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Ebo Taylor's “Twer Nyame” is reissued by Comet Records, pressed on high quality vinyl, with label designs and artwork as per the original release.

Originally released in 1978 on Philips-West African-Records. Classic highlife sounds; uptempo grooves, vocals, tons of percussion, guitar, horns and organ lines. Featuring the stand-out track "Atwer Abroba".

Ebo Taylor is one of Ghana's finest producer/arrangers, heavily influential in the unique sound that emerged from the country in the 70's; a combination of traditional Ghanaian with Afro-beat, jazz, and funk rhythms. He worked with bands including Stargazers Band, Broadway Dance Band, Black Star Highlife Band (with Teddy Osei and Sol Amarfio who later joined Osibisa), Apagya Show Band and fellow musicians C.K.Mann, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and the legendary Pat Thomas.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Twer Nyame

B1. Peace On Earth
B2. Atwer Abroba

Comet Records present a tasty reissues of “Dilijans” by Ayizan. A mind-blowing session of spiritual Jazz recorded in NYC in 1984 led by Haitian genius Alix Pascal blending traditional Ra Ra elements with modal / spiritual melodies. The result was like nothing else coming out of Haiti or the Haitian exile community in the US at the time. Dark, mystical, lyrical and abstract, with its otherworldly shifting rhythms, “Dilijans” came off like a Haitian version of “Bitches Brew”.

The album sounds less like a stylish mini-jazz performing in a hotel dancehall than like a cry of ancestors emanating from the spirit world to lament over the complications of modern Haitian society.


STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Crazy good Haitian jazz with spiritual moods and some truly amazing playing throughout. One of those records we knew nothing about but every time we put on the shop turntable someone buys one! Won't hang around long unfortunately...

TRACK LISTING

Deblozay
Pwoblem
Dilijans
Tribilasyon
Tèm (Ayizan)

True concept albums are actually few and far between. While it can be said that The Who’s “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia”, or Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” were designed from the ground up, that’s not necessarily the case for equally mythical, yet composite albums such as Bowie’s “The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust”, or Lou Reed’s “Berlin”. In France, the genre established its pedigree in the 1970s with Serge Gainsbourg, then in the early 1980s with Léo Ferré. “Cri d'amour” by Mélanie Chédeville adds to this list of albums that tell a story through characters.

“Cri d'amour” was produced in a seaside setting, which may explain its flowing, organic character. It is all by herself that the violinist-by-training composed, wrote and arranged this collection of string-drenched songs that recall Jean-Claude Vannier’s work for Serge Gainsbourg. The latter would undoubtedly have been impressed by Mélanie’s fine-cut lyrics and melodies that are as raw as they are sophisticated, vocalized in a sprechgesang recalling his own. The deliberately retro palette, up to the bass sound so typical of 1960s English rock, betrays an artist indebted to the creator of Bonnie & Clyde and Initials B.B. through a sensual, clear tonality. Yet, polyrhythms borrowed from the late Afro-beat legend Tony Allen, and the touches of guitar, piano, percussion and synthesizers distilled here and there by Éric and Mélanie, end up giving the whole affair a resolutely atemporal color.

Mélanie was sixteen with a head full of Beethoven and Brahms when she succumbed to an unexpected fascination for the world of Éric, a pianist, composer and sound engineer, who regularly delivered scores for Marc Dorcel’s X-rated films. She evokes him in “L'Alpha-bêta” and “Le Pornographe”, through whispered choruses that would suit the late Julee Cruise or Vanessa Daou to a tee, and explicit allusions to a ‘sword of Damocles’ of ‘XXL’ dimensions.

These are not the only texts on this album that remind us of the Franco-American author Anaïn Nin’s erotic poems, a model that Mélanie willingly takes on, adding to the list of her literary influences alongside Apollinaire and his Debauched Hospodar:

Some may find this album old-fashioned, which, far from being a flaw, is a credit to the fine musician that Mélanie is. Others will call it a charming album, which is not a bad way to describe it, provided that it is a powerfully relentless charm.


TRACK LISTING

A1 - Mélanie
A2 - L’Alpha Beta
A3 - It’s Not Too Late
A4 - Paris
A5 - La Folia
A6 - Le Pornographe
A7 - La Belle Histoire
B1 - Nausica
B2 - Le Soleil
B3 - Cri D'amour
B4 - C’est Dans L’Air
B5 - Folk Silencio
B6 - Les Croisés


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