Tag: jazz
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Monocled Man: We Drift Meridian
This album combines late night jazz with electronica; the overall mood is like being out on a foggy night when ships are lost at sea; a stranger is shuffling towards you out of the fog, probably with a treasure map in his hand. It’s all a bit mysterious. That’s not surprising: the concept is obscure…
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ZZ Top: Tonite at Midnight
Some live albums undergo more than a little studio engineering before hitting the shops; as one might hope with ZZ Top, they seem to have pressed “record” and what they played is what you get. The mix on opener Got Me Under Pressure sounds a bit raw and if a drum fill starts a fraction…
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Mick Harvey: Delirium Tremens
Fair play to Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey; he’s made plenty of good music in his time, so if he wants to scratch an itch and revisit the songbook of Serge Gainsbourg, he can. Like Nick Cave’s band, Gainsbourg sounded cool but could talk dirty, so Harvey is paying tribute to a man who influenced his…
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Phil Collins: Dance Into The Light
We confess to never having heard this album or any of its songs, and it’s possible that even if we had, we’d have forgotten them. It’s all a bit unremarkable, though it’s a pleasant album with several enjoyable songs. The downside is that it’s Collins at his slickest; unmemorable tunes with an unremarkable voice don’t…
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Phil Collins: Face Value / Both Sides
It’s not quite up there with Blackadder going over the top or Del Boy missing the bar and falling over, but one truly great television moment was the opening episode of Miami Vice: Crockett and Tubbs drive down a waterfront road in a Ferrari Daytona Spyder, racing to a show-down. The soundtrack that made it…
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Terence Charlston: Mersenne’s Clavichord
This pleasant album is more important for scholars of music and keyboard buffs than your casual listener, though it’s a nice enough collection. Early-music specialist Terence Charlston is playing Mersenne’s Clavichord, a clavichord built according to specifications left by Marin Mersenne – no examples of an original French clavichord survive. Wikipedia reports that Mersenne, a…
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Ordinary Boys: Ordinary Boys
If ever there was a band that don’t sound like they’re reforming out of desperation, it’s Ordinary Boys on this rather decent new album. We confess we couldn’t name any of their tunes from their previous incarnation, though Wikipedia informs us that their big hit Boys Will Be Boys featured in the fifth Harry Potter…
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Portico: Living Fields
Portico used to be Portico Quartet and played jazz; we’ve got their third album and it’s rather beautiful mood music that combines jazz and electronica, with a splash of world. Now they’re a trio and have not only dropped the Quartet but dropped the jazz and the world — this is pure electronica. It’s a…
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Ash Hunter: Rural Music
This came via Wedge at A&A Music so we weren’t expecting much: in fact it’s wonderful. Overall the vibe reminded us of Traffic’s mix of folk and jazz, from an era when people used to be optimistic about putting the world to rights with a few good ideas and a steady supply of weed. It…
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Spectrum Orchestrum: Suburbs
There is nothing more likely to warm the hearts of the Review Corner than a polite email from a Frenchman asking if we would review his band, especially when the forthcoming EP (though it’s long) subsequently turns out to be lovingly packaged with an imaginatively designed sleeve. Prelude opens the EP gently and is slightly…
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