No Visa
Bastard Jazz Recordings (48 mins)
Globetrotting producer Captain Planet calls his personal style ‘gumbo funk’ – all manner of flavours brought together and bubbled into one rich and ever-changing vat of deliciousness. For his fifth full-length album, his base layer of funky hip-hop, synthwave, house and reggae is bolstered by a panoply of continent-spanning African sounds, with healthy amounts from South America, the Caribbean and the Middle East too.
No Visa is built up through a typically wide range of samples (balafon, kalimba, washint, highlife guitar, even Libyan pop) and a big bunch of guests (this time including stars such as Alsarah, Shungudzo and Chico Mann among many others) together with synths and beats galore – there’s a lot going on. With all these different elements at play, Captain Planet’s sense of style never sits still throughout the album. Every track sounds unique, but it’s all held together by an undeniable cool, a chill retro vibe that harks to the 80s and 90s without drenching everything in a syrupy nostalgia.
The overall feel of No Visa is utopian: the music of a borderless land where sans-papiers is the natural state of things and everyone is invited to join the party. Captain Planet’s recipe is tried, tested and true – and there’s enough to go around.