Category: Uncategorized
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The Burning: Hell People
We’d not heard of The Burning Hell before — it’s Mathias Kom and a rotating cast of players, and this is their sixth album since 2007 — but they play witty pop in the style of They Might Be Giants (who they sound like) or Fountains of Wayne: clever lyrics that tell stories set…
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Siobhan Lamb: Through The Mirror, Tales From Childhood
You wouldn’t think jazz and choral music would mix well but flautist Lamb shows they can; it probably helps that she is a composer and her husband, Gerard, is a jazz trumpeter. You can guess the gist from the title; the tracks are The Frog and the Ass, The Hare and the Tortoise, The…
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Café Mambo: 20 Years of Ibiza Chillout
This is three CDs of chillout classics, laidback grooves and remixes from the legendary Café Mambo on Ibiza. The trouble is, it’s music for people who have been up all night dancing on Es and want to relax before bed, or for those who are still on Es and want to rehydrate and chill before…
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Morrissey: Vauxhall and I
The 20th anniversary “definitive master” of what some Mozzer fans say is his best solo effort comes with a unreleased 1995 live concert (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), which again features solo stuff bar one track. It was reportedly written after the death of several close acquaintances, not least Mick Ronson; death and its inevitability seem…
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Jos Zwaanenburg: Grist
Nominally this is a “classical” album because it features a flute but it’s really an experimental album featuring flute and lots of electronic noise. It’s a whole album’s worth of sonic twiddling that sounds like a long section from a wacky krautrock band of the 70s. Zwaanenburg graduated with distinction from the Sweelinck Conservatorium-Amsterdam in…
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Mastodon: Once More Round The Sun
Mastodon are one of those muscular metal bands whose music really does go “Kerrang!” or even “Whoooarrrghhh!” They’ve always been a bit loud for me. This new one, though, is more melodic; while the riffage, guitar breaks, big bass lines (at times it made us think of Motorhead on steroids) and manly vocals…
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Jenny Lin: Night Stories — Nocturnes
Yes she wants you to know this is music for the night: a nocturne (from the French for nocturnal) is music inspired by the night but she’s called the album Night Stories just in case. It’s an album for playing in the evening, preferably in the dark. There are tracks by the likes of…
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Lucius Wilderwoman
This is the debut album from the band, who are led by twin vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. It’s a hard one to say much about: there’s no obvious lead track and the mix of genres means it doesn’t leave much impression at first. But it’s all good and on a track by…
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Get The Blessing – Lope and Antilope
Jazz drumming is too hard for me to play (well, probably, never tried it) but seems to be led by the ride cymbal and not, as in rock, by snare and kick drum. Get The Blessing is another category (ii) jazz band (see Ant Law, below) but I’d venture to suggest that that difference between…
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Ant Law – Entanglement
There are – officially – three types of jazz, which is a style of music that attracts adherents as dedicated to the cause as Smiths fans. These are : (i) New Orleans / Dixieland / trad, which has tunes and melody, can sometimes reference hymns, features men with umbrellas, and is fun; (ii) Clint Eastwood…
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