Description
Legendary New York band M’lumbo distil experiences from their pre-pandemic shamanic travels into their stunning new album The Summer Of Endless Levitation. The eight-track vinyl LP is an avant-garde take on folk music informed by painter and sculptor Jean Hans Arp’s ‘Biomorphic’ works and it serves as a sonic renewal of self.
The cult M’lumbo collective has been a legendary and groundbreaking act since first forming in the mid-80s. They cross genre boundaries as they draw on jazz, world, electronic, rock and experimental music that escapes the commercial world and take you into another realm entirely. There is no limit to their sound; each member brings their own cultural background to the mix, making the band all the more unique.
As the coronavirus pandemic struck, three members of the band Rob Ray Flatow, Paul-Alexandre Meurens and Brian O’Neill under-took a regimen of shamanic traveling in New York City. The experiences led them to spontaneously compose and perform a suite of pieces, informed and inspired by Jean Hans Arp’s works but also by the feelings of isolation and indefinite exile yet to come in their urban environment.
Compared to the works they have done as part of the larger M’lumbo band, this album is a more modest and naive affair that is “a vehicle for the renewal of feeling using only a few instruments – acoustic and electric guitar, keyboard, flute, small percussion, kalimba and clarinet – and locating a sense of both the deep sadness and uplifting powers of reverie.”
‘There Are No Words’ kicks off with heavenly chords and organic percussion that recalls the jungle jazz of Don Cherry, then ‘Shoreline’ is a five-minute dub with percolating rhythms and new age melodies before the soul-soothing acoustic guitar of ‘The Afternoon Levitation’ blisses you out on a sunny day. The perfectly entitled ‘Swoon’ is another gloriously uplifting piece of musical spirituality that fuses the electronic and synthetic with the ancient and ritualistic. There is more jungle jazz, big-band horn work and cosmic synth modulations of ‘Open The Heavens’ while ‘Quanta’ is a shuffling, jumbled mix of radiant chords, wigged-out electronic lines and celestial charm. ‘Planetfall’ goes from free-form jazz to double-time techno and back to cathartic ambient. The final trio of tracks conjures up everything from the transcendental jazz of Alice Coltrane to the cinematic downtempo of Calm.
DJ Feedback:
RON BASEJAM/ CRAZY P
God this sounds amazing! looking forward to firing up the floatation tank for this bad boy.
COLLEEN COSMO MURPHY
This is stunning
ASHLEY BEEDLE / BLACK SCIENCE ORCHESTRA
The M’Lumbo album is another wicked surprise! Absolutely adore it and there are some killer tracks. Big support!
CHRIS DUCKENFIELD / ALL EARS
Absolutely enchanting, Deftly tip-toeing between genuinely uplifting inter-dimensional hymns & new-age twaddle
HARRI HARRIGAN / SUB CLUB
really nice
SUBATOMIC / AFTERLIFE
Just the album for a lazy afternoon in the sunshine with friends chillin, this is a keeper.
RED RACK?EM
This is ace! Great music.
MAX ESSA/ BONOBO JAPAN
Wow, this is a bit special! Incredible atmosphere and texture from start to finish.
LEO MAS/ AMNESIA
Amazing album by M’Lumbo, I really like it
FRANK ROGERS / REAL TONE
Fantastic album will go thru under the clouds
DARKER THAN WAX/ MARCUS ROSARIO
This record is really cool and interesting – I don’t know where to begin.
DJ ROCCA
Perfect summer album for lazy afternoons on the beach.
CRAIG SMITH / 6TH BOROUGH PROJECT
Real mediative grooves. Interesting selection keeping my attention.
FRONT DE CADEAUX/ ANTINOTE
this is just beautiful !
MAX P / TANGGRAM
What a journey…can’t wait to insert some tracks in my summer sunset sets
ANDY WILSON / IBIZA SONICA
This is great , perfect for early sets at Pikes and on Sonicalm
HAWKS AKIRA / HOUSE MANNEQUIN
this album is fit for shillin’ set.
JONATHAN JEFFERIES / OUTLAWS YACHT CLUB
Wow, another typical curveball from Marco and Hell Yeah! Otherworldly Shamanic New Age vibes from an iconic band. This one is one to take your time with. Will definitely benefit from repeat listens. ‘The Great Clock’ is an early favourite.
TREVOR FUNG / THE PROJECT
How good is this LP…Love it!!
STEFANO TUCCI / FAILSAFE EDITIONS
Wow! M’lumbo on Hell Yeah records is a great combo. Their otherworldly and enchanting music fit the label perfectly. My chill record of the Summer.
KEREM GOKMEN/ WYEP PITTSBURG
Sometimes it?s release like this that are not on your radar at all that stand out the most out of anything you?ve listened to in a while. The songs on this album really do transport you, especially when you close your eyes and are just take it all in at a good volume.
