This year, we’ve brought in several new weekly features to FACT’s schedule.
Joining My Favourite Record and Forgotten Classics is The Week’s Best Vinyl Releases, a Saturday column by our friends at Soho record shop Phonica. It sounds obvious, but few people are onto great records as quickly as a great record store, and after years spent discovering gems in Phonica’s end of year lists, it made sense to give them a regular space on FACT. Every Saturday morning, they’ll run down the five vinyl records that you should grab this week.
BEN JENKINS
Ben Jenkins EP
(Alleviated Records)
Remarkable debut EP from Ben Jenkins, a fresh face from Memphis, Tennesse who’s also the protege of Chicago house legend Larry Heard (hence the appearance on Alleviated). Solid old school deep house business with sour acid overtones.
CHRISTOPHER RAU
Mehris Mood
(Smallville)
Hamburg’s Christopher Rau comes through with a dreamy, analogue-scarred EP that’s tougher than your average Smallville critter, with a great toadstool-covered sleeve scribbled by local illustrator Stefan Marx.
SEAN P/VARIOUS ARTISTS
Rock It, Don’t Stop It!: Brooklyn, Boston & Beyond 1979-83
(BBE Records)
A crate-digging adventure into old school rap obscurities from the ’79-’83 period, back when it was standard practice to convert disco tunes like Chic’s ‘Good Times’ into boogified bedrocks for the MCs’ embryonic rhymes.
KEJEBLOS
The Family Mattress EP
(Phantom Island)
Hailing from Switzerland but with a sound that might be better described as Balearic, Kejeblos inaugurates the new Zurich imprint Phantom Island in style with four increasingly blissful cuts, including a super-sexy “Squeez Me Tight” remix from friend and edit wizard Lexx.
NOT WAVING
Human Capabilities
(Emotional Response)
The prolific Alessio Natalizia (also known as Banjo or Freakout and one half of ace Kompakt duo Walls) returns for a second album under his Not Waving alias, moulding his krautish palette into drowsy head-spinners and pillow-soft ambience.
