Alfa Mist - Roulette [2LP]

Roulette is Alfa Mist building an entire imagined future to explore an old question, spread across 2LP and structured so every song lands like a different spin of the wheel.

Across five albums Alfa Mist has never been afraid of a big idea, but this sixth record commits harder than usual, a near-future dystopia where reincarnation turns out to be real and provable, and the discovery immediately curdles into a struggle over who gets to keep their memories and who gets to control them. Fifteen tracks, each one framed as its own character and its own spin, held together by his usual toolkit, lambent keys, jazz improvisation that never feels showy, a rhythm section built to breathe, now filtered through a smokier, more psychedelic haze than his earlier records allowed themselves.

Reincarnation opens the record with Homeboy Sandman in tow, setting the whole premise in motion. The title track is the clear centrepiece, eight minutes that shift time signature without ever feeling disjointed, because, as Mist puts it, life isn't linear either. All Time brings Tawiah in for one of the record's warmest turns, and Black Snow closes the album on its bleakest, most unresolved note.

One of UK jazz's most restless minds, still finding new ways to make a big idea feel personal rather than academic.