this comment from Dijon about their collaboration last September. “We were both trying to just find a new wheel to invent, separately, and kind of questioning why nobody else was as feverishly, or embarrassingly, reaching. Then we were both like, let’s see how far we can push each other.”Their performance of ‘Big Mike’s’ in the living room during the Absolutely film is still giving me life. Pino Palladino, who we played earlier, is also on ‘Baby’.Can you spot the sample? Laurie Anderson, come on. Apparently, Cara Delevigne helped write this track. Trivia.EARL SWEATSHIRT – Crisco [Warner][1h 10m 00s]Older, wiser but still throwing lyrical curveballs, Earl is in relative domestic bliss as a father of two and isn’t afraid to rap about.That‘s not to say he shuns difficult topics. On ‘Crisco’, he mentions his “kinda janky” pops and the replacement who “beat the failure out of me”. Traumatic experiences have compelled him to do better as a parent. Seeking “sacred knowledge 8 of cups, it's time to change his stanky diapers”.Much of the discourse around Live, Laugh, Love oscillates between ‘I’m happy Earl is happy’ and ‘Sad Earl is way more interesting’. Harmony Holiday, one of the most important voices on black music and culture right now, blew the album right open for me, contending with the expectation placed on rap idols – by us and themselves – sensing confliction in the reformed good father with the “brittle embryo spirit”. Someone who is perhaps too eager for salvation… It’s a cautionary tale. How fragile and fleeting contentment can be.Sonically, this track is a standout. Navy Blue, a superb MC himself, is on the beat, filtering the hell out of it so the track sluices between our ears.VENNA – Misty (featuring Knucks) [Hillside][1h 12m 35s]Some vintage Venna, why not? I’m still bangin’ this collaboration with Knucks and love rolling through London town on the 171 as I “stay mindin’ my damn business”.JACK HERRERA – City Lights[1h 16m 10s]I was listening to Ayo Edibiri’s NTS show the other day while cooking and this smooth-ass tune started making my fingers snap. A bit of Raphael Saadiq, a bit of Rahsaan Patterson, you know. What is that? I thought.I checked the tracklist and it said Jack Herrera. Who’s he? Turns out it’s a they. It was a ‘they’. Here’s the 411 according to Confessions of a Curly Mind: “While touring for Jon B’s album Cool Relax (1997) in Amsterdam with back up vocalists DominiQuinn & Silky Deluxe, the three of them basically composed most of the music on the tourbus (which came equipped with a fully built studio).“I assume they hit the studio to polish up and finish off the complete album Retro Futuristico soon after, probably over the course of 1998-99. But the album never saw an official release.”Not sure why… But I’m duty-bound to spread the legend of Jack Herrera. Soul on ice.JAMIE WOON – Heavy Going [Also Can][1h 21m 20s]Jamie Woon is synonymous with my time in London, going back to the early 2000s. Soon after my arrival, I remember receiving a promo of his spine-tingling version of ‘Wayfaring Stranger’, which Burial remixed in 2007. I recall the OneTaste nights at the Bedford and how a community of musicians formed around that session in Balham.How ‘Sharpness’ from the second album Making Time (2016) had everyone hooked to its sophisticated, precise yet soulful groove, including Pharrell. I caned that live version performed at Konk studios.Rejoice because Jamie’s back with new music. Such a talented songwriter and his voice always earns my attention. His truthfulness and sincerity coming through once again on ‘Heavy Going’.The album 3 10 Why When will follow on 3 October. His Union Chapel gig is sold out but you can catch him at the Rough Trade East in-store on 7 October.RADIOHEAD – The Gloaming (live) [XL][1h 25m 45s]I had to include this one for Colin Greenwood’s bassline alone. You can find it on a recent collection of The Hail to the Thief live recordings. The album features performances of songs in London, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and Dublin between 2003 and 2009.What we might have lost in glitchy, crackling electronics, we gain in some serious bottom end. Can you feel it coming through your speakers or phones? The album is mixed by Ben Baptie and mastered by Matt Colton. Invigorating.LUISA – Lenha na Foguiera [Far Out][1h 30m 35s]Reissued for the first time on 7” by Far Out is this Brasilian artefact recorded by Luisa, backed by the mighty Azymuth who were on everyone’s records around 1981. ‘Lenha na Fogueira’ is the title, apparently a Portuguese expression equivalent to 'fan the flames' or 'to make a bad situation worse’. That’s guitarist Paulinho Guitarra on guitar and Arco Iris on backing vocals.HUSSAIN BOKHARI ­– There’s Your Baby [Mood Hut][1h 33m 23s]Born in Bangkok and raised in Vancouver, Bokhari has assembled his many formative memories, musings and musical interests into an intimate DIY bedroom set that feels much bigger than the work of just one artist. It contains multitudes of a man.Possessions reminded me of the kind of obscure, dubbed-out soul and disco that a Music From Memory might dig up (Geoffrey Landers, for instance). But at different points, we also get echoes of the meandering of Durutti Column, the love language of Womack & Womack, the crumbled vulnerability of a Benny Sings.I adore the way the feel of this album is described: “This is music for the spaces between – between cities, between eras, between yourself and the person you were, all held together by a minimalist studio setup and maximum heart approach.”FOREIGNER – Désintégation [Livity Sound][1h 36m 36s]Four equally strong, tense and kinetic productions on Foreigner’s EP for Livity Sounds. Made by Willis Anne. who is founder of record label and club night LAN in Naarm, Melbourne. I’ve gone with the heightened drama of ‘Désintégation’.LAUREL HALO – Focus I [Honest Jon’s][1h 42m 00s]I wish I could remember who was running through their favourite home listening albums on IG when this early release from Laurel Halo on Honest Jon’s stopped me mid-munch of my granola one morning.I love the space and introspection of more recent work like Atlas but the pulse and the keys on ‘Focus I’ will make you take flight. Dig into the back catalogues, people. It’s fascinating to hear the changes artists go through.KUNIYUKI