Freedom Fables is an impressive follow-up to 2019's Jungle Run, which blends contemporary soul, Highlife, funk and more. The opener ‘Morning Light’ sets the tone with a filthy bass groove and lopsided drums, then balmy guitar and soulful vocals, from Ria Moran, the first of several excellent guests. Highlife legend Pat Thomas lifts the gently grooving ‘Ma Wonka’, and ‘If I Know’ is a highlight with joyful shouts from K.O.G., dancing Ghanaian rhythms and punchy hornlines. Soweto Kinch spits some bars and fires up his alto on ‘Buckle Up’ and there are several features for vocalist Cherise [Adams-Burnett], who adds more soul along with some serious attitude, on the confrontational ‘Tittle Tattle’. The standard of the musicianship is excellent. The grooves are dirty, the horns are tight and the arrangements are full of creative touches, like the spooling electronics and ultra-syncopated handclaps on the outro to ‘Morning Light’. There's a lot of soulful, Afro-Latin-jazz fusion going on at the moment. Done badly it can sound generic and derivative, like trendy gloop. This is what it sounds like when it's done well.