24 Hours in a Disco
Kiki Gyan
Soundway
Kiki Gyan was born in Ghana and as a teenager in the early ‘70s found employment as a musician, he traveled to London as part of rock group Osibisa. Gyan was soon cutting his own records in the flourishing disco genre. This compilation features only seven tracks but they are all epic disco jams. Aside from the funky title track there’s Disco Dancer, Keep on Dancing, Disco Train – all forgotten gems. Gyan made a fortune, but lost it all to a drug habit and ended up as a vagrant back in Ghana. He died of an AIDS related illness in 2004.
Rebirth
Jimmy Cliff
Universal
Jimmy Cliff returns with his first album in 8 years, produced by Tim Armstrong of Rancid, who is also behind some of P!nk’s most successful hits. Cliff presents 12 tunes of sun drenched reggae / ska goodness, the perfect soundtrack to a summer’s day. Included are covers of The Clash’s Guns of Brixton and a sweet version of Rancid’s Ruby Soho. The track One More, which is featured in two different versions, is an irresistible sing-a-long. This may not be Cliff’s greatest album ever, but it’s good from start to finish.
Nuggets: Antipodean Interpolations of the First Psychedelic Era
Various Artists
Warner Music
The first Nuggets compilation released in ‘72 focussed on psychedelic garage rock from the ‘60s. Recently there’s been an Australian version and this companion pieces sees new Australian psychedelic bands cover songs from the previous era. It’s a killer collection with 18 tracks of woozy, hazy, grizzly rock ‘n roll. Perth band Pond supplies their take on Hey Joe. While Baptism of Uzi’s version of Baby Please Don’t Go is dark and foreboding with a splash of electronica. Velociraptor’s version of The Electric Prunes hit I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night is another highlight. Great music for a road trip.
Lucifer in Dub
Peaking Lights
Domino
Peaking Light’s album Lucifer was one of 2012’s great underappreciated albums, now the band have brought out a second version, a dub reinterpretation that takes the bands trippy velvet songs into a moodier and reverb drenched world. It’s not a radical reworking, more a natural progression – this is a band that really suits being given a dub treatment. If you liked the original album this is a great companion piece. It’s not a total chillfest though – the beats keep on – this could be a dance floor favourite as much as a chill out essential.
Drones
Nico Muhly
Bedroom Community
Nico Muhly is probably best known for his work in orchestrating music for Antony and the Johnsons, collaborating with Bjork, Grizzly Bear, Jonsi and even Usher. Aside from his pop work Muhly is also an acclaimed classical composer who has work with Philip Glass and some of the world leading orchestras and opera companies. Drones is challenging, at times it luscious, but then it slips into heavy sounds, glitchy syths and sharp violins. If you like interesting music this has moments of great beauty and deserves repetitive listening.
