Jungle By Night are a nine-piece afrobeat outfit from who have funk in abundance. Forming in Amsterdam in 2010, they have played with and caught the attention of a wide variety of revered artists; the likes of Ebo Taylor, Mulatu Astatke and Tony Allen respectively. They return to the UK this month after a triumphant Glastonbury debut, on the back of the success of their new album The Traveller, which topped vinyl charts in the Netherlands last month. Ahead of their Band on the Wall show on 21st July, the band have submitted five current favourite albums, for your listening pleasure.
Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics – Inspiration Information 3
This album is already 7 years old but is still a fascinating album.The heliocentrics and Mulatu bring out the best in each other.
The Gaslamp Killer – Breakthrough
We met the gaslamp killer a couple of years ago at a festival and we both loved each others music. We did a studio project together where we covered a black sabbath track and named it ‘brass sabbath’.
His album is also full of weird breaks and especially Nissim is a great track.
William Onyeabor – Who’s William Onyeabor?
This mysterious Nigerian producer has been put back on the map by the Atomic Bomb! band. A super group performing the almost forgotten tracks. The synths have a leading role in Onyeabor’s music. For the traveller, synthesizer has been given a large role as well.
Philip Glass – Koyaanisqatsi
A friend of the band introduced us as a project with the aim to gradually shift from afrobeat to minimal music in eight steps. The traveller is exactly half way according to him. I don’t think we want to reach step 8, but this album contains elements from minimal music (for instance at the end of the first track king fisher).
Various Artists – Istanbul 70: Psych, Disco, Folk Classics
The Turkish music from the 70’s is irresistable. It is funky, psychedelic and very layered music-wise. Many great Turkish artists contributed to this movement such as Selda, Baris Manco and Erkin Koray. This compliation album comprehends some of the best songs, although there is plenty more to discover.