Album Review : Urvanovic – Let’s Not Be Here : expansive chamber pop which rises above the convention.
There’s always something intriguing when a band that you thought had disappeared suddenly stick their heads above the musical whirlpool with a new album. So where have Scottish pop orchestrators Urvanovic been hiding? Their 2015 debut ‘Amateurs’, all Admiral Fallow harmonies with hints of Frightened Rabbit big music, made ripples amongst homeland fans and drew …
Track/Video : Guitarist/composer Ezra Feinberg previews new album ‘Soft Power’ with the spellbinding flow of ‘Future Sand’.
NY based guitarist and composer Ezra Feinberg when talking way back in the mid-2000s about the music of his band Citay, was unapologetic about their surprisingly quirky reference points. Feinberg and Citay drew from AOR polish and MOR lushness, new age to pop polarities, without the pretence of needing to conform to what a San …
Track/Video : Post-metal ground-breakers BIG|BRAVE preview the poetic ‘canon: in canon’ from new album ‘A Chaos Of Flowers’
So the release of the Montreal post metal unit BIG|BRAVE’s eighth album ‘A Chaos Of Flowers’ is arcing steadily towards a conclusion (out 19th April via Thrill Jockey Records). This is a band whose momentum is grounded in consideration and integrity, no quick wins, no sell-outs, who’ve evolved their own unique approach to slow core, …
Album Review: Parisian fusion combo Monsieur MÂLÂ deliver a self-titled debut brim-full with energy and ambition.
World Jazz/Jazz Fusion/World Fusion…you sometimes wonder if the genre game is really worth playing. Yes useful for shorthand and signposts but not to be depended on to for the full picture. Enter Parisian five-piece Monsieur MÂLÂ and their self -titled debut LP out now via Bridge The Gap. Looking way beyond any label conventions the …
Track/Video : Rising singer-songwriter/producer Inês Loubet announces debut album ‘Senga’ with glistening new single ‘Sab Sabim’
Any musician who asks the audience at a show to write down some words about how the tunes made them feel and then gathers up this feedback has some nerve but that’s exactly what Inês Loubet did last year. The Portuguese, London-based singer-songwriter makes Tropicalia toned music of openness and honesty, that aims to reach …
Track/ Video: Long time friends Submyth & Frankie Knight weave dream pop and down-tempo on the luscious ‘How Do You Feel ?’
Gliding in on a gentle breeze of nu-soul positivity and glistening down-tempo, ‘How Do You Feel ?’, the new single from DJ/producer Submyth and synth-pop songster Frankie Knight, answers that question itself. Here is music that’s looking to calm but also to question. A fine blend then, which balances the lush and loose in a …
Track/Video: Dynamic prog-jazzers Emily Francis Trio preview new EP with the drama of ‘After The Rain’.
For many the jazz piano trio is an edifice that shouldn’t be tampered with, the classic enactment of pure jazz, a rhythm section suddenly given license to express itself but with a heritage that binds them together. So any messing with the tradition needs to be done well, with a purpose and conviction. Plucking at …
Album Review: Nino Gvilia – ‘Nicole/Overwhelmed By The Unexplained’ : a surreal experimental song saga with an indefinable magic.
It’s been a challenge to keep up with the unravelling of singer songwriter Nino Gvilia’s recorded output over the last few months but now we’ve arrived at some sort of finale. Her exquisite ‘Nicole/ Overwhelmed by the Unexplained’ double EP is at last fully available in both digital and vinyl forms via the ever-resourceful Hive …
Album Review: Okvsho – ‘A Place Between Us’: sophistication, groove and sonic depth – a new force in jazz fusion emerges.
Operating out of Zurich the brothers Kiss, Georg and Christoph (a.k.a Okvsho) are on some kind of a mission to shake up the music scene in their city. Unlike say Geneva that throbs to pulse of a vibrant underground art network, Zurich may lack some impetus but the producer/ instrumentalist brothers are looking to pick …
Track/Video: In-demand saxophonist Benjamin Samuels takes to the spotlight with ‘Ambitious Antithesis’ from upcoming debut album.
Sax-player, clarinettist and composer Benjamin Samuels is stepping out from the back line. A musician who’s worked with Californian fusionist Balkan Bump and Brighton’s own global beat pioneer Seb Taylor (aka Kaya Project), plus toured the world in the irrepressible Grouch in Dub’s band, Samuels has recently made time to pause. Except that hasn’t meant …