DJ Khalab: Layers
Author: Jane Cornwell
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
DJ Khalab (ky, syn, prod) |
Label: |
Hyperjazz Records/Bandcamp |
Magazine Review Date: |
October/2023 |
Media Format: |
LP, DL |
RecordDate: |
Rec. 2023 |
The Italian DJ and producer Raffaele Costantino - most recognised as DJ Khalab - is a musical and geographical adventurer. His last release, 2022's excellent Khalab & M'Berra Ensemble (Real World) was created with the residents of the M'berra refugee camp in south-eastern Mauritania; his landmark 2018 album Black Noise 2084 (On the Corner), an Afrofuturistic juju funk wig-out, is a gift that keeps on giving.
Having received worldwide acclaim and established an oeuvre with a distinctive sound and vision, Khalab has crafted a sort of leftfield ‘Best Of’ that celebrates his own brand of production - think dark electronics, progressive experimentation, spoken word atmospherics and bass-heavy trance - while bringing in guests from the worlds of jazz, clubland and beyond.
The album's title track sets out his stall in a composition that finds spoken word artist and erstwhile Comet Is Coming collaborator Joshua Idehen waxing serious over throbbing synths and labyrinthine polyrhythms; trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, currently touted as high priestess of psychedelic jazz, lends her Arabic modes to ‘Drone Ra’, a track lifted by the voice of Italian diva Alessia Obino, while London-based saxophonist Tamar Osborn joins forces with Bristol singer Grove and drummer/producer Emanative on ‘Conscious Friendship’, an album highlight. Compelling stuff.

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