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Artist: BATSUMI Title: S/T Format: LP Label: Matsuli Country: UK Price: $56.00 |
| "Matsuli Music continues its reissue program of rare indigenous Afro-jazz sounds from South Africa with the release of Sowetan group Batsumis self-titled debut from 1974. The reissue has been lovingly re-mastered from the original tapes. Batsumi is a masterpiece of spiritualized Afro-jazz, and a prodigious singularity in the South African jazz canon. There is nothing else on record from the period that has the deep, resonant urgency of the Batsumi sound, a reverb-drenched, formidably focused pulse, underpinned by the tight-locked interplay of traditional and trap drums, and pushed on by the throb of Zulu Bidis mesmeric bass figures. The warm notes of Johnny Mothopengs guitar complete a soundscape that is at once closely packed with sonic texture and simultaneously vibrating with open space, and in whose shimmer and haze Themba Koyana and Tom Masemola soar. A sonorous echo emanating from an ancient well, reverberant with jazz ghosts and warmed by the heat of soul and pop, Batsumi is nothing short of revelatory. Hand-numbered limited edition of 500 copies; includes insert." -Matsuli |