Maybe it’s the light, but this week’s collection of essential new-not-new really has put us in a particularly good mood…

Firstly this week, two absolute triple-lock, platinum-ranked, all-time-Drift-Essential™ albums with A Tribe Called Quest’s Low End Theory and Outkast’s Stankonia. Low End Theory still sounds outstanding. It is so primal, with just the basics in the mix and Q-Tip and Phife Dawg moving in and out of focus with hypnotic streams of consciousness. Iconic. Stankonia has at least a couple of proper era-defining bangers, but the album is all about the way it flows, with innovative production and psychedelic influences bleaching the entire spectrum. Again, a proper icon. We’ll have to write more about both of these one day; until then, get involved.

If you want to keep talking iconic, this week’s jazz offerings have some of the greatest.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers’ (with an amazing quartet) Moanin’ is a hard-bop classic. From the opening warm-up to the first few bars of the title track, it feels like you’re in the room and the second they start (on Art’s beat), it just sounds iconic. Speak No Evil is widely regarded as the finest of Wayne Shorter’s discography (himself a Jazz Messenger), recorded with an equally thrilling quintet. Again a post-bopper but perhaps more progressive with Shorters’ saxophone doing some work.

Both albums are pressed on limited 180g Blue colour vinyl.
We also have two Verve By Request titles, firstly with Pharoah Sanders’ very free 1971 LP Thembi. It really is wild, locking into a groove only to fully explode into something else. This is not passive listening: it really is a thriller. Heavy Sounds is a collaborative LP between Drummer Elvin Jones and bassist Richard Davis, a fortuitous session and some proper cool. The improvised Summertime is pretty killer stuff.

+ Both albums are pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.

We also take a dive into the Fania archives for Café, a self-titled Latin funk and soul gem on its 50th anniversary. The band is led by Ray Barretto and it really has a lush, strutting drive.

Maggie’s Back in Town!! Is a 1961 LP from Howard McGhee. The quartet includes Phineas Newborn Jr, Leroy Vinnegar and Shelly Manne, and they really do capture such a light vibe, this one really does float.

Numero Group release Songs, an early 70’s set from Ohio cosmic Americana singer Sandy Harless. Appalachian roots with a tight weave of mountain folk, rural rock, and pastoral country. Stuck this on the other night and didn’t move an inch, it’s real mellow.

+ Available on “Brown Eagle R.I.P” colour vinyl.

Also this week we have Paul Weller’s Fly On The Wall: B Sides & Rarities, a 10th Anniversary Edition of First Aid Kit’s much-loved Stay Gold and a 40th Anniversary Edition of History Of..., the crucial compilation of Indianapolis hardcore punk band, Zero Boys.

We shall end this dispatch in early 1980s Mali with the second volume of Super Djata Band & Zani Diabaté. The Numero heads explain that it connects; “Wasulu hunter music, griot praises, Senufo pastoral dances, Fula and Mandingo repertoire alongside Western psychedelia, blues and afro-beat”, one of the most esteemed orchestras of the time for sure. The West African guitar rhythms lock in and the repetitions grow and evolve with winding effect. This is an album of supreme good energy and we love it!

+ Pressed on limited White colour vinyl.