Today, we are overjoyed to welcome dear guest Lophae to MailTape. Based in London and pulling together Brazilian samba, jazz, and West African traditions, the band joins us following the release of two albums in 2025, Perfect Strangers and Imagine More. Recording live to tape, the quartet’s releases are playfully experimental, intricately creative, and an absolute delight to discover.

Guest’s selection

Bembeya Jazz National - Lan Naya

Greg/Lophae: ” This is one of my all-time favourite West African guitar picks, with one of my all-time favourite guitar solos, by one of my all-time favourite guitarists – Sekou Diabate, also known as ‘Diamond Fingers’! Bembeya hail from Guinea, and musically draw on the Mande musical tradition, like their contemporaries such as Mali’s Rail Band.

For me this song has an amazing yearning melancholy quality combined with this unbelievably driving and sensual groove. The bass is playing such beautiful variations and the three electric guitars wind in and out of each other creating an endlessly gorgeous hypnotic tapestry! “

Barney Keen - Today Is Not The Day

Greg/Lophae: ” Barney is a very dear friend and one of my favourite musicians – and to be honest I think he’s one of the favourite musicians of many people!

He recently released his absolutely stunning album ‘Harbinger’, and this track is the final track on the album. I seem to have this song going round in my head all the time at the moment, unless I’m listening to something else. Barney’s stuff has flavours of Shuggie Otis, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone in the way he uses and mixes electronic and acoustic sounds & instruments – drum machines, electric guitars, keyboards and synths, real drums etc. But also his singing is so plaintive and lovely and his melodies and chords are so compelling and satisfying. “

Tom Skinner - Margaret Anne

Greg/Lophae: ” Tom Skinner is another one of my favourite musicians – I first saw him playing live at some of the very earliest Shabaka & The Sons Of Kemet gigs in London, probably around 2012/2013, and I was immediately obsessed with his feel and groove. He’s just released the ‘Kaleidoscopic Visions’ album, which I think is incredible. This is one of my favourite songs on that album. In a nice link – the bass player on ‘Kaleidoscopic Visions’ is Tom Herbert – an old friend of Tom Skinners, and also the bass player in Lophae! “

Curator’s selection

Lophae - Fallout

Sarah: ” Exceptionally difficult to choose just one track from the album Perfect Strangers (and much the same is true for Imagine More). Greg Sanders, the band’s guitarist and composer, described arranging the tracklist as a game of careful tetris. Fallout opens the Perfect Strangers album, and since I first heard it, this melody has left footprints in my brain. It seems only fair to pass it on as your first impression too :) The rhythmic balancing is so delightfully intricate, from the jaws of the bassline to the fluttering of the guitar. The sax seems to saunter one moment and soar the next :) “

Ordinarius, Hamilton de Holanda, João Bosco - Incompatibilidade de gênios

Sarah: ” These past months I’ve been cycling through João Bosco’s discography, and this is one of his recent collaborations with vocal group Ordinarius and bandolinist Hamilton de Holanda. Something so joyful in this arrangement, they fly together “

Lophae - What We Were Waiting For

Sarah: ” This track is from Lophae’s second album, Imagine More. The band’s melodies are such interesting creatures, creative but then quite ready to wander. There’s this effortless swoop of the drums, the sax, and the bass as they join in conversation and pose new questions, stringing together a collage of ebbs and flows. “

Ely Margo - Ciriri (Mato Grosso)

Sarah: ” One of my favorite records, a bright light on a Sunday morning :) Ely Margo was a singer and folklorist who traveled throughout Brazil, this album preserves several traditional songs she learned in her travels; Ciriri comes from the state of Mato Grosso. ”

And that’s all for this morning, thanks for listening :)) Thank you to Thibault Daumain for this episode’s absolutely fantastic artwork, so vibrant ! Many thanks to Lophae and Greg Sanders for this episode’s wonderful selection :) See you next week !