There is care and consideration here and the pieces often feel as though there are dancers softly moving, wearing slippers so as not to disturb but fully engaged in the sinuous rhythm.... Aether II may seem cosy and soft but the little ripples that are scattered throughout give cause to reconsider.
album review
2632 posts
It's Been A Long, Long Time is their first album in ten years, but that time has been well spent honing their skills live and by the sound of the virtuosity on offer here, this selection of jazzy standards have definitely been part of their repertoire.
The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed, the first release for Fire Records from Donaldson’s addiction-primed enterprise, which rounds-up a choice compendium of previously digital-only non-album cuts, inside signature ‘same-but-different’ packaging.
Capturing a year's worth of live performances in a visceral overload, Brut combines hectic speed drumming with obsessive looped samples and electronic slashes to create an intense journey that gives the sensation of a dancefloor wired up to the mains.
...the way the whole range of shades is filled in is quite a feat and one that makes the album very easy to return to. As a one-off it works perfectly; a chance meeting destined to live in the memory.
...just what Bureau B is about as there has been no pressing since the original release, plus they have unearthed three previously unreleased tracks and a shorter version of the the A-side to flesh it out to album length. The title track is a mid-tempo gallop with shiny squelchy synths and the simplest of electronic drum beats.
The clouds of complex microtonal chords in "I" could sit on their own, but there's enough clear, near-melodic notes floating through to make it distinctly composed. I say 'near-melodic' notes because while there's definitely lines that you'd maybe call monodic lines (that is, single notes), they're effervescent enough to never quite land like melody. If it's not clear, this is a lovely effect.
Amongst the pastoral birdcalls and wind rustling the leaves, the bass has retreated to a liminal throb, an ancient heartbeat its low tones giving a grounding to the natural sounds that move around our heads and open our eyes. We traverse the panorama slowly, with other elements introduced as we pass dreamlike carried on a bed of gossamer synth. The rush of water soothes as local bells toll gently.
...two epics-within-themselves .. a pair of expansive CD / digital-only outings from reliable combinations of creators and curators, from the scene that never sleeps.
Utterly compelling sonics that pearl potently, splash morbidly into the piano pins of “Disintegrate”, hinting echoes of the next album, grasping at a haunting sadness that would be later expanded upon, but for now slowly falling into the expressionist despair of silence. It might be forty years old, but it still remains a brooding masterpiece. Thank you Dais for bringing Camouflage Heart back into the world.
We have absolutely no idea what to expect as each new section starts, so it is best to just immerse yourself and trust to their natural flow. ... Once again, Uroboro set new standards on what we can expect from an improv gathering which feels more like a series of extended conversations between good friends
For the latest release for experimental jazz label Clonmell Jazz Social, guitarist Ted Morcaldi has convened a trio to flesh out his dreamlike concoctions. With some percussion from Joshua Blackmore and bass form Joel Humann, Ted spins twelve diverse pieces using the very different tones of electric, classical and twelve-string guitars plus various synth sounds.
Acting as the latest ambassadorial outing from the Bedroom Suck community and following on from 2018’s enigmatic eponymous LP under the somewhat off-putting Cyanide Thornton moniker, Birding Out captivates as an idiosyncratic creative deposition from its own little corner of the world.
It's A Love Song is the first Massaker release of new material since 1993's Koksofen and it is quite the cumbersome journey. Spread over three tracks and thirty-four minutes, the LP consists of an abstract intro of muted bells, dropped instruments and loaded silence; and then two live versions of recent composition, the titular "It's A Love Song".
Entering a realm where the laws of latter-day rock and pop physics don’t really apply, this second self-billed long-player for the label -- from the artist formerly known as Ziggy Heroe -- trades in the suave and sophisticated side-alleys that largely became forgotten about since The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and their peers rewrote the rules of engagement in the latter-half of the 1960s
A triangulation of talent, the '70s library album cover art repetitively alludes to a collaboration between three members of Bristol’s No-Wave wrecking ball, Repo Man (Liam McConaghy - guitar / Anthony Brown - bass / Bojak - sax, violin, vocals) collectively labelled Repo; and two members of Exeter’s free jazz trio Capri-Batterie (Matt (K) Lord on tenor sax and bass and Kordian Tetkov on all things percussive and squeaky), an extra contingent that swerves tastily in there, temples the tension with extra perspective.
Two recent albums involving Swedish pianist Mathias Landæus give good indications of the standard of his piano playing and ability to interact with other players. Both albums are by trios, with the first, Mathias with Nina de Heney on bass and Kresten Osgood on drums, giving us Dissolving Patterns; while the Landæus Trio, which features Johnny Åman on bass and Cornelia Nilsson at the drumkit, present Resilience.
Once more on to the fertile fields of the DIY electronica scene we go, cutting a path to search for the most interesting of musical crops that grow and regenerate at exponential rates…