RAMZi - Feu Follets (2023)

Under the now familiar Razmi alias, Phoebe Guillemot has spent the last decade carving a hard-to-pigeonhole musical niche that's all her own. While her music is always humid, heady, hallucinatory and intoxicating, it regularly draws on a dizzying array of styles. That consistent eclecticism is once again a major feature on Feu Fellets, her latest album-length excursion. Over the course of eight tracks, the Montreal native flits between Pat Metheny-meets-Steve Reich style Balearic brilliance ('Electric Counterpoint' inspired opener 'Risin'), dubbed-out mid-tempo chuggers ('Tien-Bon'), tropical breaks ('Zon Bien'), out-there bass music mutations (DJ Python hook-up 'Coucou Mon Ami', the two-step-fuelled psychedelia of 'Feu Foillets'), sparkling peak-time joyfulness ('Zombini'), and much more besides. In a word: essential!