TAKAHASHI – Ananda Project/GaelleCascades of Colour (Kuniyuki’s Sugar Love Mix) [Mule Musiq][1h 50m 00s]Kuniyuki Takahashi’s debut album came out in 2006 on CD only. Almost two decades later, We Are Together is getting a vinyl release. Congratulations to Toshiya san and Mule Musiq on hitting 300 releases. This one got me thinking of autumn leaves as they begin to fall and the wind picks up. Mood.KAYTRANADA – Do It! (Again!) (featuring TLC) [RCA][1h 57m 45s]An all-instrumentals album from Kaytranada with that familiar bounce and kick to make the club bop. Although you can hear R&B queens TLC on the set here with a sample of ‘Let’s Do It Again’. Out to all my CrazySexyCool kids. Left Eye, miss ya.He also draws from artists including Tangerine Dream, Dilla and Kelis with The Neptunes. Press play to get a shot in the arm on the commute to work.NATURE BOY – Bassline Jumper [Frame of Mind][2h 01m 08s]In 2017, Frame Of Mind started this series with the reissue of Nature Boy's seminal Ruff Disco Volume One double album from 1992. Now they’re back with special tracks unearthed from floppy disks from that same era. The EP is called Unfinished Business. Raw and very heavy as we’ve come to expect from Milo Johnson aka DJ Nature.MAD REY – No Return (dub mix) [Red Lebanese/D.KO][2h 06m 45s]A likkle something I had in my folder. A selection from Mad Rey’s productions recorded between 2023 and 2024. Dubbed out where the disco meets the house.MICHAEL J BLOOD – Get Up Tonite[2h 10m 00s]Always keep a little Michael J Blood in your diet to ward off the arthritis … and the demons. His hit rate is ridiculous. You can find this one in the collection Achetypal Artefacts Volume 2.GILES SMITH – Paolo’s Keys [Eglo][2h 13m 55s]Classy productions from Giles, one half of Secretsundaze. I was very tempted to play the dub of ‘I Can Change Your Life’ featuring LaAriel but the keys on this one got me mesmerised. Paolo’s to be precise ;)PHASE II – Reachin’ (NY Mix) [Movin’][2h 20m 00s]A Shoom and basement classic from the New Jersey skate-shop-cum record store, released in 1988. It felt so good to hear this come on randomly in the sun the other day. Phase II comprises New Jersey club legends Blaze (Josh Milan, Kevin Hedge and Chris Herbert), plus Sean Sims, Kerry Washington and Jerry Edwards. I think this is Rheji Burrell’s mix. If you see anything from the Burrell Brothers, buy on site. Nu Groove stans, salute.HIEROGLYPHIC BEING – The Sound of Something Ending [Mathematics][2h 24m 55s]This is Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being – who else? – with a pulsating five minutes of interstellar techno. From the soundbook “SOMUCHNOISE2BEHEARD”. I love the title. Apt for a track that sounds so climactic, like a planet incinerating into shooting stars that become new celestial bodies.KYOKO KOIZUMI – Microwave [Rush Hour][2h 29m 30s]Watch the ride! Ondas record shop owner Dubby and Rush Hour’s Antal trawl the pop-meets-proto-techno period of the late 70s into the 80s. The influence of Kraftwerk, futuristic drums and synths on the disciples of YMO and others. It’s a super-fun compilation. Vinyl only. This one by Kyoko Koizumi is telling all the ears-bleeding, 7am sadists to lighten up. It comes from the album Koizumi in the House. Out of this world … and tuff.JUNIE MORRISON – Musical Son (live) [ReGrooved][2h 35m 20s]I was wondering if one of my favorite funk mavericks had recorded any live sets. It turns out he and The Scoon Boogie Band were committed to tape while playing multiple nights at Dooley’s in Lansing, Michigan in 1975.The audio resonates with the antiquated charm of a bootleg, shall we say, but when there’s an Ohio Players medley on the table (including the anthem ‘Ecstasy’), you mustn’t complain too much.“The horns, we gotta hear horns,” Junie yells on ‘Musical Son’. Too right.*****Check out the archive via Mixcloud or my Substack to hear past shows including a chat about 90’s rave and coming of age in a youth club with debut author Stef Macbeth. Also, words and music from SE London musician Sam Akpro. Yeah, nuff shows.Until Monday 29/9. Stay close. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

When an old friend offers to speak to you about their first novel before anyone else, you grab the chance with both hands.Stef Macbeth and I used to work at the same agency, writing words for clients and trying to make them meaningful. But really, our greatest thing in common is music, specifically [small ‘c’] club culture.A respect for the craft of DJ’ing and remixing as genuine forms of creative expression. Our shared belief in the dance as a space for communion and liberation.Ecstatic, effervescent, an epiphany at its best.He has poured all of this and more into FOLK, a coming-of-age novel with a bittersweet twist. We follow earnest overthinker Mark Fisher as he stumbles and fumbles to find his place in the world, in a “renegade youth group” of “waifs and strays”.Ambivalent to so much around him and a detached observer, someone more inclined to agonise from the sidelines than to give himself over to the moment, Mark becomes enthralled by the rave culture of early 90’s Britain.The catalyst for this awakening is mysterious newcomer Jason, a proverbial cat among the pigeons who might have just dashed Mark’s hopes of romance with long-time crush Zee.Although this Byker Grove-like clique is a little late to the party, as it’s 1994 and the Second Summer of Love is long gone, you can still feel the flux in a society that’s living in the shadow of Thatcher and clamped down by the Conservatives under Major.Young people, in particular, are outraged and politicised by the denial of their right to gather, protest and celebrate, most infamously through the Criminal Justice Bill (CJB), which attempted to outlaw “repetitive beats”.A draconian piece of legislation described by another Mark Fisher as a form of “cultural exorcism, commercial purification and mandatory individualisation”. Putting up barriers instead of dissolving them and curbing civil liberties under the guise of public safety.FOLK’s Mark is pulled into this countercultural melee and the promise of unity in the thick of these unfamiliar sounds. Anticipation is in the air.Possibility.He senses it’s a moment of seismic change. “Kurt Cobain is dead. Freddie Mercury is dead. Guitars are dead. Something else is coming. Something has to fill the void.”It’s a very relatable, engrossing tale about rites of passage, the fleeting innocence of youth and an ode to ‘dance music’ as transcendence.