Album Review: TC & The Groove Family – ‘We Have Each Other’ : UK Nu-jazz collective forge ahead with a powerful, passionate EP.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from TC & The Groove Family but you can’t keep a good collective down. Led by drummer Tim Cook (TC) and based around players who originally crossed paths in Leeds, the band’s 2022 debut ‘First Home’ (reviewed in BSM HERE ) made a sizeable dent in the listening …
Track/Video: Icelandic composer/multi-instrumentalist Davidsson previews his emotional debut album with the restorative ‘On Thin Air’.
Revered Icelandic musician Ólafur Arnalds’ new OPIA project (a part festival, part musical community, part record label kind of thing) is adding another artist to its roster to keep emerging Costa Rican pianist Sofi Paez company. They’ve just announced that Icelandic composer and musician Davidsson will release his debut solo album ‘Lifelines’ through their portal …
Album Review: Ezra Feinberg -‘Soft Power’: sensational music of gentle persuasion from the New York guitarist/composer.
There is a cosmos of ambient instrumental music out there, so finding something with a distinctive sparkle, which really adds to the dimension can be time consuming. This is where Ezra Feinberg, the Hudson Valley multi-instrumentalist and composer often sidles into the picture. Founder member of San Fran new age psych band Citay, where Feinberg …
Album Review: Inês Loubet – ‘Senga’: vibrant samba-fusion sounds from a song-writer to watch.
Portuguese, London-based singer-songwriter Inês Loubet makes Tropicalia toned music of openness and honesty, which reaches out to people while following its own course. She was vocalist and co-writer in the latin-jazz, fusion-facing ensemble Caravela whose intoxicating album ‘Orla’ sent the UK scene slightly giddy in 2021 (see Backseat’s review HERE). That document was shaped during …
Track/Video : Illusive and illustrious shoegaze duo Belong return to announce new album ‘Realistic IX’.
New Orleans ambient shoegaze duo Belong might come across as determinedly illusive, maybe even deliberately opaque. Their music seems to arrive from nowhere, marked by increasing time voids between each release and then, almost as succinctly, Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones (a.k.a Belong) disappear. Their debut album, the underground classic ‘October Language’ emerged in 2006, …
Album Review: ‘Go-to’ guitarist and collaborator Alessandro ‘Asso’ Stefana delivers a distinctive and tender solo album in his own name.
You could use up a whole review word count with guitarist/producer and multi-instrumentalist Alessandro Stefana’s illustrious CV but some snapshots and name drops will give the flavour. He’s played on albums by Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton (Mondo Cane), Micah P Hinson (I Lie To You), Penguin Café (Rain before seven) and Calexico (El …
Track/Video: Revered multi-instrumental improviser Colin Fisher previews upcoming new album with the spectacular, guitar sculpted ‘Acts Of Light’.
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Colin Fisher has been energising the Toronto music scene and beyond for around two decades now. A virtuoso guitarist, acclaimed sax player, drummer and more, a brilliant interpretive improviser, a boundary pushing electronic artist, Fisher’s work confounds easy definition. He’s played alongside Jamie Branch, Joe McPhee, Braxton, Laaraji and Frith as well …
Album Review : Ghana Special Volume 2 : a thrilling ‘burger-highlife’ compilation charting the roots of today’s afro-beats and so much more…
So, what makes a great compilation album? It so much more than flinging a gaggle of tracks together which have got a loose connection to a time or place or label or genre….and let’s not get started on the ‘Greatest Hits’ collection. No, outstanding compilation albums are assembled by people who know and care about …
Track/Video: Exquisite ambient music for a living city – Hong Kong based composer Olivier Cong announces new album ‘Tropical Church’.
A label with discernment is what you need to help you navigate the oceans of ambient electronica. Lawrence English’s Room40 provides such a service, “a beacon of sound…ringing out from the deepest south” as it’s strapline goes. So any transmission coming in from them is reassuringly one to tune into. Cue the news of the …
Album Review : Scott Lavene – ‘Disneyland in Dagenham’ : More alt-songs of wit, wisdom, life, love and laughs from the Essex story-teller.
Steve Earle coined the phrase ‘Hard-core Troubadour’ probably with one eye on himself and the other on Townes Van Zandt but it’s a tag you could easily stick into Scott Lavene’s bio. Yes he’s from Essex not Texas but there are plenty of trucks around Tilbury docks and his story in its own way fits …