Category: Music

  • Guaranteed Niceness album review – Sonar Kollektiv Orchester

    Guaranteed Niceness album review – Sonar Kollektiv Orchester

    To celebrate its tenth anniversary, jazzy Berlin label Sonar Kollektiv has released a collection of old tunes that sound remarkably new. A lush blanket of strings and horns transform songs that were once enveloped in electronic wizardry. Jazzanova faves No Use and Run have been stripped of their club-friendly oomph and replaced with a live, […]

  • 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 […]

  • …mixing album review – various artists (4hero)

    …mixing album review – various artists (4hero)

    The aim of this compilation is to “investigate the musical influences” of 4hero (aka Marc Mac and Dego) through an expansive selection of songs that spans J Dilla’s hip-hop breaks, the P-funk of Bootsy Collins, not to mention a smattering of retro electro and a dab of dub. For completist or new fans unfamiliar with […]

  • Seven Ways To Wonder album review – Reel People

    Seven Ways To Wonder album review – Reel People

    Upon hearing the first few bars of Seven Ways To Wonder, you suspect Oli Lazarus and co. have omitted a couple of words from this album’s title. Seven Ways To “Be Stevie” Wonder might be more apt, seeing that the percussive opener resembles the Motown legend’s work (circa mid ’70s). The song sets the tone […]

  • California album review – Natalie Gardiner

    California album review – Natalie Gardiner

    In much modern music, Svengali-like producers exert an inordinate amount of control over an album’s sound. That’s not the case here. Gardiner’s voice is central to California‘s mood and feel. Come Find Me Again‘s overlapping vocals flitter deftly around a light percussive rhythm, while the cool harmonies of Fading Hours delicately ebb and flow beneath […]

  • Broadcite Acetate album review – various artists

    Broadcite Acetate album review – various artists

    The Broadcite crew is a resourceful bunch that isn’t afraid to take risks. Years ago, when the collective set out to attract clubbers to its new broken-beat gigs, it didn’t hand out cheap flyers. Instead, it gambled by giving away pricier CDs that contained recordings of the fledgling night’s music. Likewise, when the gang launched […]

  • Rf Presents Opolopo album review – Opolopo

    Rf Presents Opolopo album review – Opolopo

    Fans of nu jazz tread a different path from the rest of the pop-besotted world. They love the idiosyncratic scene, with its choppy rhythms and oblique melodies. But with their passion comes frustration, as they struggle to convince their aurally challenged peers of the merits of neo soul or broken beats. Such an uphill task […]

  • R.U.E.D.Y. album review – Flowriders

    R.U.E.D.Y. album review – Flowriders

    Vincent Helbers, the Dutch dude behind the Flowriders, appears intent on sabotaging his career. Take, for instance, his moniker. Flowriders sounds more like a lavatory cleaner than a cutting-edge band — it’s hardly memorable. R.U.E.D.Y.‘s opening interlude, The Story Part I, doesn’t help his cause, either. It’s a dated slice of Acid Jazz that’s followed […]

  • The Real Thing: Words And Sounds Vol. 3 album review – Jill Scott

    The Real Thing: Words And Sounds Vol. 3 album review – Jill Scott

    This album should be dire, since Scott has been preoccupied of late. While recording The Real Thing, she appeared in Tyler Perry’s comedy drama Why Did I Get Married?, before auditioning for the role of Precious Ramotswe in an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s novel The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. And, if these distractions […]