Steely Dan

★★★★

Katy Lied

GEFFEN/UME. LP

The black sheep in the Dan pen. Now in two different 33rpm and deluxe UHQR 45rpm remasters for 50th anniversary.

From the transitional period where Becker and Fagan had decided to stop playing live, lose the band format and do it all their way, Katy Lied sounds curiously off-form in places – despite a roll call of seasoned session players and hot shot 20-year-old drummer Jeff Porcaro – boasting neither the concise zip of Pretzel Logic nor the confident gleam of the coming Royal Scam, and includes some material that’s atypically slight. Its sleevenotes simultaneously titillate and mock hi-fi geekiness, but the boys complained in public about sonic problems arising during recording, particularly wayward noise-reduction, unnoticeable in these two mellow, Fagen-approved remasters that ease off on the thump and snap of earlier CD transfers. Some critics called it their first misstep. Being the Dan, it nonetheless bristles with enigma and sass, but there’s definitely an equivocal quality to it that’s absent elsewhere in their catalogue.

Jim Irvin

Various

★★★★

A Love from Outer Space

ASTRAL PEOPLE RECORDINGS/2MR. DL/LP

Dirty disco and cosmic grooves from cult club night.

Andrew Weatherall and pal Sean Johnston launched their A Love From Outer Space club night in 2010 as a haven for those who like taking it more slowly. Less hi-energy, more low-tomedium. Since Weatherall’s death in February 2020, Johnston has become sole keeper of the ALFOS flame, one that now encompasses a suitably low-key festival in France. This mix from Johnston, marking the brand’s 15-year anniversary, trades in ALFOS’s trademark sound. Its chugging, slightly druggy, grooves never rise much above 120bpm, taking in neo kosmische, Balearic, cosmic disco and deep, left-leaning techno from across three decades and more. Opening with Neville Watson’s brooding take on The Blow Monkeys’ Save Me exemplifies the AFLOS credo. Elsewhere, when Weatherall’s remix of Phil Kieran’s Find Love creeps in, it pulses and shimmers with malevolent intent. A worthy addition to The Guv’nor’s canon.

Stephen Worthy

Kat-Tet

★★★★

Women

SYMBOLE. DL/LP

Kreyol jazz rarity with kitsch cover, finally reissued.

A pioneering figure of Guadeloupe’s Free Wave jazz movement, which drew on local gwoka, beguine and Latin elements, pianist Patrick Jean-Marie cut debut album Atika in 1981, recording percussive jams in an abandoned school. For this scarce 1985 release, Jean-Marie assembled a more traditional quintet to channel their energies in a jazz-funk direction, the vibrant instrumental originals underpinned by Caribbean cadences. On upbeat opener Nikita, Luther François offers a heady flute melody as Jean-Marie’s piano is given trippy cross-channel panning; percussionist Charlie Chomereau Lamotte spices the mesmerising Sky 2000, and on Swing Hibiscus, Jean-Marie’s brother Toto gives his bass a furious pumping action. Solange has the most obviously Caribbean framework, and closer Hommage has a contemplative quality, giving breathing room for the interplay between Jean-Marie’s piano chops and François’ heady saxophone riffs. Now remastered with pristine audio.