Benjamin Lew

Stroom illuminate the trippier side of Belgian legend Benjamin Lew with highlights of his 1982 album with Tuxedomoon’s Steven Brown, plus a rare compilation cut.

‘Bamako Ou Ailleurs’ essentially focuses on three gems from Lew’s 1982 album for Crammed Discs ‘Douzième Journée: La Verbe, la Parure, L’Amour’, which is co-credited with production and input not only from Steven Brown (Tuxedomoon) but also Crammed Disc co-founder Marc Hollander aka Aksak Maboul.

All three tracks are given more vinyl wriggle room than ever before, priming the likes of his brilliant, snake charming title cut (coincidentally a highlight of Jon K’s ‘Loukanikos Dance’ mixtape) for the DJs, along with bass-heavy, spectral sashay of ‘Il, les quitta a l’aube’ and the unmissable, swingeing West African drum pressure of ‘Dans Le Jardin’, while the chiffon drift of ‘A la recherché de B.’ is isolated from 1984’s ‘Made To Measure Vol.1’ compilation and used to elegantly even the EP out.

For any Belg-o-philes, both budding or long-in-the-tooth, this stuff is golden.