“Beyond the barrier there is a hunched figure who must be the DJ. We find a spot. I let the music, which is unfamiliar and a bit scary, carry me; to trust what is happening. Because it is only by letting yourself go that you can really feel anything.”What an illuminating conversation. Stef and I spoke about:* Trying to make Mark an everyman by partly drawing on his own memories while also borrowing from cliche* Mentioning no tracks and making space for the reader to insert the “phenomena” of their own youth* Rave as a political act and the message of FOLK in our present moment* What it means to live a life of “no ends, only transitions”* The slow reality of getting published and why it’s an act of willFeaturing:BJORK – Big Time Sensuality (The Fluke Minimix) [Elektra]JAMES VS THE SABRES OF PARADISE – Jam J (Phase 3 Sabresonic Tremelo Dub) [Fontana]NIGHTMARES ON WAX – Aftermath [Warp]AUTECHRE – Flutter [Warp]MOBY – Go (Woodtick Mix) [Outer Rhythm]GLOBAL COMMUNICATION – 7.39 (Original Cassette Demo)THE WATERSONS – Country Life [Topic]LEFTFIELD – Melt [Hard Hands]APHEX TWIN – On (Mu-ziq mix) [Warp]PROPER MONDAY NUMBER – Deep Clean [DFA]SOURCE DIRECT – A Made Up Sound [Metalheadz]APHRODITE – Shine [Aphrodite]CODE 071 – A London Sumtin (Tek 9 Remix) [Reinforced]HUTTON DRIVE – Amber Line [Soma]EAST 17 DIVISION – Textures [Big Sound Works]ELBEE BAD – (you’re a leader of) A New Age of Faith [Larhon]MASSIVE ATTACK – Unfinished Sympathy (Paul Oakenfold Mix) [Wild Bunch]FOLK will be published by Velocity Press on 8 August. Pick up a copy here and head to Stef’s site to find out about upcoming events in London and Berlin.Want more sound trips and in-depth conversations about music culture?Other ML interview specials you might like:* SE London musician Sam Akpro* The Chronicles of DOOM author Skiz Fernando Jr* Steven Vass, author of Let The Music Play: How R&B Fell in Love with 80’s Synths This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Hiya 👋🏾Well, what can I say? It’s been a heavy few months with the unexpected passing of my father and the cumulative effect of daily puppy trials. Everything feels like a chore. All I could manage was to blend a selection that made an impression in the dark fog of my mind. See what you think. Float from ambient and experimental spaces to more upbeat and energising rhythms, before reaching for the stars as the finest house and techno kick in. Note to self: heal yourself and move.I must also shout out a couple of people that I forgot to include in my mad rush. Djrum and Rainy Miller have made two of the finest albums of this year. Under Tangled Silence is a minimalist, compositional work of staggering beauty. Conceived during lockdown and remade after a hard drive meltdown. It’s like an intricate sculpture that catches the light in different ways. Joseph, What Have You Done? is another brooding suite for the disaffected of the North (and beyond). Poignant, searing prose that meanders across amorphous, boundless frontiers of sound. For me, it’s an album about loss and perseverance, but that could be recent events framing my experience. Regardless, the weight of emotion on this record is undeniable 😮‍💨Both might take a while to unravel, but that is often the hallmark of great art.Until next time…Stay close.A***HUGH HOPPER & ALAN GOWEN – Morning Order [Cuneiform]KELELA – Enemy (unplugged) [Warp]ES ISLAND – Track 9 [Forest Jams]ML BUCH – Mw [Anyines]STANDING ON THE CORNER – Baby [XL]QUR’AN SHAHEED – Dreams [Leaving]IAO – All Is Bliss [Left Ear]RAISA K – Both Still [15 love]MARGEEAH – Rise Black Spirit [Frederiksberg]LARRY JUNE & THE ALCHEMIST – Summer Reign (featuring Ty Dollar $ign) [ALC]MADLIB – The Plan Part 1 (featuring Georgia Ann Muldrow) [BBE]STEVE SPACEK – PBR (featuring Q Tip)SPACETIME CONTINUUM – Flurescence [Fundamental Frequencies]WETDOGG – Signal [Hold Me]FRANCIS BEBEY – Where Are You [Africa Seven]HERBERT & MOMOKO GILL – Show Me [Strut]GIDEÖN – Two Houses (Original mix) [Homo-Centric]KAREEM ALI – This Life [Noire & Blanche]YELFRIS VALDÉS – Ancestry (K15 remix) [Música Macondo]DEREK RUSSO & THOMAS XU ­– Zodiac Travel [Broad Channel]HIEROGLYPHIC BEING – Reality is Not What it May Seem [Smalltown Supersound]RON TRENT – Street Wave (featuring Lars Bartkuhn) [Rush Hour]PSYCHE/BFC – Galaxy [Planet E]✌🏾Comments, questions or abuse below or @amarofpatel on socials. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

I am drawn to the elusive ones. Artists who dwell in those in-between spaces — liminal, amorphous, ephemeral – particularly musicians who are often pigeonholed and pegged to genres. That’s why Ghanaian-born, Peckham-raised Sam Akpro stood out from the jump. There’s almost constant motion in his music, where a song might take us from a grungey raw riposte to a hazy soundscape in a few minutes. Nocturnal murmurings and rumblings. Bass and drums going for the gut, fx beckoning and beguiling like floaters in the murky night sky. Guitar in one hand, synth in the other, he’s that guy making connections between Sonic Youth and The Alchemist and a whole lot more.There’s also space, which we talked about in this podcast special. Sam knows how to hold it and harness it, punctuating it with pithy confessions and resolutions. The one who “woke up just to wake again”, who knows that “cutting corners in the dark, won’t get you far” around here.His past releases suggested an individual with his own ideas. Someone open to collaborating with whoever he crossed paths with, and yet set on navigating his way through the maze. Going left, way out west…Debut album Evenfall feels so much more assured. A record of serious conviction where all that matters is catching a vibe and moving with real intention. It’s the sound of someone who knows what they want to say and how. If you get it, Evenfall will feel more cohesive than disparate.The album is very evocative of London life in 2025, with all the restlessness, paranoia, anticipation and impluse the metropolis can bring for a youngblood trying to find their place in it all. Here’s James Massiah locating Evenfall in the now at the climax of his accompanying poem.