THE L.B.s: (Funkways Series 4) Of August Countenance / Gazing Lovingly feat. REZIN TOOTH(Vinyl 7″)

Here’s the last of label Wax Thematique’s Funkways 45 Series with Funkways Series 4 a.k.a two tracks by Joel ‘Lucky Brown’ Ricci’s L.B.s – Of August Countenance and Gazing Lovingly featuring Rezin Tooth on the flip. The first of these opens in a broadly psychedelic lo-fi vein before that distinctive Ethio-jazz-funk sax sound kicks in and you realise you’re in – well – Ethio-jazz-funk territory. And while it is every bit as sinuous and Eastern sounding as you’d expect from that description, it nonetheless veers melodically at times in a direction that occasionally makes things sound more like an Ethio-jazz band covering sixties stateside soul. Gazingly Lovingly meanwhile is a much more blissed-out affair featuring 80s-style synth washes and has its bottom end lovingly teased (ooh, matron!) into shape by Rezin Tooth.
(Out now on Wax Thematique)