Arthur Verocai
Arthur Verocai

Harmless Joking Edits by Molio HoliTwo songs from Molio Holi’s back catalogue get the Secret Disco treatment in all their extended dance glory."Harmless" sounds like the Happy Mondays doing a post-late-late night, early morning recording session in Ikebukuro. Taken from Molio Holi’s excellent full-length cassette "Yopo," released in April 2021 on Everyday Ago, the track is all shakers, finger snaps, lazy tight bass, bongos, sixties-tinged psychedelic drones, blasted keys, and catchy call and response vocals with the most too-cool-for-school delivery this side of the Yamanote line. Secret Disco reworks the number to the 9'57" mark. With no additional production, the loping, 111 bpm ditty is extended for all its blissful worth."Joking" pictures New Order smoking cigarettes with The Cure in a rainy Kabukicho alley at 4 a.m., all eyes on the puddles gathering at their feet. Released in December 2021 on Molio Holi’s own Soleil lunatique imprint as part of the brilliant "White Sunlight" EP, the song combines sparse drum machines, synth bass, melancholy chiming keys, and searing, razor blade guitars. The beautiful vocals are a detached kind of sorrowful, an aloof despondency. Secret Disco splices up the original, rearranging it to more than twice its original length to maximize the pensive 120 bpm dance floor experience.

Now Here by FRED SIMON

Recorded in the 1980's and snapped up upon arrival in Europe by the Soho Boho's, Acid Jazzuals,Cuboppers, Jazz Massivists and Mojo Jazzmuziker, "Le-Le" by The Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble is a unique one off Spiritual Soul-Jazz outing with Avant Garde touches and more than a hint of Afro-Cuban Orientalism.The percussion drenched title track has that special Worldwide Sound and the Cool Jazz Get Down Groove of "Wet Walnuts and Whipped Cream" is a DJ's delight, whether played over the Airwaves or to a crowded Dancefloor.An adventurous jazz outfit that has been playing around Philadelphia since its formation in 1979. The Ensemble was founded by Warren Oree, an acoustic bassist, producer and composer who continues to lead the band. Eclectic and far from predictable, on this album the Ensemble has embraced a variety of acoustic and electric jazz styles combining them with African and Middle Eastern influences and mixed together with the "New Thing" have managed to make a timeless underground classic.

Shrimp Boats by Lionel Pillay feat. Basil Mannenberg CoetzeeAssembling unreleased recordings from 1979 and 1980, Shrimp Boats is a South African jazz archival compilation from 1987 built around its epic side-long title track featuring saxophonist Basil "Mannenberg" Coetzee. The recording was made during pianist Lionel Pillay's November 1979 session with Coetzee for the As-Shams/The Sun album Plum and Cherry. Side Two is composed of material recorded in September 1980 from the session for Lionel Pillay's Deeper in Black album. The 1951 pop standard "Shrimp Boats" was first given its unlikely jazz arrangement by Abdullah Ibrahim (recording as Dollar Brand) in 1971. Pillay and Coetzee take this seed of an arrangement to its furthest reaches with their mesmerising performance. Although the title track casts a big shadow, Pillay's "Slow Blues for Orial" is a welcome original composition on the flip side that stands proudly next to a rare 1970s cover of Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi's "Yakhal 'Inkomo" (Pillay was the pianist on Mankunku's original 1968 recording) featuring saxophonists Barney Rachabane and Duke Makasi. The set closes with a nod to the contemporaneous jazz fusion scene with a take on Weather Report's "Birdland" from 1977.