Native Rebel Recordings Vinyl & CDs

Review: Shabaka Hutchings' new label Native Rebel Recordings welcomes understated innovator and educator Chelsea Carmichael for a superb debut album. The River Doesn't Like Strangers is a fresh serving of innovative jazz that finally makes its way to vinyl and features plenty of her hypnotic and warm playing, smart improvisation and subtle sound work. Cultural powerhouse Shabaka Hutchings himself wrote a set of songs for the record which were then perfumed with Chelsea playing alongside Eddie Hick from Sons of Kemet, Dave Okumu from The Invisible and Tom Herbert from The Invisible and Polar Bear.

Review: South London rapper Confucius MC returns to Native Rebel Recordings for a new project alongside producer and multi-instrumentalist Bastien Keb. Dedicated to the "lost travellers" of the world, this is an album of pop-filterless texture and raw admission, filled to the brim with political messaging and wisdom in the face of oppressive social machinery. Toeing lines of fairytale realism and soul-feeder contrition, Keb and Confucius muse on dilemmas of eternal life, striving, perseverance and recompense, crafting a near drumless hip-hop album for veteran ears.