BeatCaffeine’s Weekly Record Rundown 08.21.24
We return to BeatCaffeine’s Weekly Record Rundown, featuring some highly recommended new music recordings that have been recently released. This week includes the latest from cosmic keyboardist Greg Foat, the debut from French duo Bolbec, South African pianist Bokani Dyer’s new remix 12″ on Brownswood, and the return of prolific New Zealand-based producer and saxophonist Nathan Haines.
Greg Foat — ‘The Glass Frog’
(Blue Crystal Records)
UK composer and cosmic keyboard/pianist wiz Greg Foat, who continues to be one of today’s most active recording artists, returns with his latest recording for Blue Crystal Records, titled The Glass Frog. This brilliant 7-track album has an overall spacey atmospheric feel with plenty of warm-toned keys, synths, soulful horns, hypnotic textures, and laid-back percussion grooves. Longtime Greg Foat fans will not be disappointed!
Bolbec — ‘Victime De L’aube’
(BATOV Records)
Based out of Rouen, France, Bolbec is a great new project featuring childhood friends and multi-instrumentalists Axel Concato and Barth Corbelet. They just released their debut recording for the superb London-based label Batov Records, titled Victime De L’aube, which features a unique blend of spiritual jazz grooves, folk-rooted instrumentation, cinematic textures and cosmic electronic sounds. The 10-track album features the duo playing over a dozen different instruments with some support from Nostalgia 77’s rhythm section. Definitely one of the most original recordings you’ll hear in 2024!
Bokani Dyer — ‘Ke Nako (feat. Sereetsi & The Natives) Remix’ 12″
(Brownswood Recordings / Brownswood Remix Editions 001)
Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings kicks off their exciting Brownswood Recordings new 12” remix series with two reworkings of South African pianist Bokani Dyer’s Ke Nako, which also features Sereetsi & The Natives. Side A features Kid Fonque’s hypnotic and stretched-out house rendition, while leading South African producer/DJ Ntokzin turns out a pulsating rhythmic version on the flip, with soaring vocals and soulful horns. Both equally impressive and primed for the dancefloor!
Nathan Haines — ‘Notes’
(Kartel Music Group)
Prolific New Zealand-based producer and saxophonist Nathan Haines returns with one of the dancefloor records of the summer in Notes. 10 years in the making, this 13-track recording (plus an additional track digitally) perfectly blurs the lines between jazz dance, house, broken beat and street soul with each song taking on a life of it’s own. This album is dedicated to late great pioneers Phil Asher and Marlena Shaw, who have played a major influence on Haines. Highly recommended!
