Author: jerobear
-
Olympia: Flamingo
There was a moment — track four, Nervous Riders — when we thought we were going to love this album, but sadly it’s a little too patchy. This is the second album by Australian singer-songwriter Olympia (real name Olivia Bartley, and from Wollongongand) and it’s psychedelic pop with leaning towards to indie. On the plus…
-
Grateful Dead: Aoxomoxoa
The Grateful Dead inspire absolute devotion among their aging fans. We’re too young to be fans, but even so we trekked to the Dead’s house in San Francisco (we were in the city, it wasn’t a special journey). This album is a 50th anniversary reissue and it is reportedly their most experimental. While we’re still…
-
Marie Ythier: Une Rencontre (An Encounter)
The warm tones of the cello are what make this CD a pleasure to listen to, which is good, because the sleeve notes are technical and the ideas behind it analytical. Composer Tristan Murail is, say the release notes, “without doubt” one of the most significant figures in European contemporary music circles, and one of…
-
Caravan Palace: Chronologic
Caravan Palace is a French electronic music band based in Paris. They play electro-swing, which is as it sounds; possibly more popular on the Continent than this side of La Manche. Electro-swing combines swing and jazz mixed with modern dance. It can be an acquired taste; Mr Scruff and Jurassic 5 have written electro-swing tracks.…
-
David Helbock: Playing John Williams
Austrian jazz pianist David Helbock loves John Williams, as do we all (even if we don’t know it). Helbock’s problem is to make the music we know inside out sound fresh, and the music we don’t know sound interesting. As Helbock says, the music in the films is often “magnified onto a grand scale”, and…
-
Ed Sheeran: No 6 Collaborations
Sheeran has got to be an unlikely global star by playing bland tunes aimed at targeted demographics. You can snigger but he knows what he’s doing and he’s done better than you. You can’t get any bigger than global superstar so perhaps this album marks the end of his career plan phase one and a…
-
Helen Habershon: Found in Winter
This is a very accessible collection — perhaps too much so for people who view themselves as “classical music” fans. The cd has television mini-series written all over it. Moby famously licensed every track from Play and we could see a similar thing happening here. Habershon is inspired by the natural world and it is…
-
Rod Melancon: Pinkville
This is an album we’ll be savouring after the review is done; it’s a quality album and very interesting (interesting always being the best thing about music). Melancon plays swampy, dirty American blues (at least on this, we’ve not heard of him before but this is his fourth release). Imagine Nick Cave and the Bad…
-
Jesse Dayton: Mix Tape Volume 1
This is a song of covers, except Dayton puts a twangy spin on them, muscular country meets rock ‘n’ roll. If you always felt your favourite tunes would be improved by deep country guitar licks, this is for you. We won’t pretend to have heard of him. We guess he’s big in the US, as…
-
Artmagic: The Songs of Other England
Top rate musicians here — Sean McGhee has toured with Alison Moyet, guitarist Richard Oakes helped Suede deliver Top 10 albums, John Cale drummer Alex Thomas is on the throne — but an album that you might find a little lacklustre. The topics are inspired by McGhee’s interest in English folk music, hence the track…
Review Corner 