“Long time no see friend. Come around. Listen to this record. I know what you’re thinking. I fully agree. This will take us through this wild time. This will still be the soundtrack on those sunny days. Still hearing it. Sat tight. Cold nights. Running riot. Sipping something strong. Nothing long. Fresh as Daisy. Felt like fresh hell but it’s fine now. Or it’s not but. At least we’re getting it done. Play the song.”Settle in as Sam and I chop it up on myriad topics including finding community in the crowd, how ideas form, writing from somewhere real and staying true to yourself, having faith in the listener and the role of videos and gigs in presenting his ever-expanding world. PS Check out this tracklist and some of those influences! Towards the end of the podcast Sam introduces me to some great ‘new’ artists emerging from down south. We gon’ be alright.Evenfall is released on 28 March through ANTI– records.Sam plays Rough Trade East on 12 April and MOTH Club on 24 April in London.✌🏾SAM AKPRO – Evenfall [ANTI-]SAM AKPRO – Cove [Fair Youth]SAM AKPRO – Gone West [ANTI-]SAM AKPRO – Nights away, Part 2 [Pelmard]AR KANE – Sperm Whale Trip Over [Luaka Bop]Neil Kulkarni interview Tone Glow 101: AR KaneIAN DURY & THE SEVEN SEAS PLAYERS – Spasticus Autisticus (Version) [Polydor] ARMAND HAMMER & THE ALCHEMIST (featuring Fielded) – Aubergine [ALC/Backwoodz Studioz]FREDDIE GIBBS – Baby $hit (produced by The Alchemist) [ESGN/ALC/Empire] DEAN BLUNT – Sketamine [Rough Trade]SAM AKPRO – Tunnel Vision [ANTI-]📺 Sam Akpro & The CityScrapers live on Morning After (2021) ZUKOVSTHEWORLD – Lana Del Rey PRETTY V & JADASEA– DollarsignFEEO – It Was Then That IDialetik podcast ✨MITSUBISHI SUICIDE - Song for Ciara HSAM AKPRO – Cherry [ANTI-] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Greetings!I managed to fend off my possessed new Basset Hound puppy for a few hours to bring you the next episode. He is adorable … sometimes 😈But will I ever focus again? 🤔As always, feedback is oxygen. So please write back, either below or on socials @amarofpatel. Which artists caught your ear? Which gigs have you been to? Who is Moonbeam Levels material?How do you get a hound to stop sniffing and start listening? News flash: I will be going monthly from April on my local radio station, run by Sister Midnight, who are opening Lewisham’s first community-owned music venue. Proud to be a board director there. We have a shared purpose and the twin messages of cooperation and mutual benefit are resonating across the borough. F*ck capitalism. Join us.SMFM did a special day of live broadcasts last weekend at RONS Coffee House in Peckham. I steered a discussion about public architecture in Catford, how to build community in bricks and mortar in Lewisham, and why we should adapt more of what’s already here. Listen back.Writers can/should voice their opinion beyond the page so you will be hearing more of me in your ears … if you like. Stay close 👐🏾A***Hosted and blended by AmAr PatelV/Z – Tobu Reprise [Offen Music]DANIEL BLUMBERG – Overture (Ship) [Milan]GREGORY UHLMANN, JOSH JOHNSON & SAM WILKES – Rewinded [International Anthem]KIRAN KAI – Ramps [30940]ROBERTA FLACK – I Can See The Sun In Late December [Atlantic] A few words on Roberta 🕊EVERYTHING IS RECORDED – The Meadows [featuring Roses Gabor, Kamasi and Ricky Washington) [XL]ANGIE STONE – Everyday [Arista] Memorial service 🕊JAMES BRANDON LEWIS – Prince Eugene [Anti-]MARSHALL ALLEN – Angels And Demons At Play [Week-End]PEBBLES – Positive Vibrations [Disciples]CYMANDE – Coltrane (Crooked Man remix) [BMG]Who are Cymande?Q LAZZARUS – Heaven [Sacred Bones]More about the documentaryCAN – Brighton 75 Zwei (live) [Mute/Spoon]ESKA – Down Here [Earthling]In-store performancesThe journey so far…DEAN BLUNT & ELIAS RØNNENFELT – 3 [World Music]T-FIRE – Son of An African [Old Boy]ESG – Keep On Moving [Fire]N’DAMBI – Call Me (Yam Who Rework) 🕊More about Andy Williams aka Yam WhoMAC MILLER – 5 Dollar Pony Rides [Warner]Balloonerism – a story in many partsLARRY JUNE, 2CHAINZ & THE ALCHEMIST – Munyon Canyon [Empire]MIKE – You’re The Only One Watching [10K]LEWIS PARKER – Walk in the Sky [Boombap Relickz]David Kane’s What Do You Call It? From The Grass Roots to the Golden Era of UK Rap 📗BLAK TWANG – Queen’s Head (featuring Roots Manuva) [Sound of Money]TY – The Tale [Big Dada]ROOTS MANUVA – Strange Behaviour [Big Dada]BASHY – On the Rise [Bish Bash Bosh]Interview with Complex magazineJOHN GLACIER – Home [Young]MARK PRITCHARD & THOM YORKE – The Conversation Is Missing Your Voice [Warp]KAIDI – So Happy [First Word]MICHAEL J BLOOD – IN BI SI X [Blood]AFTER SHOCK – With U (produced by Terror Danjah and featuring Shola Ama) [After Shock]In memoriam by Joe Muggs 🕊Spooky tribute mixALI OMAR – Hashish [Efficient Space]HALIMA – Ways (JADALAREIGN remix)ALEX NUT – Arcade Fun Part 1 [Eglo]WU-KI – Force (featuring IB) [Ruf Kutz]ONIRICO – Echo [Jungle Fantasy]BROTHER NEBULA – Grandeur of Delusion [Touch From A Distance]FLORENCE ADOONI – Otona Da Naba [Philophon]JOCELYN MOCKA ET KASSAV – Mizik Maladi [Strut]SAM AKPRO – Baka [Anti-]BLVCK SPVADE & THE COSMOS – Never Be Another [Mello Music]ROY AYERS – Red. Black & Green [Polydor] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Eh up! Presenting my world in sound over the past four months or so. My end-of-year, on-the-eve gift to you. Minimal chat – just mega minutes of brilliance across time and space.Music to hibernate with, reflect on or have a little kitchen bop to with loved ones over the holidays.Thoughts and feedback to [at] amarofpatel on socials or you can write to me in the comments. Please support the artists by clicking the links and picking up some of these releases.Wishing you all good things next year…Stay close 👐🏾ARETHA FRANKLIN – Somewhere [Atlantic]QUINCY JONES – Gula Matari [A&M] 🕊QUINCY JONES – Tell Me A Bedtime Story [A&M]RUFUS WITH CHAKA KHAN – What Am I Missing? [MCA]QUINCY JONES – Listen (What It Is) [A&M]MICHAEL JACKSON – The Lady in My Life (Extended Version) [Epic]QUINCY JONES – Midnight Soul Patrol [A&M]APHEX TWIN – #19 [Warp]NALA SINEPHRO – Continuum 1 [Warp]CAPTAIN GANJA AND THE SPACE PATROL – Alien Circus [Bokeh Versions]GUMBAE CULTURE – Take It Easy [Death Is Not End]GUERRA, DE PAIVA, HORNSBY & KONRADSEN – Big Time Sensuality 2 [Ulyssa]DEMAE – Go Ur Own Way [FAMM]ROSIE LOWE – In the Morning [Blue