September: 18 albums you need to hear this month

Dungen 'Häxan (Versions by Prins Thomas)' (Smalltown Supersound)

Inevitably, it’s the name of Prins Thomas that will get Mixmag readers’ ears pricking up. But Dungen, if you’re not familiar with their many jazz-inflected Swedish prog-rock albums, are well worth getting to know in their own right, too. Their most recent album, ‘Häxan’, provides him with no end of interstellar drones, folky guitar jangles, rolling drum patterns and other psychedelic magic to weave into his four 15-minute vinyl sides of cosmic voyaging. Every single thing here is as 70s as you can possibly imagine, yet it never feels kookily retro because it’s just so damned good. Every sound is there for a reason, and the flow over the hour into the ultra-funky final section is absolutely impeccable. Joe Muggs

9/10

UNKLE 'The Road: Part One' (Songs For The Def)

On his first album in seven years, James Lavelle celebrates London’s multiculturalism, producing a record that’s suitably ambitious in scale and widescreen in emotion. Many of Lavelle’s seasoned collaborators are welcomed back, including the gravel-voiced Mark Lanegan (most memorably on the searing strings and Middle Eastern twists of ‘Looking For The Rain’. A clutch of voices, including Mercury-nominated Zimbabwean-born singer Eska garnish the epic orchestral lament of ‘Farewell’, while ‘Arms Length’ strides purposefully towards the dancefloor, accompanied by thrashing synth drums. Like the sprawling city it celebrates, ‘The Road: Part One’ is endlessly eclectic. Stephen Worthy

7/10

Ibeyi 'Ibeyi 2' (XL Recordings)

French-Cuban twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz of Ibeyi follow the ambient soul and Afro-Cuban rhythms of their 2015 debut with a second album. Here, the sisters’ searching harmonies expand into thrilling layers of a capella chorale vocals in songs such as opener ‘I Carried This For Years’, as well as a series of emotional anthems with contributions from Meshell Ndegeocello, Kamasi Washington, Chilly Gonzales and others. Sincere and earnest, a softly Auto-Tuned vocal ripples underneath a sample of a speech by Michelle Obama on ‘No Man Is Big Enough For My Arms’. This is an album brimming with optimism, an ecstatic call to arms through music, love and compassion. Steph Kretowicz

7/10