{"product_id":"confucius-mc-bastien-keb-songs-for-lost-travellers","title":"CONFUCIUS MC, BASTIEN KEB - Songs For Lost Travellers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLP - Black Vinyl with Printed Inner. South London rapper Confucius MC returns to Shabaka Hutchings’ Native Rebel Recordings for a new project alongside producer and multi-instrumentalist Bastien Keb. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s written in the Agreement Terms. There’s no getting out alive in Life. And yet, mankind keeps striving for eternal life; through art, through power, through cryogenics, through singularity. In that misguided quest against the inevitable, we all fall into the category of lost travellers. No one is exempt. In that understanding, \u003cstrong\u003eConfucius MC\u003c\/strong\u003e and producer \u003cstrong\u003eBastien Keb\u003c\/strong\u003e offer no misgivings about the destination on the somber “Time Will Come”: Time will come for all of us \/ try to take your time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSongs For Lost Travellers\u003c\/em\u003e is a collaborative album by Con and Bastien Keb that merges unexplored pathways between rap, folk, and jazz into a spiritual triumvirate. Each genre is a balancing force within the record. The result is an album unlike either artist have made previously, possibly unlike any record in existence. \u003cem\u003eSongs For Lost Travellers\u003c\/em\u003e opens with bedtime stories and fairytales. Both “\u003cem\u003eTell Me Lies\u003c\/em\u003e” and “\u003cem\u003eFairytale\u003c\/em\u003e” present the creature comforts that trick us into forgetting the truth. Con’s first words spoken are “tell me lies ‘til I swear I can’t remember” over Keb’s lo-fi plucking that feels like it was lifted from a handheld recorder capturing a nursery mobile above a crib. Third track “\u003cem\u003eTime Will Come\u003c\/em\u003e” resets the album after acknowledging on “Fairytale” there’s “no nourishment in half-truths \/ no sustenance in eating lies.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHonest and direct, Con and Keb imbue \u003cem\u003eSongs For Lost Travellers\u003c\/em\u003e with knowledge and truth from their lived experiences. There is grief hidden in the notes, an inherent sadness that is balanced with an awareness that grief is a protest against the social machinery of remaining numb. The record lingers in a meditative state, unafraid of restlessness and embracing solitude, with the expectation that peace is just as imminent as death.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe production contains a complimentary authenticity. Neither Con nor Keb bothered much with the professional studio in making Songs For Lost Travellers. Instead they opted for the raw state of their home recordings and first takes, matching the intimacy of being alone and reflective in their creative energies. Room static on “\u003cem\u003eTell Me Lies\u003c\/em\u003e” makes it feel like you’ve entered their apartments. The immediacy continues on “\u003cem\u003eGutters\u003c\/em\u003e,” as Keb plays guitar while watching the tele and Con hums along to the vocal melody in search of the proper pocket for his verse. Someone snaps their finger to mark a cue, but the snap never returns to the mix to keep time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore drawn to Keb’s recent folk recordings on the \u003cem\u003eSongs For Lilla\u003c\/em\u003e EP than his funk roots circa \u003cem\u003eDinking In The Shadows of Zizou\u003c\/em\u003e or the cinematic soul of \u003cem\u003eThe Killing of Eugene Peeps\u003c\/em\u003e, Con leaned into the spacial freedom he heard in Keb’s lo-fi production cobbled from field recordings and voice notes. Both artists placed their families into the tableau. Con wrote “\u003cem\u003eLittle Man\u003c\/em\u003e” for his son, hoping to add a positive contribution to the canon of parental rap songs. Later, his son appears at the end of “\u003cem\u003eParamount\u003c\/em\u003e” to deliver a passage from \u003cstrong\u003eKahlil Gibran\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem\u003eThe Prophet\u003c\/em\u003e. Keb secretly recorded his mum playing saxophone and sampled his cousin playing sax as well. The result is a near-drumless album (save for “\u003cem\u003eToulouse\u003c\/em\u003e” and light tapping on “\u003cem\u003eIt Would Speak\u003c\/em\u003e”) in which Keb’s raw production (plus a few sessions with \u003cstrong\u003eKofi Flexxx\u003c\/strong\u003e) gave Con a liminal zone, unencumbered by beats per minute, to craft melodies that turn his philosophical rhymes into mantras.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps there’s a message in the presence of family? It would be one of many. Con and Keb’s reflective, somber approach to \u003cem\u003eSongs For Lost Travellers\u003c\/em\u003e does not wallow in the mire. Music is action and it’s taking them through a portal to the other side of grief. We are welcome to join (which is also in the fine print of the Agreement Terms), but first there’s a password in the final song, a single request to answer: Tell me what you care about.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBiography by \u003cstrong\u003eBlake Gillespie\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Native Rebel Recordings","offers":[{"title":"LP - Vinyl","offer_id":54085509349721,"sku":"SDZ-07328","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/Confucius_MC_and_Bastien_Keb_-_Songs_For_Lost_Travellers_-_2025.jpg?v=1737634438","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/confucius-mc-bastien-keb-songs-for-lost-travellers","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}