Flowers]Thoughts on the live show TYSON – Jumpstart [LuckyMe]STEVEN JULIEN – PAYN ME MIND (featuring Kristian Hamilton) [K7]MOIN – We Know What Gives (featuring Coby Sey) [AD 93]See Moin live in LondonML BUCH – Big Sun [15 love]NILUFER YANYA – Mutations [Ninja Tune]MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO – Trouble [Blue Note]ASHER GAMEDZE & THE BLACK LUNGS – Melancholia [International Anthem]ONENESS OF JUJU – Space Jungle Luv [Strut]LYNDA DAWN – Love is Callin [First Dawn]52ND STREET – Tell Me (How It Feels) [First Word]LATIMORE – I Get Lifted [Soul Jazz]DAWUNA – Diaspora [Sun Royalle]Interview with ClashHERMIT AND THE RECLUSE – Sirens [Obol of Charon]Dylan Green’s KA tribute for Hearing Things 🕊KA – Solitude of Enoch [Iron Works]Interview at Red Bull Music Academy in 2016KA – Broken Rose Window [Iron Works]DAMON LOCKS – Click [International Anthem]kJADE – SankofaSEMIRATRUTH – NightmoodsDOECHII – Profit [Top Dawg]Live on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert RAPSODY – Marlanna [Roc Nation]LL COOL J – The Force [Def Jam]LEX AMOR – A&X (featuring BXKS) [Modern Oak]See Lex live in LondonASHLEY HENRY – Synchronicity [Believe]SKEE MASK – GG’S InterludeInterview with RAD’MONK – U Just Don’t Know What U Do 2 Me (live) [Touching Bass]STEVE SPACEK – Could It B Ur Luv [Spa]REGAL86 – Tu SonrisaMICHAEL J BLOOD – Spawna [BLOOD]A GUY CALLED GERALD – People Moover [Laboratory Instinct]AUDREY POWNE – Feed The Fire (musclecars Dream Dub) [BBE]PRINCE – Movie Star (Yoruba Soul mix) [Yoruba Soul]BRANDY – The Ritual (Chateau Flight Remix) [Yellow Productions]TENDERLONIUS – Underworld [22a]SALAMI ROSE JOE LOUIS – Dimcolareprise (Live at 2131 North Kacey Street) [Brainfeeder]KARANTAMBA – Makeh Eya Yea [Teranga Beat]MAZE FEATURING FRANKIE BEVERLY – You (live in New Orleans) [Capitol] 🕊Frankie Beverly gets his 💐 on Questlove SupremeBefore Maze there was Raw Soul. This 1975 performance in San Fran ❤️‍🔥ROLAND HAYNES JR & PHENIX – Mind Games [AOTN] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Probably your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper, Daniel Dumile has had many aliases and alter egos in his career as an MC and producer. Zev Love X (with KMD), MF DOOM, Metal Face, Metal Fingers, Viktor Vaughn, King Geedorah or just DOOM. Hip-hop has never known anyone like him.An enigmatic figure with a mindblowing and often comedic command of language, DOOM was the monotone master of multisyllabic, internal rhymes and … how many entendres? To get on his overflowing stream of consciousness, a relentless train of thought, is to have a wildly unpredictable and edifying time whenever you press play.A hive mind of books, comics, cartoons and so much more, he was the kind of writer who would reference anything from Benny Hill and Slobodan Milosevic to Eyjafjallajökull and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. And you wouldn’t put it past him to do it in the same track. A craftsman who had “more lyrics than the church got ‘Ooh Lords’”, he wanted to write verses so good you’d pass them on like a good book.The way DOOM conjured theatricality and heightened the drama like a screenwriter/director, both on record and in person, was unprecedented. Turning a Gladiator-inspired mask into an emblem of realness and anti-heroism. A rebirth as the Supervillain, returning to exact revenge on a fickle industry full of shysters and posers.He created a cast of characters to breathe life into and build a mythology around. Plucking samples anywhere from mushy 80’s RnB to Scooby-Doo and old kaiju films. “Plotting shows like robberies”, keeping fans guessing as to whether he would or would not turn up. Many of them gladly in on the caper, even if it was clear that his DOOM bot lacked a signature potbelly cultivated through many brews and other vices.He was so elusive I had convinced myself I did NOT see him at this 2012 performance with The Robert Glasper Experiment at London’s Roundhouse. They played a beautiful version of my favourite track ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’, which dials up the melancholia and shows DOOM could ride anything. As he later proved with this mellow take on ‘Winter Blues’ accompanied by cello, musical saw and piano.DOOM’s legend quickly spread beyond underground hip-hop circles thanks to an all-time classic collaboration with Madlib, appearances on Cartoon Networks’ Adult Swim, guest spots on records by the likes of Gorillaz and gushing praise from luminaries such as Thom Yorke, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow.But somehow, even in the age of broadband internet, DOOM managed to preserve his mystique. So much so that it took most of us two months to realise the British-born musician of Trinidadian and Zimbabwean heritage had passed away in a Leeds hospital at just 49.December 2020 was a grim enough time already in lockdown. Then word quickly spread on New Year’s Eve that rap’s Metalfaced renegade had gone – on Halloween, would you believe it? Among those stunned and eager to know more was SH Fernando Jr (aka SKIZ), a long-time contributor to The Source, Wordsound founder and author of From The Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga.Amazed that no one had attempted to document Dumile the artist’s life through his discography, particularly the origins and interconnectedness of his personae, SKIZ sprang into action. He spent three years developing The Chronicles of DOOM, conducting more than 50 interviews to examine his origin story and transformations.The result is a carefully researched, respectful piece of journalism and an essential handbook for any fan. It’s impossible to fully unravel the mystery of “rap’s masked iconoclast”. That’s how the mischievous Supervillain moved, covert and in the shadows. But the author offers enough commentary and clues to raise our appreciation while thickening the plot.SKIZ joins me from Baltimore for a Moonbeam Levels special. We spoke about what it takes to publish a project like this and how to tread carefully. DOOM’s widescreen imagination and how he laid breadcrumbs of esoterica in the lyrics. The complex morality of a Supervillain and the darkness that underpins his best work. Those underrated production skills and why he stands alone in hip-hop. A cult status that transcends genres and generations.