Face to Face

Some feared that the massive availability of the past that came with the digital age would lead to glutting and paralysis of culture. Others, thankfully, are able to simply delight in the abundance of extraordinary music that just keeps coming and coming. This 2021 release, for example, comes from sessions in the Swedish studio of producer Torsten Larsson in 1994 — around the same time that South African folk singer Vusi Mahlasela sang at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as president — and it is incandescently great. In it, spiritual jazz, reggae, disco-infused postpunk, roots reggae, dub and township jive flow together effortlessly and elegantly. It’s full of heavyweight social and political comment but overflows with joy at the same time.