Author: jerobear
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Isasi Quartet Isasi: String Quartets 1&5
As can be seen by the CD sleeve, complete with Spanish flag, Isasi was Spanish (born in Bilbao) but despite being active in the early 20th century he was a fan of Germanic classical music from the previous century, and wrote accordingly. This wasn’t fashionable at the time and Isasi, who the sleeve notes say…
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Andrew Montgomery: Ruled By Dreams
Montgomery was in a brit pop band called the Geneva, who we’ve not heard of. Sometime reviewer CNM, who has the memory of an elephant after intensive memory training on Memory Island, doesn’t remember them either, so it’s safe to assume they weren’t big. What he’s been doing since then is a mystery — he’s…
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Meadowlark: Dual EP
Anyone who listens to new music on a regular basis will know that feeling when you play a track and know it’s going to be your must-play record for the next week. It doesn’t happen very often but was the case with the first track on this lovely EP from Meadowlark, which we’ve been playing…
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Ghostpoet: Shedding Skin
He hit fame and fortune (well moderate fame and probably not much fortune) after being Mercury nominated a couple of years back. His signature sound is gloomily spoken lyrics over equally gloomy electronic music, though it’s quite pleasant to listen to. We’re missing out a whole layer of intellectual input with that thumbnail. On this…
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I Am Kloot: Live – Hold Back The Night
We think it’s true to say that we were staggered about how good this album was. It’s maybe not Elbow but it was certainly as good as them in parts and reminiscent of Sniff And The Tears. They particularly reminded us of an Irish band called Aslan, who are big over there but not so…
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Kammerchor Michaelstein: Rolle – 31 Motets
Rolle was described by a contemporary as benevolent, moderate and with good breeding, and his personality is reflected in his music; it is these qualities that presumably made his music so popular during his lifetime. He was born in 1715 and died in 1785, but by 1825 he had been largely forgotten. He composed his…
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Thomas Truax: Jetstream Sunset
Truax (pr True Axe) came out of the antifolk movement in New York in the late 90s — according to Wikipedia his contemporaries included Beck — but Truax seems to have avoided fame and followed a steam punk route. He decided that his USP (a terrible Apprentice acronym he would probably never use except ironically)…
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Frank Sinatra: Ultimate Sinatra
Francis Albert was born 100 years ago this December — yes, Frank is as old as the First World War — so we can expect much in the way of Frankobilia in the coming months. The first question must be why you should be interested in a man who’s been dead for some time and…
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Various: WW 2.0
We like a lot of the classical CDs we review — particularly the modern classical — simply because they are interesting. This electronic album is equally interesting and shows that the line between classical and pop is a thin one; indeed it closes with a piano piece. It’s a compilation from WW Records and over…
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The Overtones: Sweet Soul Music
The Overtones do for music what Disney does for Gothic slasher movies. This is the finest soul music, created by people with, well, soul, and put through The Overtones rinsing machine to become bland albeit beautifully presented pop. As entertainment for people who want some nice tunes, we can’t fault it. They all have nice…
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