Category: 1/2/3/4

More crate digging gold from the excellent Analog Africa label, this time with a focus on Cameroon. Yaoundé, in the 1970´s, was a buzzing place. Every neighbourhood of Cameroon´s capital, no matter how dodgy, was filled with music spots but surprisingly there were no infrastructure to immortalise those musical riches. The country suffered from a serious lack of proper recording facilities, and the process of committing your song to tape could become a whole adventure unto itself. Despite the myriad difficulties involved in the simple process of making and releasing a record, the musicians of Yaoundé’s underground music scene left behind an extraordinary legacy of raw grooves and magnificent tunes.

In this episode we feature some short sharp punchy indie rock, starting with Bad Bad Hats, a trio from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their fourth album Walkman is chock full of memorable melodies and sweet harmonies. Essential listening!

Influenced by European film and library music, Maston is a composer from Los Angeles who relocated to Europe a couple of years ago. When he encountered Swiss ensemble, LÉclair, he knew he had found the missing link to his dream to create sounds in the spirit of Ennio Morricone, Sven Libaek, & Piero Umiliani. The result is the colorful and kinetic album Souvenir.

An album that knocked my socks off last year was the debut from Natalie Jane Hill. She returns with a new release, Solely and we are featuring the first single from it, “Orb Weaver”. While the Central Texas folk guitarist/singer-songwriter’s stunning debut “Azalea” grew from years spent developing a textural narrative voice and idiosyncratic guitar style in the vibrant Blue Ridge Mountains, “Solely” represents a period of inward growth, and an outward push into an expanded sonic palette.

Veteran British songwriter and guitar sage Michael Chapman sadly has passed away at the age of 80. He inspired many and covered a lot of ground through blues, jazz, folk, even noise. We reflect on his amazing output in this episode. Plus exciting sounds from Uruguay, jangly pop and minimal country.

“Headlines” is the first single from Charlotte Cornfield’s upcoming “Highs in the Minuses” album. After spending much of 2020 with her thoughts and instruments, Charlotte knew it was time to take her new songs out of the house. Over the course of 5 days, she got together with her band they recorded the album, mostly live, seeking to capture the raw emotion of the songs. Based on the first single, I can’t wait to hear the rest of the release.

The Umbrellas are a 4-piece jangle-pop group from San Francisco who take their influences from The Byrds to Orange Juice, The Pastels, Comet Gain and Belle & Sebastian – but beautifully weave these strands into their own sound. Their debut self titled album is one of my favourite releases of this year. Highly Recommended.

Better days ahead? Here’s to hoping! A mix of current and older tracks to lift your spirits.

Mae Powell is on a mission to spread love and magick across all dimensions”. Weird Dreams is the first single from the Bay Area singer/songwriter’s debut album, Both Ways Brighter.  It reveals a vibrant collaborative spirit, from its playful instrumentation to lyrics about caretaking and camaraderie even in hostile environments. It really is a magical album, highly recommended. Just one of the many treasures in this episode of 1/2/3/4.