Category: Archive
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Higher album review – Michelle Amador
Roy Ayers. Roy Ayers. Roy Ayers. That’s the name that springs to mind when listening to Higher. In fact, Ayers is pretty much in the room on He And She, a superb song that features Ayers sound-alike Mr. J. But even when Mr. J isn’t jamming, Ayers’ aura is ever present because Michelle’s cool, measured phrasing is […]
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When Planets Explode album review – Dorian Concept
With his floppy blond locks and second-hand T-shirts, Dorian Concept personifies nerdiness. You can hear it in his music. Every intro on When Planets Explode begins with, what appears to be, a jumble of blips and squelches. Then, as if by magic, those muddled noises mutate into a discernable melody. It’s all very smart, although […]
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In Search Of Hope album review – Kaidi Tatham
Kaidi, like other broken beat practitioners, shuns the limelight. But if you’ve been paying attention during the past decade, you would’ve heard his Hancock-esque keyboard playing on tracks by Bugz In The Attic, 2000 Black, DKD and Silhouette Brown. In Search Of Hope is a departure from his previous work, being decidedly jazzier. Nothing wrong […]
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The Renaissance album review – Q-Tip
There was probably an almighty unclenching of buttocks when this CD was released, such was the tension surrounding it. Q-Tip was under pressure; only President Obama had more expectations on his shoulders. The last album by the former A Tribe Called Quest rhymster was 1999’s Amplified (if you don’t count 2002’s unreleased Kamaal The Abstract). […]
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A Next Set A Rockers album review – 2000 Black
Major labels make it painless for fans to buy their wares anywhere in any format. Wanna download? iTunes and Amazon are primed to take your cash. Prefer a CD? You can buy one while doing your weekly shop at Walmart. But in the case of Dego and Kaidi’s new album, punters will suffer; A Next […]
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…broadcasting album review – various artists (Karen P)
Compilations are like movies. Most are the musical equivalent of blockbusters, serving up songs people already know; others are like arthouse films, endeavouring to educate their listeners. There are, of course, exceptions that do both — and that’s what Karen P tries to accomplish with …broadcasting. On this album, the former colleague of DJ Gilles […]
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New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War album review – Erykah Badu
There’s been a lot of ballyhoo — bordering on hysteria — surrounding this album. That’s because Badu is neo-soul royalty; the kind of artist blessed with fans (or should that be subjects?) who’ll unquestioningly buy her work because, let’s face it, R&B has hit a creative brick wall, unless you count the auto-tuned warblings of […]
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Planet Pimp album review – Soil & “PIMP” Sessions
If you’re not already familiar with this Japanese sextet, they apparently play “death jazz”. The band says the term was coined “in the hope of alienating Japan’s polite, noodling, straight-ahead jazz cognoscenti”. Whatever its origins, never has a more inappropriate moniker been given to a sound. Many words spring to mind while listening to Planet […]
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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 […]
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Sketches Of A Man album review – Dwele
Dwele loves vowels. The neo-soulster likes nothing better than taking a vowel, any vowel, and wrestling with it. So phrases like “with you” are, in Dwele-speak, pronounced “weeeeeed yhoooooo”. Add some crisscrossing harmonies and a hip-hop beat so leisurely it would send most into REM sleep, and you have an aural hangover cure to ease […]