Category: Jazz

  • Jazz Re:freshed Vol. 1 album review – various artists

    Jazz Re:freshed Vol. 1 album review – various artists

    This compilation by London promoters Adam “Rock” Moses and Justin “TopRock” McKenzie is a studious snapshot of nu jazz and broken beat sounds, genres long snubbed by major labels. Without this album, where else would you hear Femi Temowo’s poetic Wood And Things, the head-nodding broken beats of Kaidi Tatham or the psychedelic soul of […]

  • Loud… Louder… Stop! album review – Neil Cowley Trio

    Loud… Louder… Stop! album review – Neil Cowley Trio

    This album is sandwiched between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Fans of nu jazz, who favour a mains-powered instrument in the mix, will be put off by an acoustic trio. Meanwhile “proper” jazzers — those musos who listen to suites rather than songs — will find Loud… Louder… Stop! too damn catchy for […]

  • Junkyard Gods album review – Two Banks Of Four

    Junkyard Gods album review – Two Banks Of Four

    There wouldn’t be a broken beat or nu-jazz scene without the likes of Earl Zinger and Demus (of Galliano and the Young Disciples fame, respectively). Both were trailblazers of acid jazz, a genre that spawned numerous soulful incarnations. Intriguingly, this CD stirs up memories of those heydays. Maybe it’s the waltzy backdrop of Queen Of […]

  • Ma Fleur album review – The Cinematic Orchestra

    Ma Fleur album review – The Cinematic Orchestra

    Jason Swinscoe, the man behind The Cinematic Orchestra, has never been one to serve up cheerful tunes, but his sombre mood has plummeted to new depths on this recording. Ma Fleur‘s a soundtrack to an unmade film, but if it were ever shot, it’d no doubt be a tragedy. There’s no denying that this is […]

  • One Sweet Life album review – Brotherly

    One Sweet Life album review – Brotherly

    Even if you’re steeped in the hip environs of the leftfield music scene, you may not know of Robin Mullarkey and Anna Stubbs, aka Brotherly. Their anonymity will not doubt continue if, as Commercial Break’s been told, this CD remains misleadingly plonked in the R&B section of some stores. True, this is a vocal album, […]