Tag: album
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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The Art Of Love & War album review – Angie Stone
Even though she came to prominence on the back of the success of neo-soul artists such as D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, Stone has never sat comfortably with those incense-burning cats. For starters, her material had far more crossover potential than the offbeat offerings of her Afrocentric peers. So it comes as no surprise that her […]
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Collaborations album review – Jill Scott
Her warm smile may adorn its cover, but don’t be misled, this isn’t a full-blown Jill Scott release. As its title suggests, it’s a collection of her collaborations with the likes of Lupe Fiasco, The Isley Brothers, Common, Will Smith, Al Jarreau and George Benson. (Inexplicably, 4hero‘s Another Day isn’t included.) But the sum of […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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Play With The Changes album review – 4hero
Since 1998’s Twin Pages, Dego and Marc Mac (the producers behind 4hero) have been known for their refined blend of beats and strings, a mix that earned the pair a Mercury Prize nomination that same year. Since then, little has changed. The duo follow the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it school of music — as evident on this album’s […]
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Back In The Dog House album review – Bugz In The Attic
Bugz in the Attic’s début album has been creating a huge buzz among those urban trendsetters who tune into jazz-dance shows such as Radio 1’s Worldwide. The west London producers are leading exponents of broken beat, an achingly hip niche that’s noted for its irregular rhythms which, as one DJ remarked, resemble ”the sound of […]