Maisha bring a fresh slant to the weighty spiritual jazz tradition. Their 2016 debut EP was released through Jazz Re:freshed (whose weekly shows and record label are an institution for forward-thinking jazz), and were part of We Out Here, Brownswood's early 2018 record which documented London's genre-bending, jazz-influenced underground. They've been featured on Boiler Room, supported the Sun Ra Arkestra, and played at Church of Sound, a live series that's quickly become a staple of the emergent scene. It's the brainchild of bandleader Jake Long, and features a clutch of London musicians who've come through the same circles: Amané Suganami, Twm Dylan, Tim Doyle, Yahael Camara-Onono, Shirley Tetteh and Nubya Garcia, the latter of whom played a part in shaping the early sound of the band. Recorded across three days in mid-2018, the songs have grown out of their live sets over the past year or two. The songs unfold slowly, each of their parts given time to breathe, building up to crescendos which are patiently earnt. Spiritual jazz is a tradition that's leaden with its own traditions, histories and stories. Maisha carve out their own style through that weight of expectation. They channel the greats like Pharoah Sanders, while filtering their own influences from jazz to Afrobeat. It's a sound which rests on trance-inducing rhythms, instinctive musical interchange and repeated, deeply enriching melodic refrains. It's a combination which has made for their own singular sound.