Author: jerobear
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Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren: Mare Nostrum III
Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren and French accordionist Richard Galliano have joined together for a third album. Online reviews suggest vol one was better but we wouldn’t know; this is still good. The combination of instruments is unusual, which makes this hard to categorise. It’s calming and relaxing but we struggle with what we call the…
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Truman Harris: A Warm Day in Winter
This is a jolly album of bassoon-led pieces. Yes: you study all your life, you’re really good and you put out a complex album … and it’s summed up as jolly. All that effort for one word. Jolly hockey sticks is what always comes to mind when we play this, but we’re not really sure…
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Native Harrow: Happier Now
This is a really good album. It’s greater than the sum of its parts: the tunes are ok, her voice (Native Harrow is Devin Tuel — nearly Devon Tool, of which a harrow could be an example, though we doubt that’s why she picked the alter ego) is ok and the general air is of…
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Yonaka: Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow
The sleeve of this asks the right question: Y? Why would you buy this over the slew of more interesting albums out there? On the plus side, Yonaka are British (Brighton) and have produced a stadium-sounding album of workmanlike slick tunes somewhere between power pop and pop punk. They make a lot of noise, work…
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Neil Young and Stray Gators: Tuscaloosa
It’s unlikely to win any new fans but it’s a good Young album for old ones. Tuscaloosa features The Stray Gators, Young’s band between 1971-73, playing five songs from Harvest, not long released. His self-titled debut and After The Goldrush also supply tracks. Young is on top form, the band knows his moves and he…
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Shakespears Sister: Singles Party (1988-2019)
Everyone knows Shakespears Sister, though you might struggle to remember a song. “Two girls, dancy pop, something to do with Bananarama and Dave Stewart, fell out ..?” Well that’s all we remembered. Marcella Detroit and Siobhan Fahey formed the band in 1988 after Fahey left Bananarama. They split in 1993 after Detroit was sacked in…
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Miguel Gorodi: Nonet Apophenia
Some of these reviews might ramble a bit but the PR that comes with them struggles even more, and this is a case in point. The apophenia of the title is erroneously making connections or meaning with unrelated things — a failing that can be seen all over social media — and one track was…
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Alex Hitchcock: All Good Things
This is one of those albums that’s hard to write about because you’re so into its meaty and interesting sound (and want to use words like hep and cats) that you can never write anything down. If you Google Hitchcock, he’s a man who loves his jazz, whether playing it or supporting other bands, and…
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Fini Henriques: Piano Pieces
Listening to this rather delightful CD we thought it resembled a sampler of piano pieces for amateurs to play along to, and learn; not novices, but neither the highly advanced. When we read the sleeve notes, they report that, of Henriques’ works for piano, the majority can be divided into music for children and music…
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Allusinlove: It’s Okay to Talk
Allusinlove is a weird name and the first part remarkably easy to misread as a bottom-related synonym, but they’re from Yorkshire, where they allus talk like that. They used to be called Allusondrugs, which after a misread would suggest imminent arrest at Bangkok airport. (This anus punnery was maybe funnier when we first wrote it).…
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