New Purchases November

The Invaders - ‘Spacing Out’ b/w ‘Latin Lips’ (Jazzman Records JM.069)

"Rough n’ wild funk jam loaded with insane psychedelic effects – all the way from sunny Bermuda!

When the island of Bermuda is mentioned you think of the affluent north Caribbean paradise with its tourism, pink sandy beaches - and the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. But the only mystery we’re concerned with here is not the loss of ships and planes to extraneous forces, but how such incredible music as that recorded by The Invaders ever got to be recorded in such an exotic location?"

"Psychedelic funk is not the first thing that springs to mind when the subject of Caribbean music comes up. With the nearest land mass to Bermuda being North Carolina, perhaps it was the raw funk of Carleen & the Groovers or The Soul Drifters that found its way over the airwaves to infuse itself on the minds of the local musicians? Either way, back in the early ‘70s producer Eddy Demello heard what he remembers as “the hottest group on the hotel circuit. They were way ahead of their time”. He told me he wanted to “try something different and give them a chance”, and so he got the band together and recorded a couple of 45s and a long player. The band obliged and put down ten songs in total, all of them hard and heavy funk pieces and drenched in a loud, psychedelic reverb. The guys were very happy with the result - Demello pressed 3000 copies of the LP, and apart from some which were shipped to a small distributor in Paramus in the US, they were all destined for sale only in Bermuda. However, despite initial sales being bright, few people were interested in buying vinyl records, and so Eddy had to get rid of them, selling them on the street and at church bazaars. He even left some in a box on his doorstep with a “FREE” notice to anybody who wanted one!

So with LP sales all at sea, the album was eventually all washed up like lost driftwood on the beach. However, always on the lookout for salvaging lost gems, we at Jazzman spotted the SOS and launched a rescue party – let’s all welcome back The Invaders!" (Jazzman Records)

Byard Lancaster - Funny Funky Rib Grib LP (Kindred Spirits)

"Originally released in 1974 via Jef Gilson's Palm Recordings, Funny Funky Rib Grib may be something of an obscurity, but it's most deserving of its reissuing by Dutch label Kindred Spirits. You'd have a job categorising this one. While ostensibly it's a jazz record, Lancaster and his ensemble are hardly ones to fixate on a single genre, and so in addition to encountering the straight up swing and flailing funk of 'Dogtown' there's a quality to 'Loving Kindness' that's at once suggestive of George Gershwin and old-time spirituals. Also, there are some truly mindblowing guitar licks on 'Work And Pray' - a real technical tour de force accompanying a contrapuntally languid, bluesy vocal". (Boomkat Records)

Hudson Mo - 'Star Crackout/Root Hands' (All City 7x7 Beatstrumental Series #6 7 Inch)

Picked up the 6th release in the 7x7 series from All City Records in Ireland.

"His 6x7 release is an odd mix of tracks. "Star Crackout" is a beat-less psychedelic adventure full of crackles and pops. While these tracks may seem out of the ordinary, the strong amount of creative energy and forward thinking that Hudson Mohawke displays through each is quite exciting. Watch out for his Warp release as well as a new Heralds of Change album due out early '09." (themusiclobby.com)

"Yet more astral beat projections from the mind of one half of Heralds of Change, with Hudson Mohawke offering up one his most sublime productions to date for the sick All City 7" series. 'Star Crackout' initially sounds like the decimated love child of Kraftwerk and Daedelus, before slowly burning into an insanely smart shoegaze vibe with what could be a campfire crackle, or possibly the march of a thousand penguins swamping the whole thing into a psychedelic mush worthy of Paavoharju. This is spine tinglingly brilliant stuff, check the samples and get the feeling. 'Root Hands' dips deeper yet with a throbbing bass lead groove that sounds like Theo Parrish jamming with Boards Of Canada and mixed by Moritz von Oswald, high praise in anyone's books, but final track 'Everyone Else is Wrong' manages to fly off on yet another unique tangent with a purest mind trip into 2030 electro funk, and a place where robots smoke pure THC and eat liberty caps for breakfast. Absolutely essential, next-level gear." (Boomkat Records)

Sharon Jones - "How Long Do I Have to Wait" (Ticklah Remix) (Daptone Records DAP-1040)

"This reggae version of a Dap-Kings' favorite is really TERRIFIC! Reggae mastermind TICKLAH (AKA Victor Axelrod, AKA Earl Maxton) has re-cast Sharon's vocals to the beat of his own drum, and it feels So Right! He's taken the original raw tracks from the Dap-Kings' "Naturally" sessions down to his basement laboratory and put some of his Classic-Reggae-Evil-Genius shit all over it. Oh, he played it all on this one: drums, bass, echo-plex. He's got his hooks hitched, his pockets stitched, his mind switched, and this mix is fixed! It's RAW. It's HEAVY. It's RIGHT NOW. So spark that doobie and put your red, black, and green beanie on your turntable, cause this record is going On Your Head!" (Daptone Records)