Shabaka
Of The Earth
(Shabaka Records)
⭑⭑⭑☆☆

WITH much of the music created while travelling around the world, the new record from Shabaka Hutchings is an intercontinental aural missile.

Having led (and disbanded) a number of influential groups, Of The Earth is the London-born jazz guru’s third solo album, after two sets where the flute took centre stage.

When it really gets going, as it does on percussive, genre-hopping tracks like Stand Firm, it brings to mind his work on Sons Of Kemet’s propulsive 2018 Your Queen Is A Reptile album.

It’s great to hear Hutchings back on the saxophone. And he raps too! Apparently he thought if hip-hop mega star Andrew 3000 could do a record filled with flute, then he could rap. I’m not sure it works but it’s an interesting addition to another refreshing, often exciting release from this visionary artist.

Squeeze
Trixies
(BMG)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

WRITTEN in 1974, several years before Squeeze would earn their place alongside the great British pop songwriters with instant classics like Up The Junction, Labelled With Love and Tempted, Trixies was never actually released.

The South London New Wave band’s founders Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook were just 19 and 16, respectively. “Long story short, these were songs that we just didn’t have the musical experience to record properly,” they explain.

Returning to the tracks 50 years later they’ve now made their concept album about characters frequenting a nightclub called Trixies a reality. A fascinating slice of history for Squeeze fans, it’s very much of its time, most obviously on the Bowie-inspired The Place We Call Mars.

Apparently this trip down memory lane has acted as an artistic catalyst – there’s a brand new album on the way soon.

Roswell Road
Rebel Joy
(self-released)
⭑⭑⭑☆☆

REBEL Joy really is an apt title for the first album from accessible folky Americana duo Roswell Road.

Forming the band after a chance meeting in a Cambridgeshire market square, Zoe Wren (vocals and acoustic guitar) and Jasmine Watkiss (vocals, violin and ukulele) perform a set of original songs that both engages with contemporary politics, and ultimately feels pretty uplifting.

Island Citizen tells the story of someone attending a far-right protest. “Life’s being getting hard for years now… read a story in a paper telling you who you should blame,” they sing. “Who’s the enemy really, small boats or yachts?” Elsewhere, the purposeful Boulder tells of Watkiss’s work on the 2022 Greenpeace action that sank boulders on the sea bed to stop industrial fishing, while single Holy Mountain is inspired by Wren’s parent’s adventures in Asia.

A promising debut.