Payfone – Lunch
Team Chill Out Tent was kinda shocked that 13 years into their recording career this was billed as Payfone’s debut LP. However, a quick squiz at Discogs revealed a couple of streaming-only releases to be compilations. Lunch was recorded over 18 months as the duo’s first album-length statement. Mind you, with only six fairly lengthy tracks, this (initially) vinyl-only release could be argued to straddle the netherzone between EP and LP. Format quibbles aside, ‘Lunch’ delivers on everything you would hope for from the Balearic masters. Take a barrel-load of slow motion disco chug, chuck in a drop of late night 80s sleaze, some sublime and sexy vocals from a selection of singers, and mix with a soupçon of dub and you have ‘Lunch’.
Sadeedo – Azizi In Space
Sadeedo subtly mixes together his Arabic and Bosnian roots with his Ibizan present to create a sun-kissed debut LP that is as soulful as it is cosmic. Space is the place for Sadeedo but it’s rooted in the instrumentation of his friends on the White Isle, who provide live instrumentation (trumpet, guitar, oud and more) to the record’s gentle electronic grooves. Blissful.
Gilroy Mere – Furlongs
Gilroy Mere is the pseudonym of Oliver Cherer, who you may know from his work with/as Dollboy, Cooler, Miki Berenyi Trio or Aircooled.
‘Furlongs’ is a lovely album of pastoral organic electronica that is so goddamned nice you almost doubt its authenticity. Cherer created it while traveling across the South Downs from his home in Saint Leonards to cancer treatment in Brighton Hospital. The ‘Furlongs’ of the title being the name of the cottage that housed Sussex artist Eric Ravilious (possibly pictured on the cover), whose paintings have become as synonymous with the Downs as the Seven Sisters.
The use of trumpet, flute and possibly an accordion creates a very British sound with echoes of a colliery marching band added by Cherer’s subtle use of military snare drum. This record is destined to have a second life soundtracking BBC documentaries of steam trains chugging across England’s green and pleasant lands. All of which makes it sound terribly twee. And it kinda is. But it’s also absolutely lovely.
King Ayisoba – Pure Confusion
This is not the most chilled album in a Chill Out Tent selection. Ghanaian King Ayisoba often sing-shouts his vocals into the mic but this Adrian Sherwood-produced seventh album is also a hypnotic delight. Sherwood’s production of the live studio recordings is subtle but his dubwise sensibility gives the album a feeling of kinship with the last African Head Charge LP, ‘A Trip to Bolgatanga’, on which Ayisoba featured. Fans of global dubwise grooves will love this record.
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