...a tight, tight thing. Playing so close they are almost picking one another's pockets, their take on 'cubist jazz' fits the term perfectly; all hard angles and unexpected facets.
Mr Olivetti
901 posts
...has once again gathered a reflective and expressive group around him to do justice to a suite of pieces reflecting on themes inspired by Marcus Clarke's 1874 convict adventure novel For The Term Of His Natural.
Always difficult to categorise, the seven tracks presented here show even more scope in their tribal noise attack, with Lisa's vocals particularly diverse ranging from half-expected spoken ruminations to more feral and freer wordless outbursts.
Based on a dream Bid had a couple of years ago, this ten-song cycle has a jaunty lilt to the rhythms that ebb and flow in thrall to hiss unfurling imagination. There is still a loucheness to the delivery, but the voice is softer now and perhaps because of the subject matter perhaps a little less arch.
The short chapters mean that it is easy to pick up and put down and one of the book's qualities is that it isn't necessary to plough through the whole thing. It feels more like a box of chocolates; picking one, deliberating over it, going to the relevant album and appreciating the fresh perspectives on what you are listening to.
Although the band had bedded in by now, the songs and direction were very much David's responsibility and across the sixteen delightfully ramshackle tracks collected here, his bedsit romanticism and rainy seaside melancholy rub shoulders with punkish disdain and a fleeting sense of desperate alienation.
...thoughtful, measured shapes of the violin are carefully released and there is an air of subtlety to the support, with even the warm caress of the bass providing a sense of solace. The arms around the shoulders allow space for these musical tales to unfold from the vocal, piano and trumpet reflecting a concerto melancholy...
The latest two releases from experimental label Rope Worm find French improvisational duo Maninkari and Polish exploratory drummer Daniel Szwed expanding sound in very different directions, but both leaning very much towards esoteric instrumentalism.
UK trio Mammal Hands are continuing on their trajectory combining pastoral, spiritually aware jazz with hints of minimalism and classical to evoke a space that is constantly moving, but at a pace that is adventurous yet welcoming.
There are hints of jazz inflection here and there, but the album offers far more: a very personal view that recognises some jazz tropes but disguises them with their own subtle sway. In places the bass and drums shapeshift, rolling like marbles with a willingness to forgo structure for texture when it seems right and allow light to pierce through.
Nominally to promote last year's England's Screaming album, it felt more like an opportunity to engage with an audience who had clearly travelled many miles with him over the years, such was the familiarity and ease of atmosphere. The Face Bar is an interesting venue, looking like a social club suite with a series of interconnected rooms and the stage for tonight is set up in front of some very comfy looking chairs and makes for a convivial setting. An engaging character and raconteur, Eric is armed only with two guitars and a series of effects pedals to lay waste to songs old and new.
...a half-hour album filled with minute-long sketches, each inhabiting its own little world. The BELLASTRA is a random prompt generator that used found sounds to guide the players, with each of the trio adding electronics, accordion and flute respectively.
Expansive pianist and composer Olly Chalk has been in the contemporary improvised music scene in London for a number of years, often collaborating but always searching. Here, for In Those Remote Stars, he has drawn a quintet around him of like-minded individuals who bring a sense of bubbling adventure to his eleven compositions.
Dignity opens with a five-part suite that delves into Isabelle’s feelings of dignity and how we can better live in that manner, with the other players lending a hushed setting which allows the flute to travel, snaking carefully and wavering gently as the Hammond holds out its hand and lends support.
If you imagine a post-hardcore band had ditched guitar and voice and replaced them with two saxes, this is the sound you would have. The interplay of the reeds is really natural and they fill in for each another covering a wide range of tones and are not afraid to change things mid-flight as a air of repetitive notes tugs at one another like two dogs with a rope.
...over ten carefully chosen pieces they run through all manner of vocal styles and manners, with a brief introduction allowing the listener an opportunity to hear their differing approaches, from spoken to shrieked and from a bubbling murmur to an intense hammering. You start to feel the energy and the "creeping fog of war" as the subjects elicit the necessary responses from the vocalists.
I was disappointed to discover that Theta Seven will be the last outing for the Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere, but it might be due to the group’s remit of “proposing an alternative reality in which all notions of common sense have been eradicated” is no longer relevant.
Although Jimi Tenor is renowned as a solo artist, he is also a serial collaborator; but for the first time, during the pandemic, he drew a band around him of local musicians to bring to life some of his delightful paeans to positivity that must have bubbled up over the lockdown period.