REACH - OPEN HEART

Released: 05/04/24

Compiled by the perennially inspiring Numero Group label, Reach is an archival mixtape featuring tracks, culled from 12 disparate micro-genres, that you very possibly may not have heard of (many are new to me). Included is Alex Johnson’s lovely ambient guitar-synth track ‘The Kiss’ (reminiscent of The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly) taken from his fascinating 1991 cassette album Operation Oasis, ‘dedicated to the men and women of Operation Desert Storm’ – the entire run of which Johnson shipped to American soldiers serving in Iraq and Kuwait; American post-bop guitarist Calvin Keys’ sublime ‘Touch’; and 'Wisconsin Bird Songs’ by a high school biology teacher named John D. Curnow, taken from his 1960s album Northern Wilderness, comprising wild-bird-call field recordings captured in the wilds of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Like everything Numero Group releases, Reach is both educational and often sonically astounding.