“I’m not here to tell you I’m the expert on Doom and that I know everything. I just wanted to put together his life in one place so you see what an interesting character he is and the trials and tribulations he had to go through. Maybe you can use DOOM as an example in your own life.”If you’re on Facebook you can get book-related updates here.VIKTOR VAUGHN – Change The Beat (live in NYC, 2004) KMD – Hard Wit No Hoe [Elektra]KMD and the origin of DOOMKMD – What A N*gga Know (remix featuring MF Grimm) [Fondle Em]KING GEEDORAH – Fazers [Big Dada]VIKTOR VAUGHN – Pop Snot [Get On Down]MF DOOM – Go With The Flow/Gas Drawls (live at Scribble Jam 2003)JJ DOOM – Winter Blues [Lex]DABRYE – Air (featuring DOOM) [Ghostly International]CZARFACE & MF DOOM – MF Czar [Silver Face]MF DOOM – Who You Think I Am? [Metal Face Records]SCIENZ OF LIFE – Yikes (featuring MF DOOM) [Sub Verse]MF DOOM – Vomitspit [Metal Face Records]MF DOOM – My Favourite Ladies [Nature Sounds]MADVILLAIN – Rhinestone Cowboy [Stones Throw]The Story of MadvillainyDANGERDOOM – ATHF [Lex]J DILLA – Mash’s Revenge (featuring DOOM and Guilty Simpson) [Stones Throw]– Adult Swim intermission –DOOM – Doomsayer (produced by The Alchemist) JJ DOOM – Guv’nor (BADBADNOTGOOD version) [Lex]BADBADNOTGOOD & GHOSTFACE – Ray Gun (featuring DOOM) [Lex]MF DOOM – All Outta Ale [Nature Sounds]METAL FINGERS DOOM – Jasmin Blossoms [Metal Face]special-herbs.github.ioMETAL FINGERS DOOM – Benzoin Gum [Nature Sounds]MONSTA ISLAND CZARS – Mic Line [Metal Face] (‘Coriander’)MOBB DEEP – Shook Ones Pt2 (MF DOOM Special Blend) (‘Saffron’)GHOSTFACE & DOOM – Angels [Nature Sounds]MF DOOM – Hey! [Metal Face Records]MADVILLAIN –ALL CAPS [Stones Throw]Tap the links to explore the man’s music and legend. If you enjoy it, please share far and wide. This is DIY runnings. Word of mouth still holds great power and your support is like oxygen.Drop any thoughts or memories in the comments below or write to me on Twitter/Instagram @amarofpatel.  What is your favourite DOOM track, lyric, couplet or reference? Let’s show our appreciation.Want deep and meaningful takes on arts and culture, plus occasional adventures in sound? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Compiled and blended by AmAr Patel@amarofpatelANJA NGOZI – SunnysideLLOYD MILLER – Mello Cello [FountainAVM]RAJI RAGS – Enchanté (featuring Raven Rush)PREFUSE 73 – Onboard, Overboard [Lex]SESSA – Gostar do Mundo (Demo) [Mexican Summer]NX WORRIES – MoveOn [Stones Throw]OHIO PLAYERS – Summertime [Charly]LARHONDA LEGETTE – Thou Art With Me [Numero]ANKANUM – Song of The Motherland [Native Rebel]KEITH HUDSON – Be Good Dub [Week-End]HOLY TONGUE MEETS SHACKLETON – The Merciful Lake [AD93]SAM MORTON – Let’s Walk In The Night (featuring Alabaster DePlume) [Flesh N Blood]BETH GIBBONS – Whispering Love [Domino] (Beth live @ Barbican)COCTEAU TWINS – Seekers Who Are Lovers (EP Version) [Fontana]FABIANA PALLADINO – In The Fire [Paul Institute]QENDRESA – 2 MuchHEAVY – Do For You [Kindred Spirits]YAYA BEY – Career Day [Big Dada]SAMARA CYN – Green Eyes FreestyleMATTHEWDAVID – DaydreaminWU-LU – Blunted Strings [Warp]  GOAT GIRL – Ride Around [Rough Trade]KIM GORDON – BYE BYE [Matador]FUMIO KARASHIMA – American Tango [180G]VOICES OF BISHARA – The Journey (Live) [International Anthem]SML – Search Bar Hi Hat [International Anthem]FINN REES – Crossing [Mr Bongo]QWALIA – Omega [Albert’s Favourites]VEGYN – Mushroom Abolitionist [PLZ Make It Ruins]LEON WARE AND MARCOS VALLE – Feels So Good [Far Out] (Leon and Marcos playlist)KAYTRANADA – Spit It Out (featuring Rochelle Jordan) [RCA]GHOST PHONE – HotlineNAHI MITTI – Ayesha [Banoffees Pies]2000 BLACK – London Boogie 7 [2000 Black]ZG –Believe If You Can See [Pacific Rhythm]SPECTER –The Birth [Sound Signature]BEDOUIN ASCENT – Waves of What [Rising High]ELKKA – Passionfruit (featuring John Carol Kirby [Ninja Tune]MALIK HENDRICKS – Heavy [Eglo]PRINCE – The Future (Remix) [Warner Bros]NIKLAS WANDT – Uncorked [Púca]SURYA SEN – In My Head (featuring Di-Vincent) [Loaded] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Eh up, people!An expanded edition from London Town on a style and period of music that’s very close to my body and soul.When most people think of 80’s music with synths and drum machines, the usual electro-pop suspects come to mind: Kraftwerk, Moroder, Depeche Mode, Human League, Gary Numan, maybe Patrick Cowley.What we should be talking about is how black musicians quietly – ok, maybe not so quietly – revolutionised popular culture through their adventures in R&B from the 70s into the 80s. They could be smooth and sophisticated, but the tracks made you move.Glasgow-based journalist Steven Vass has achieved something significant with his book Let The Music Play, plotting a course through those decades and tracing the evolution of these sounds through the constellation of artists who invented them.The level of research is encyclopaedic yet he’s managed to keep it breezy, capturing the thrill of hearing these records for the first time – minds being blown, often on a weekly basis – as underground club culture broke into the mainstream.I caught up with Steve a couple of months after this launch in Brixton to talk about: how he got into writing; reasons and reservations in doing the book; being inspired by Coming To America; giving flowers to Kashif and Paul Lawrence, Patrice Rushen, Cameo, Kleeer, Gwen Guthrie, Jam & Lewis and many more.He also offers theories on what drew listeners and dancers to these synthesised sounds, why black artists weren’t given more credit as pioneers and the differences between the UK and US markets.Expect a Questlove Supreme level of discourse, along with a big bag of that boogie-street-soul type of thing. A bit of house too, of course. You’ll feel it all.Questions, comments or abuse to @amarofpatel * HERBIE HANCOCK – Quasar (featuring Patrick Gleeson) [Warner]* STEVIE WONDER – Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) [Tamla Motown]* THE SPECIALS – Ghost Town (Extended Version) [Two-Tone]* TOMORROW’S WORLD THEME TUNE (1982)* DESMOND DEKKER – Reggae Recipe [Music For Pleasure]* IMAGINATION – Just An Illusion (original 12” mix) [Unidisc]* PRINCE – Raspberry Beret (New Mix) [NPG]* GWEN GUTHRIE – Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent (Larry Levan 12” Club Mix) [Polydor]* JOYCE SIMS – Come Into My Life (Extended Version) [London]* FATBACK BAND – Is This The Future? [Spring]* PATRICE RUSHEN – Kickin’ Back [Prestige]* PATRICE RUSHEN – Forget Me Nots (12” version) [Elektra]* NONA HENDRYX – Transformation [RCA]* MELBA MOORE – Love’s Comin’ At Ya [EMI]* KASHIF – The Mood [Arista]* HANSON & DAVIS – I’ll Take You On (Dub Version) [Fresh]* KLEEER – She Said She Loves Me [Atlantic]* CAMEO – Single Life (Extended Version) [Casablanca]* JUNIOR – Is This Love [Mercury]* PRINCESS – Say I’m Your Number One [TELDEC]* SHANNON – Let The Music Play [Emergency]* JANET JACKSON – Nasty (Cool Summer Mix Part 1) [A&M]* STEVE ‘SILK’ HURLEY – Jack Your Body (1986 Home Made Mix) [Underground]PS Catch me broadcasting live at Horniman Museum in SE London on 15 June. A rare appearance in public as part of the Sister Midnight x Daytimers takeover. Come through. There may be guests. There will be 🔥 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

– click on each track to purchase –IASOS – The Angels of Comfort [Numero]LAUREL HALO – Belleville [Awe](Laurel Halo live at Jazz Cafe, London – 5 June) SUN RA – Love in Outer Space (solo live @Haverford College, 1980)BOJAN DROBEŽ – Krog Na Vodi [NTS]GANAVYA – I walk again, eyes towards the Sky [Native Rebel Recordings]ROLAND P YOUNG – Estimationism [EM Records]SC SHARMA – Dance Music 1 [State 51 Conspiracy](Full story here)MK.GEE – How Many Miles [R&R]RAINY MILLER X SPACE AFRIKA – Maybe It’s Time to Tay Down the Arms [Fixed Abode]JOHN GLACIER – Tripsteady [Young]CORINNE BAILEY RAE – Earthlings [Black Rainbows Music](Corinne on the making of Black Rainbows and being inspired by Chicago’s Stony Island Arts Bank)TRACY KERR – If U Need My Lovin (Instrumental Dub) [Isle of Jura]DELASI – Learn From Adversity (featuring Lollise) [Brownswood]X-CERTS – Untogether [Emotional Rescue]HOLY TONGUE – Threshing Floor [Amidah Records](Valentina Magaletti with 99Chants live at ICA, London – 9 May)GARY NUMAN – A Dream of Siam (featuring Pino Palladino) [Beggars Banquet](Pino Palladino on Questlove Supreme)V/Z – Candles (Version) [AD 93]BULLION – Rare (featuring Carly Rae Jepsen) [Ghostly]MARIA RITA – Brasileira [Mr Bongo]JAHARI MASSAMBA UNIT – Otis’ Tambourine [Law of Rhythm]GRUPO IRAKERE – Juana 1600 [Mr Bongo]AMARO FREITAS – Encantados (Psychic Hotline)AMANDA WHITING – Liminal [First Word]MARVIN GAYE – T Plays It Cool (Unedited Version) [Motown](Harmony Holiday’s meditation on another Trouble Man track, ‘Cleo’s Apartment’, is a must-read)CAN – Oh Yeah [Spoon](One-time lead singer Damo Suzuki on being Damo Suzuki)DAVID WERTMAN – Sunshine – [Finders Keepers]AMY GADIAGA – Full Sun (해찬) [Jazz Re:freshed](Amy Gadiaga live on Jazz re:freshed weekly, 2022)YOSHIKO SAI – Aoi Galasu Dama (Blue Glass Ball) [Time Capsule]MARLENA SHAW – I’m Back For More [Columbia]*Shockout Business interlude [Death Is Not the End]KARIN JONES – Here I Go Again [Tidal Waves]HAMID AL SHAERI – Dari Demou’ak [Habibi Funk]MATERIAL – I’m The One (dance version) [Elektra](Plucked from Steven Vass’ Let The Music Play, which explores the impact of synths and drum machines on 70’s/80’s r&b. Special coming soon.)*Pure Wicked Tune interlude [Death Is Not the End]OJERIME – In The Know [Never Seven]JAWNINO – 2trainsKELELA & LORAINE JAMES – Divorce (Loraine James Remix) [Warp]KOKOROKO – We Give Thanks (KeiyaA mix) [Brownswood](KeiyaA live at The Lower Third – 8 May) MILLSART – Transistor Love [Axis Records]JULIAN D’ANGELO & SPECTER – Drunken Noodles [Visions Recordings]LOST SOULS OF SATURN – LOST SOULS OF SATURN [R&S]FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON – Across The Rivers [FSOLDigital]NEW SECTOR MOVEMENTS – Stand (New Sector Bruk Flex featuring Mike City) [First Word]HARUOMI HOSONO & YASUHIKO TERADA – Turquois [Rush Hour]LORD OF THE ISLES – Ultraviolet [Adult Contemporary]B-EDIT – Hold tightBAS NOIR – My Love Is Magic [Nu Groove]KERRI CHANDLER – Joykerri This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Amp Fiddler – Grandma’s Radio (featuring Soundboy) [Ampliphonic] https://ampfiddler.bandcamp.com/album/amp-dog-knights?from=embedAmp Fiddler – Too High (live on the Ralph Armstrong Show 2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwwPx0usQKYAmp Fiddler – Superficial (Amp’s Soul Special) [Camp Amp Studios]https://www.discogs.com/master/1173843-Amp-Fiddler-Rare-And-UnreleasedAmp Fiddler – Heaven [Strut]https://bleep.com/release/306801-amp-fiddler-afro-strutAmp Fiddler – Eye to Eye [PIAS]https://www.discogs.com/release/226033-Amp-Fiddler-Waltz-Of-A-Ghetto-FlyDon Was Detroit All-Star Revue – If I Don’t (featuring Amp Fiddler, Wendell Harrison, Bubz Fiddler live in Detroit, 2014)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUtCckTV5zcThe Detroit Experiment – Midnight At The Twenty Grand (featuring Amp Fiddler) [Planet E]https://www.discogs.com/master/133279-The-Detroit-Experiment-The-Detroit-ExperimentAmp Fiddler – (Your Love Is Like) Dope [Genuine]https://www.discogs.com/release/688060-Amp-Fiddler-Hope-DopeAmp Fiddler – Through Your Soul (featuring Bubz Fiddler & J Dilla) [Ampliphonic]https://ampfiddler.bandcamp.com/track/through-your-soul-feat-bubz-fiddler-j-dilla?from=embedAmp Fiddler – I Believe in You (Jaylib Remix) [Genuine]   https://www.discogs.com/release/261990-Amp-Fiddler-I-Believe-In-YouAmp Fiddler with Sly & Robbie – Black House (Paint The White House Black) [Strut]https://ampfiddler.bandcamp.com/album/inspiration-information?from=embedWill Sessions & Amp Fiddler with Dames Brown – Reconcile [Sessions Sounds]https://willsessions.bandcamp.com/album/the-one?from=embedMeshell Ndegeocello – ASR (co-written with Amp Fiddler) [Blue Note]https://store.bluenote.com/products/meshell-ndegeocello-the-omnichord-real-bookAmp Fiddler – Afro Butt (featuring Tony Allen) [Camp Amp Studios]https://www.discogs.com/master/1173843-Amp-Fiddler-Rare-And-UnreleasedAmp Fiddler – Love & War (Version) [Genuine]https://www.discogs.com/release/145601-Amp-Fiddler-Love-And-War-EP Moodyman with Amp Dog Knight – I’m Doing Fine (Main Mix) [Mahogani Music]https://ampfiddler.bandcamp.com/album/im-doing-fine?from=embedMoodyman – People (featuring Amp Fiddler) [Peacefrog]https://peacefrog.bandcamp.com/album/silence-in-the-secret-garden-album?from=embedAmp Fiddler – Superficial (JAN mix) [Genuine]https://www.discogs.com/release/48172-Amp-Fiddler-BasementalityAmp