MARCH 2016 ISSUE

MARCH 2016 ISSUE

A sneaky peek of just some of what is in the March 2016 issue – OUT NOW!

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KING

This isn’t the way it’s supposed to work.

When Californian trio KING tentatively slipped out their debut three-track EP The Story back in February 2011, first it was picked up by local Los Angeles college radio, then jazz station KKJZ got onto it, then alternative station KPFK… and finally LA’s main urban outlet, the Stevie Wonder-owned KJLH. And while everybody was still trying to work out what the hell this shit was and where it should properly ‘fit’, suddenly the music and the group were being championed by artists like Jill Scott, Prince, Eric Roberson, Nile Rodgers, Miguel, Janelle Monae, Solange Knowles and Erykah Badu – the latter of whom had this to say: “It’s something I’ve never heard before – it sounds like we’re in the year 2029, yet they’re still ahead of that time. The melodies are so stirring and have brought something out of me. I am now inspired… ”

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Iba Mahr

There’s no end to the vocal talent coming out of Jamaica. Some, like Iba Mahr, have been around for a while. It’s his second album, Diamond Sox, that’s now confirmed his promise and given him the defining hit that every artist needs, since title track Diamond Sox is a glorious reminder of dancehall’s past, when brightly coloured string vests, Clarks’ booties and diamond patterned socks were fashionable. It’s a story of a youth who’s old before his time and the video’s fun too, with Max Romeo and Bass Odyssey cast in supporting roles.

Diamond Sox, that’s one of my biggest songs, but I’m always listening to older songs and especially sounds from the sixties and seventies, because my grandfather had a sound system that he’d set up right outside our house,” he tells me on the phone from Jamaica.

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Kano

“They say grime’s not popular like it was back then,” snaps Kano on Hail, the Rustie-produced opener of new album Made In The Manor. But even if it’s expanded past its original base, it’s hard to argue anything but. The genre has arguably never been more popular than it is right now. It would be the perfect time, then, for one of the scene’s earlier MCs to return victorious, following up on the direction of last year’s Garage Skank single. But Made In The Manor is not that album. Barring a small handful of songs, Kano’s fifth full-length is not out to ride the grime resurgence. The excitable Garage Skank is delegated to bonus-track status, proving not to be much of an indication of what was to follow. Instead, it’s a lyrically-centred set, the most densely woven album he’s made.

“All that trying to fit in, or capitalise, that’s never been my thing… ”

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Robin McKelle

Why, you may be wondering, has Robin McKelle called her newly created boutique label ‘Doxie Records’? For isn’t the word ‘doxie’ or ‘doxy’ an old-fashioned term for a woman of ill repute? Well, yes, it is: 16th century, actually, possibly a derivation of the Middle Dutch word ‘docke’, for doll. [I looked it up.]

But ‘doxie’ is also American shorthand for ‘dachshund’ and I’m happy to report that Ms McKelle is the owner of a loyal pooch of such a breed, and it is to her much loved pet she is referring in the label’s handle.

Doxie Records will next month greet the arrival of Robin’s latest album, The Looking Glass, to which we also gave a warm advance welcome in last month’s Soul Sides. It’s a follow-up to her much praised southern soul set, Heart Of Memphis, for Okeh/Sony and not only marks the first occasion on which she’s made an album entirely of original material, but also sees her step away from her regular support band The Flytones in search of a new sound…

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