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The measured evolution of the Haiku Salut girls has entered its latest phase as they shed their folktronic vestiges to reveal a softer, genteel fusion of popcorn friendly electronics, cinematic neoclassicism & field recordings to soundtrack your role in today's existential drama.

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

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​Manchester's Space Afrika via LAs Dais Records are repurposing chillout for the phone in hand, hydroponically high, nihilistic youth huddled in urban landscapes, sedating, contemplating & slowly awakening from this post-truth neoliberal nightmare.

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Manchester UK’s Space Afrika make music of what they term “overlapping moments” – oblique mosaics of dialogue, rhythm, texture, and shadow, half-heard through a bus window on a rainy night. Honest Labour, the group's first full-length since 2020's landmark hybtwibt? (have you been through what i’ve been through?) mixtape, expands the project's palette with classical strings, shimmering guitar, and visionary vocal cameos, leaning further into their enigmatic fusion of ambient unrest and cosmic downtempo. It's a sound both fogged and fragmented, at the axis of song craft and sound design, born from and for the yearning solitudes of life under lockdown. 

The album title is tiered, alluding to a legendary patriarch from co-founder Joshua Inyang's Nigerian family tree (who was lovingly called “Honest Labour” for his loyalty and resilience) as well as the nature of self-designated work, such as Space Afrika's music – a “labor of love” in its truest sense. With fellow co-founder Joshua Reid recently relocated to Berlin, the pair began sharing files last fall, piecing together poetic vignettes of looping haze and found sound, inspired by the notion of “records that leave an impression, and help the listener deal with their life.” As the isolation of Covid compounded with the worsening winter, the songs skewed increasingly introspective and emotive, reflecting a mood of dissipating futures and the infinite nocturnal unknown. 

The artists cite two core motivations for Honest Labour: to transcend the sum of their influences, and “to show what we're capable of.” Both ambitions are entirely realized. The collection's 19 tracks flow with a synergy and sophistication as rare as they are radical, untethered to the dusty dub-techno templates of Space Afrika's early years. These are interstitial anthems, expressionistic and open-ended, delirious but deliberate, attuned to the drift and dreamstate of the present moment: “Ultimately this is an homage to U.K. energy, and an album about love and loss.” ​

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Not content with basking in the glory of the stunning Cedars LP for Temporary Residence Ltd. (please check it as well), Field Works has de/reconstructed it from the ground up, replacing the poetic drama with gentle piano lines & the sounds of nature to accentuate its calming ambient qualities. Serene Sunday listening.

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Maples, Ash, and Oaks: Cedars Instrumentals is a mesmerizing soundtrack for a long walk in the woods, made up of pedal steel, oud, guitar, hurdy-gurdy, and piano. Based on the original Field Works album Cedars, this new suite of instrumental music brings the listener even deeper into the forest. For this special limited-edition release, Stuart Hyatt deconstructed each track from Cedars and rebuilt them one layer at a time. He removed the narrators’ voices and invited Julien Marchal to introduce piano as the new protagonist. The 15 new tracks are named from each line of the new poem, Deciduous, by Cecily Parks. The musical frameworks are based on the Field Works album Cedars, created by Marisa Anderson, Fadi Tabbal, and Stuart Hyatt – and performed by Julien Marchal, Youmna Saba, Dena El Saffar, Danny Paul Grody, Bob Hoffnar, Stuart Hyatt, Tomás Lozano, Nathan Bowles, Alex Roldan, Fadi Tabbal, and Marisa Anderson. The forest soundscape was recorded by Harrison Ridley in the Welsh countryside.​

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A soul saturated hip hop pick today from Chris Dave and his orchestra of soul, jazz, funk, spoken word, rap royalty laying down a swinging, laid back live vibe for real talk about the issues rather than low hanging braggadocio.

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CREDITS :
. Rich Medina (Spoken Words)
. Burniss "Boombishop" Travis (Bass)
. D.Rose (Vocalz)
. James Poyser (Keyz) 
. Jahi Sundance (Additional programming) 
. Black Milk (Production) 
. George Clinton (Vocalz)
. Spacebunny Jefferson (Vocalz)
. Frank Moka (Percussion) 
. Jairus Mozee (Guitar)
. Bobby Sparks (Analog Keyz) 
. Isaiah Sharkey (Guitarz)
. Jermaine Holmes (Lead Vocal, Background Vocalz )
. Thaddaeus Tribbet (Bass)
. Tom Ford (Guitarz)
. Pino Palladino (Bass) 
. Daniel Crawford (Keyz)
. J.Nap (Lyricist)
. Oswin Benjamin (Lyricist) 
. Ahrell Lumzy (Vocalz) 
. Rodrick Cliché (Keyz &Production)
. Chris Dave (Drumz, Percussion, Additional Keyz, Additional EFX, Organ, Bass Orchestration, Additional Programming)
. Moovmainty (Artwork)​

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Synthesized soul, a languid funk bump, transportive tropical tropes and a sun bleached lo-fi Balearic balminess mingle amiably in this smile inducing, warm weather winner from Reuben Vaun Smith for Soundway Records.

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Having further honed his craft, Reuben Vaun Smith returns to Soundway Records with a sonic odyssey through lo-fi Balearic and Afro-Caribbean influenced synth. 

Smith’s second album continues his exploration into improvised live instruments and programming, while venturing into new territories of music-making and genres including soca, benga and trip hop. Also sliding into the mix are organic sounds and riffs reminiscent of 2000s Villalobos sunrise scorchers such as ‘Waiworinao’, keeping the Balearic thread firmly present throughout the album. 

Having learned to sail along the southern coast of Spain in the last year, Smith spent a winter locked down in Yorkshire, channeling summer memories into his music and drawing influences from his own record collection which he would play everyday in the studio. With a few local friends and his brother to jam with, the result is dreamy and lo-fi, with more guitar-led melodies, distant vocals and lush pads. 

Smith’s debut album from 2020, ‘Warm Nights’, received an array of rave reviews and support from DJs including Tom Ravenscroft, Antal and Bill Brewster. One year later, Reuben Vaun Smith delivers a matured, varied sound and a glimpse into his incredible future potential.

CreditsMastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery Studio 
Artwork by Riccardo Corda 
All tracks written and produced by Reuben Vaun Smith​

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