Dog Knights – Over U [Mahogani]https://ampfiddler.bandcamp.com/track/over-u?from=embedMoody – It’s 2 Late 4 U And Me (featuring Amp Fiddler) [KDJ]https://www.discogs.com/master/256766-Moody-Ol-Dirty-VinylThree Chairs – Midday Blues at Midnight [Three Chairs]https://rickwilhite.bandcamp.com/track/midday-blues-at-midnight?from=embedTheo Parrish – Gentrified Love Part 1 (instrumental featuring Amp Fiddler and Alena Waters) [Sound Signature]https://boomkat.com/products/gentrified-love-part-1Theo Parrish – Trust (with Amp Fiddler and Ideeyah) [Sound Signature]https://www.discogs.com/release/10047978-Theo-Parrish-Amp-Fiddler-Gentrified-Love-Part-3Amp Fiddler – Energy (Waajeed’s Doughboy Mix) [Ampliphonic] https://ampfiddler.bandcamp.com/album/basementality-3?from=embedSki Oakenfull – Let Me Be (featuring Amp Fiddler) [BBE]https://bbemusic.com/product/rising-sonGlenn Underground – Mornin (GU Nostalgia Forever Mix) https://www.discogs.com/release/6079787-Glenn-Underground-GU-Edits-1Only Child – U Bring Me Vibes (featuring Amp Fiddler) [Grand Central]https://www.discogs.com/release/165690-Only-Child-U-Bring-Me-VibesFunkadelic – Let’s Take It To The Stage (Amp Fiddler Laughin @Ya Mix) [Westbound] https://www.juno.co.uk/products/funkadelic-reworked-by-detroiters-vinyl/663433-01/George Clinton – Do Fries Go With That Shake (12” featuring Amp Fiddler) [Stateside]https://www.discogs.com/release/1357779-George-Clinton-Extended-Pleasure-12-Extended-Versions-And-MixesWas Not Was – Out Come The Freaks (featuring Amp Fiddler) https://www.discogs.com/release/1616346-Was-Not-Was-What-Up-DogGeorge Clinton – There I Go Again (co-written by Joseph Fiddler) [Paisley Park]https://www.discogs.com/release/170148-George-Clinton-The-Cinderella-TheoryMaxwell – Sumthin’ Sumthin’ (Mantra Uncut) [Columbia]https://www.discogs.com/release/541600-Maxwell-Sumthin-Sumthin-The-MantraMr Fiddler – Cool About It [Elektra]https://www.discogs.com/master/804072-Mr-Fiddler-With-RespectSundown – Spaced Outta Place Pt 2 [Sound Signature]https://bleep.com/release/391341-sundown-spaced-outta-placeThe Unit – Ain’t No Need (Edit) (featuring Amp Fiddler) [Sound Signature]https://www.discogs.com/release/18998623-Theo-Parrish-Special-Versions This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com

Moonbeam Levels 012 – November 2023Compiled and blended by AmAr [email protected]É 3000 – I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A "Rap" Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time [Epic]https://shop.amyriadofpyramids.com/https://tinyurl.com/andre3000-finds-himselfCARLOS NINO & FRIENDS – Boom Bap Spiritual (featuring Surya Botofasina) [International Anthem]https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/im-just-chillin-on-fireROSIE TURTON – Wandering Wonderinghttps://rosieturton.bandcamp.com/album/wandering-wondering DANIEL VILLARREAL – Things Can Be Calm (featuring Jeff Parker & Anna Butterss) [International Anthem]https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/lados-b DURUTTI COLUMN – Twenty Trees [London Music Stream]https://tinyurl.com/3bx2wbsfhttps://tinyurl.com/vini-reilly-guardian-interview APPENDIX – Autumn Song [Mad About]https://tinyurl.com/mthpmpw2 GO: ORGANIC ORCHESTRA & BROOKLYN RAGA MASSIVE – Turiya [Meta]https://tinyurl.com/yc7vu738 MIGUEL ATWOOD-FERGUSON –Tzedakah [Brainfeeder]https://tinyurl.com/du529updhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001s2pv KOFI FLEXXX – Increase Awareness (featuring ganavya) [Native Rebel]https://kofiflexxx.bandcamp.com/album/flowers-in-the-dark MO KOLOURS – Tatamaka Pt 2https://mokolours.bandcamp.com/track/tatamaka-pt-2 LONNIE HOLLEY – Better Get That Crop in Soon [Jagjaguar]https://lonnieholley.bandcamp.com/album/oh-me-oh-my MONZANTO SOUND – Eja (Dave Okumu remix) [None More]https://monzantosound.bandcamp.com/album/tt-t-remixed ELIZA – A Tear for the Dreadful (Live at RAK) [Different Recordings]https://eliza.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-rak JAYE P MORGAN – Can’t Hide Love [Wewantsounds]https://jayepmorgan.bandcamp.com/album/jaye-p-morgan ACTRESS – Its Me (g 8) [Ninja Tune]https://actress.bandcamp.com/album/lxxxviii KNXWLEDGE – itstartshttps://knxwledge.bandcamp.com/album/vgm-29 SLY & THE FAMILY STONE – Remember Who You Are [Warner Bros]https://tinyurl.com/sadynj8dhttps://tinyurl.com/sly-interview YUSSEF DAYES – Rust (featuring Tom Misch) [Brownswood]https://yussefdayes.bandcamp.com/album/black-classical-musicCASISDEAD – Marilyn (featuring Connie Constance) [XL]https://casisdead.bandcamp.com/album/famous-last-wordshttps://tinyurl.com/casisdead-the-face PAYFONE & KYD NEREIDA – I Feel You (Mudd Remix) [Leng]https://tinyurl.com/5yrhmku6 APHEX TWIN – Acrid Avid Jam Shred [Warp]https://aphextwin.bandcamp.com/album/i-care-because-you-do RAINY MILLER X SPACE AFRIKA – It’s Time To Lay Down The Arms (featuring Mica Levi) [Fixed Abode]https://rainymiller.bandcamp.com/album/a-grisaille-wedding-2 TIRZAH – No Limit [Domino]https://tirzah.bandcamp.com/album/trip9love HOLE IN ONE – Spiritual Ideas For Virtual Reality [Amazing]https://amazing-ams.bandcamp.com/track/spiritual-ideas-for-virtual-reality MK/MM – Zu zweit durch die Alleen [Trilogy Tapes]https://thetrilogytapes.bandcamp.com/album/ich-sehe-vasen THEO PARRISH & MAURISSA ROSE – I’m Done [Sound Signature]https://boomkat.com/products/free-myself-39076485-c6da-4040-8065-1dd9a3177993https://tinyurl.com/theo-on-nts-maurissa LASEECH FEATURING DESNAY BAILEY – Hey Love (Patrice Scott Remix) [Forbidden Dance]https://tinyurl.com/mr3rbza2 PEVEN EVERETT & DEETRON – Evermore [Character]https://www.traxsource.com/title/2106613/evermore DIGITAL JUSTICE – Theme From ‘It’s All Gone Pearshaped’ [Melodies International]https://boomkat.com/products/melodies-record-club-003-hunee-selects DREXCIYA – Hightech Nomads [Clone]https://cloneaqualungseries.bandcamp.com/album/grava-4 HOLLIS P MONROE – I’m Lonely (DJ Decent Acid Mix) [Groovin]https://tinyurl.com/bdz2yac7 DJ RASHAD – Let U No (featuring DJ Spinn) [Partisan]https://partisanrecords.com/moment/dj-rashadhttps://bleep.com/dj-rashad--double-cup-partisan-records L’RAIN – New Year’s UnResolution [Mexican Summer]https://lrain.bandcamp.com/album/i-killed-your-doghttps://tinyurl.com/lrain-pitchfork  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amarofpatel.substack.com