Jura Soundsystem

The album hit the number 1 spot in the Balearic charts on Juno and was also given an extended review in the weekly round up of the best album releases. You can read the product review of the album here.

My debut artist LP titled ‘Return to the Island’ is out 16th September on IOJ offshoot Temples Of Jura. The album was made during the height of the pandemic here in Australia and was very much influenced by the tropical birdsong heard in my garden studio here in Adelaide, field recordings of which made it into many of the tracks. The album traverses some of the styles that influence the label with a backbone thats’s rooted in Balearica with shades of Deep House, Nu Disco and Ambient along with some leftfield samples picked up on my digging adventures. I view music production in an almost meditative way, i love to get lost in the process, which is liberating but also dangerous as hours and days can easily be lost. In truth, releasing the music is my least favourite aspect of the process, but its necessary to justify the time to my wife that i spend in my studio! Its also good to get it out there so i can move onto the next one. I hope you will enjoy it.

I totally forgot to post this, but better late than never 😅. In November last year I spoke to Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy and did a guest mix for her Balearic breakfast show on Worldwide FM. We originally met 20 years ago when i worked at Amato distribution and it was great to connect and chat music once again.

At the start of the pandemic i did an extended edit of Afia Mala’s classic ‘Koma’ for Africa Seven’s sub label A7 edits, the 12″ of which is out now. To be fair the original is so good it would be quite difficult to balls it up, so I just Dubbed it out a little, extended the break and used parts of the vocal rather than the full chorus. It turned out great and was a real pleasure to do, you can check the full version here.

I’ve put together a mini compilation of rare instrumental versions of 5 sought after tunes that i play regularly in my sets. On the A side there’s a killer Island Disco cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’ by Glen Adams & Finesse, then a super rare Boogie/Brit Funk version of Tippa Irie’s ‘Panic Panic’ from 1986 and the side closes with Special Occasion from Belgium with a previously unreleased 12″ instrumental version. Then the B side features the “Special” Club Dub version of Carol Williams ‘Can’t Get Away’ (From Your Love) that originally appeared on a promo only 10″ (it includes a great spoken word intro from Carol thanking all the Metro Area New York DJs for their support) and ‘Sin’ by La Palace De Beaute (a Larry Tee project from 1988) closes the LP in the form of a Jura Soundsystem Dub.

The LP was difficult to manufacture so is limited to a one off 500 pressing, the last of which are here on Bandcamp.

I did a one hour guest mix and interview for Mildlife on Worldwide FM (a really great band from Melbourne, check ‘The Magnificent Moon‘). The mix has a Dub House, Afro, Acid kinda vibe, i just uploaded it to Soundcloud 😀.

New playlist of vibes from lockdown here in Adelaide. I’ve also re-activated the rolling playlist if you have a spare 72 Hours 😱.

Originally released in 1982 the final single from Brooklyn based multi instrumentalist Freddie Thompson’s Panache band has been given an official reissue on Isle Of Jura. I combined the Original and Dub versions into an extended 12 minute ride with live percussion and a more Dubby feel. Reviewed on Juno here the 12″ is now in all good record stores. Thanks to Phonica for making it an Essential release this week.

Heading to Melbourne at the end of the month for a gig for Finding Figaro, full details of the party are here. 🥳

Avalon Emerson played my Dub edit of Yvonne Archer on her BBC Radio 1 show last week, the clip is here and you can stream the whole show here.