Ibex Band
Stereo Instrumental Music
(Muzikawi)
★★★★

RELEASED by Paris-based record label Buda Musique between 1998 and 2017, the Ethiopiques album series did a great job of making the wider world aware of Ethiopia’s rich musical culture, especially ethno-jazz artists of the 1960s and 1970s.

However, they never released this fabulous 1976 record Stereo Instrumental Music — it’s only just been rediscovered. 

Led by Giovanni Rico and Selam Woldemariam, the incredibly prolific Ibex Band were central to popular music in their country. Listening to the album you can hear why — it’s full of wonderfully soulful, swirling instrumentals, with some terrific guitar playing from Woldemariam, and saxophone and flute from Fekadu Amdemeskel and Tewodros Meteku.

Largely recorded during two dates at the Ras Hotel ballroom in Addis Ababa during Ethiopia’s civil war, apparently the sessions had to be completed before the midnight curfew came into effect.

Lucy Dacus
Forever Is A Feeling
(Polydor)
★★★★

JOINING UP with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, 20-something US-singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus has been flying high as one third of Boygenius, the indie rock supergroup, selling out Madison Square Garden in 2023.

Her fourth solo album, Forever Is A Feeling is full of the kind of consistently impressive mid-tempo songs that she has made her own. But it’s the deeply personal, often devastatingly emotional lyrics and her comforting vocals that really stand out. 

Single Ankles glows with sexual desire (“Pull me by the ankles to the edge of the bed / And take me like you do in your dreams”), while the lovelorn Limerence evokes the spirit of Rufus Wainwright circa 2003/4.

Dacus sounds like she’s been through the wringer lovewise. Luckily for us she’s been able to translate the pain into perhaps her best record so far. 

Various Artists
Chet Baker Re:imagined
(Decca)
★★★

CHET Baker Re:imagined celebrates the 70th anniversary of the release of the classic album Chet Baker Sings.

For the uninitiated, Baker was a leading light in the 1950s West Coast jazz scene, his trumpet playing and soft, almost deadpan, crooning creating some of the most romantic music ever recorded (IMHO — Baker is something of a marmite artist).

This compilation features a cast of international talent taking turns at Baker’s signature tunes. With its Frank Ocean-style piano and vocals that move between sounding like Prince, Marvin Gaye and Barry White, Look For The Silver Lining from Joel Culpepper is a great reinterpretation. Puma Blue’s murky, lingering version of It’s Always You is another highlight.

Many of the other tracks are relatively easy listening takes — no bad thing when, like Baker, the source material is songs from the Great American Songbook.