30 IBRAHIM HESNAWI
The Father Of Libyan Reggae
HABIBI FUNK
Arab world reissue specialists Habibi Funk rarely fail to deliver something fresh and unexpected: Sudanese jazz, Egyptian disco, Lebanese Tropicália… and now Libyan reggae, courtesy of Tripoli’s Ibrahim Hesnawi. With Bob Marley as his guiding star, Hesnawi’s approach turned out to be rootsy and direct, distinguished from the Jamaican style by elegant Arabic melodies and buzzing heat-haze organs.
29 MYRIAM GENDRON
Not So Deep As A Well
BASIN ROCK
This captivating debut has only grown in stature since it was first released in 2014. Recorded and mixed in Gendron’s bedroom, it found the French-Canadian musician and songwriter transfiguring the poems of Dorothy Parker into skeletal chamber-folk songs. At times it felt like a long-lost private press album from the 1960s, which only added to its magical allure.
28 ALBERT AYLER QUINTET
Lost Performances 1966 Revisited
EZZ-THETICS
Recorded live on tour in northern Europe, these performances captured the great free-jazz saxophonist and his ferocious five-piece band – Don Ayler on trumpet, Michel Samson on violin, William Folwell on double bass and Beaver Harris on drums – at a transcendent peak. Rich in sonic textures, with Ayler directing his group’s improvisations and lifting the melodies to wild, abstract heights.
27 LES RALLIZES DÉNUDÉS
Citta ’93
