To mark May Day and International Workers’ Day, this week’s Mixtape is extra-long and unusually wide in scope – a globetrotting journey that zooms out to take in the bigger view, blending nature, ritual, struggle and revolution.
We open with the strong hook of The New Pornographers‘ Myriad Harbour, Dan Bejar in restless travelogue mode, before sliding into the lo-fi psych of White Fence‘s Given Up My Heart from his new album ‘Orange’ which Danny has just reviewed. The compass swings outward fast. Africa Negra‘s Lourenca brings the lilting guitars of São Tomé, while John Ondolo‘s Wazazi Musilie offers a study in Tanzanian guitar fingerpicking, the kind of recording that has spent decades waiting patiently for fresh ears.
The political pulse arrives with Gil Scott-Heron‘s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, still flinty, still essential, still aimed squarely at the present tense. Around it gather pieces of subterranean propulsion: Gnawa Njoum Experience‘s I Lala Dub fuses Moroccan trance with bass-heavy pressure, and The Alien Dub Orchestra‘s Bike Rack keeps that lineage moving. Pep Laguarda & Tapineria‘s Una Paüra and Tenniscoats‘ Umbarepa! contribute their own forms of folk eccentricity — the former from 1970s Valencia, the latter Japanese and gently outré.
The Brew’s deepest political resonance arrives via Aboutface‘s Wancha (Fish), a piece drawn from Los Bosquesinos (People of the Forests), the project’s intercultural collaboration with the Indigenous Wampís community of Guayabal in the Peruvian Amazon. Built around a nampet song — an ancient Wampís tradition of singing from the perspective of animals living in their rainforest environment — the track weaves field recordings, acoustic percussion, violin and Peruvian bamboo quena into something at once ritual and immediate. All proceeds from the release go directly to Wampís-led conservation efforts against illegal mining and deforestation (grab a copy on Bandcamp).
The MerKaBa Brotherhood‘s Obelisks (Sun Clocks) extends that ritual thread. The duo of Roman Norfleet (Cosmic Tones Research Trio, Be Present Art Group) and Andre Raiah (Brown Calvin, Brown Calculus) treat sound as a working language drawn from esoteric texts, sacred imagery and mystic thought — textures functioning as diagrams, melodies as signals. Their self-titled debut moves between rhythm and revelation, and Obelisks, its title alone gesturing toward ancient timekeeping, carries that hermetic charge.
From there, the Brew leans into the deep, delta blues of Robert Petway‘s Catfish Blues — a 1941 recording whose template still casts long shadows — and the communal warmth of Bonny Billy & The Picket Line‘s The Glory Goes / Wolf Among Wolves, Will Oldham as choral conductor.
The closing stretch leans further into the global and the strange. Carlo Alexandre Teixeira‘s Tekó Porã arrives from Brazil; Trio Tekke‘s Rotten Luck offers London-via-Greek rembetiko grit; Lakiko‘s Junaci is taken from What To Do, How To Live?, an album sung almost entirely in Bosnian using a vocal technique from the Sevdalinka tradition (steeped in political sentiment “but in my very non-political way”); and Wax Machine‘s White Nile sends us off through a haze of psych smoke. Frank and His Sisters, The Allen Family’s Pan-Generational Debut Blood Sucking Maniacs (recently reviewed here), Kiki Cavazos, Molo Sayat and Mytron round out a Brew that follows its own logic — part celebration, part agitation, all of it well suited to a long walk under the May sky.
Enjoy the Trip
To note: soon after posting this, Mixcloud, who host our Mixtapes hit some tech issues causing some folks to lose connection. As of Friday, May 1st 16:26 (BST), I’m still seeing issues, so please try later if you experience any problems.
Playlist
00:00 The New Pornographers – Myriad Harbour
03:52 White Fence – Given Up My Heart
07:17 Africa Negra – Lourenca
13:23 John Ondolo – Wazazi Musilie
16:18 Gil Scott-Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
19:13 Gnawa Njoum Experience – I Lala Dub
23:57 Pep Laguarda & Tapineria – Una Paüra
31:49 Tenniscoats – ウンバレパ！ / Umbarepa! (2022 Remaster)
35:45 Merkabah Brotherhood – Obelisks (Sun Clocks)
40:07 Wampís of Guayabal & Aboutface – Wancha (Fish)
51:04 The Alien Dub Orchestra – Bike Rack
56:24 Frank and His Sisters – Nimechakaa
59:09 Robert Petway – Catfish Blues
01:01:53 Blood Sucking Maniacs – Blood Sucking Maniacs
01:01:52 Kiki Cavazos – Goodbye the Crazies
01:06:57 Bonny Billy & The Picket Line – The Glory Goes / Wolf Among Wolves
01:15:21 Carlo Alexandre Teixeira – Tekó Porã
01:20:18 Molo Sayat – Kai Zhas Seka
01:26:40 Trio Tekke – Rotten Luck
01:31:09 Mytron – Arizona
01:36:08 Lakiko – Junaci
01:40:40 Wax Machine – White Nile