5 albums to listen to over the weekend from Nubiyan Twist, 44th Move, Ol’ Burger Beats & Vuyo, Evigt Mörker Loraine James

Woven around soul searching, cautionary tales and parables for modern life, the Freedom Fables is the most accomplished yet by the Leeds / London collective, effortlessly fusing different soul, jazz and global styles with great musicianship and lyrics.

"Freedom Fables reflects on the power of narratives. Each vocalist on this record explores their own memoirs, a freedom of expression underpinning our belief that music is the ultimate narrative for unity," explains Tom Excell. “The record references a lot of music that we all loved during our formative years; you can hear touches of broken beat, blunted hip hop, highlife, Latin, jazz and UK soul running through the tracks."

Multifaceted musicians Alfa Mist and Richard Spaven announce identities behind their 44th Move project and drop their debut self-titled EP on Black Acre.

The pair are two of London’s most hotly tipped Jazz artists, and both have a broad range of influences. Alfa Mist is a self-taught piano player with his early album ‘Antiphon’ becoming an international fan-driven success, receiving more than 6 million streams on youtube alone. Since then he has continually moved on to straddle many genres with recent projects such as ‘Structuralism’ and ‘On My Ones’, both experimenting with solo piano, neo-classical and hinting at his roots in Hip Hop.

In the span of a year the duo recorded what would become two collaborative projects for the legendary Berlin-based label Jakarta Records. The two Oles - Ole Vuyo and Ole-Birger - released their first EP, All Yours, in the summer of 2020. The EP was critically acclaimed, and though it mostly consisted of leftover material from this upcoming album, it was a commercial success. The soulful single Do Me That Favor has reached more than a million plays alone. The vinyl dub plates sold out quickly, and are in high demand amongst record collectors these days.

The new album, Dialogue., is inspired by spiritual and revolutionary jazz records, sweet soul music and classic New York hip hop. Vuyo’s sister Lunga Ntila has made the album cover as well as the interludes that tie the album together. It’s a left field and conceptual rap album, exploring Vuyo’s diaspora experience as well as the youthful hunger of the two creatives, and this album is urging us all to take part in their Dialogue. 

Released on Hyperdub, Nothing EP comes after Loraine's popular 2019 album 'For You And I', this new EP of four contrasting songs follow a narrative from numbness through to a kind of clarity. Before starting on the EP, she publicly reached out for collaborators and found artists who empathetically extend the feeling in her instrumental music with their own unique energies; from Uruguayan singer and producer Lila Tirdo a Violeta, Farsi language rapper Tardast to HTRK front-woman Jonnine Standish.

'Enande måne' is Evigt Mörker's first release for Northern Electronics since his artful debut album, 'Krona.' The fizzy bliss of melancholia's brutal truths have rarely been explored this thoroughly by Evigt Mörker until now. Though often riding the torque of his caustic moments with a playful, ebbing refrain, these four tracks lead with the elation.