Mr Bongo hits the beach with Ausssie beach culture as they check the waves that Don Glori's new album 'Paper Can't Wrap Fire' is going to cause in summer heat.
We know Don Glori from the glorious single 'Brown Eyes' for it's Naarm/Melbourne/Brazilian soul-jazz. And we know he's well in with the local big heads Surprise Chef, Karate Boogaloo and has even helped out with Catrips' album 'From A Darbin Cave' (see review HERE).
This is full of summer soul with other stand out tracks like 'Flicker' which features Bianca Kyriacou and 'Janet'; both featuring ML Hall as does 'Brown Eyes'.
So it is a bit of a surprise that half dozen tracks are more of a collage of what the label calls "genre-surfing" nu-jazzy, bruk, soul, funky beats that clearly fit in with the scene down under like his other mates from the hood like, Ziggy Zeitgeist (see review HERE), Allysha Joy (as in 30/70 - see review HERE), Close Counters (see review HERE) and with Finn Rees (see review HERE) to name just a few.
'Song For Ants' and 'Power' are possibly the best tracks that ride the wave whilst the longer jazzy 'Precious' showcases multi-instrumentalist Don (aka Gordon Li) and the band. You won't be surprised if 'Ron Song' was recorded on the Sugar Loaf mountain and the set ends on 'Saturn's Return' (a nod to Sun Ra?) but there's not a XXXX bad track on here.
But this guy should be on the main stage at WeOutHere and numerous other festivals in the near future along and in case you were wondering, the title is an old Chinese proverb (Ed. we love a Chinese proverb, especially an old one) that translates as 'you can't deny the truth'. And this truth is no one can deny this is a truely great album; the eye of the tiger is watching you!.
Artist: Don Glori
Title: Paper Can't Wrap Fire
Release date: 16th May, 2025
Label : Mr Bongo
Catalog Number : MRB322
Format: LP / CD / Digital / Bandcamp
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