Abstract Index Playlist - April 15/09

How can I not blog about this album now that the nice weather seems to have settled in for good?

Ubiquity Records are on a tear, IMO. A mere couple of weeks after writing about NOMO (more to come on them soon...) I am compelled to share my love for the surprisingly incredible new record by Nino Moshcella. I've always liked the dude's sweet falsetto and quirky phrasing, but his music has plunged into a deeply psychoactive soul stew which blows the doors off his previous work.

Seemingly no moment goes undubbed as the stereo spectrum expands and contracts with every beat. Guitar lines in particular seem to push and pull against the beat, creating a truly funky tension which is so often sacrificed for a steady breakbeat-derived pulse in so much of today's funk. Moschella is still sounding like Prince and Sly, but the settings in which he couches his appealing voice are much more audacious, with multiple changes in song structure occurring over relatively scant track times.

"Stella", heard this week, starts with a humourous synth bass and harp duet before moving in to a live, lurching approximation of the synthetic groove behind Timmy Thomas' "Why Can't We Live Together?". While Moschella's breathy vocals and the track's overall feel tend more towards Shuggie Otis here, the subtle clashes in the orchestral arrangement hint that something else is coming up just around the corner. Part 2 hits with a full on psychedelic blast of booming cymbals, multiphonic synth noodles and guitar soloing that barely holds together. It's very Beatlesque but it's double dipped in that ol' California Soul.

Podcast

oasis - bruce freedman african groove band (now orchestra)
das wesen aus der mille strassen - burnt friedman (nonplace)
utility music - gyratory system (hansard/angular)
shinelight - ras g (brainfeeder)
stella - nino moschella (ubiquity)
time for us all to love - bullion (one handed)
ana dellali - cheb zergui (sublime frequencies)
evil - howlin wolf (cadet)
inflation - chocolate snow (numero)
the mercy beat - echologist feat spaceape (resopal red)
digital haircut - dd/mm/yyyy (we are busy bodies)
pajdusko - storsveit nix noltes (fat cat)
pulse - sam rivers (tomato)
voodootronics - james harpham (trunk)
lucky man - courtney john (no label)
don't go - horace andy (17 north parade)
babylon you lose - horace andy/ashley beedle (strut)
musical revolution - version xcursion feat ammoye (vx)
freedom - catrat featt yah meek (best seven)
africa - mighty diamonds (virgin)
going home to mt. zion (inst) - kwesi selassie (no label)