Album Reviews
EP Review: Liza Unveils Her Most Ambitious Work Yet With New EP ‘The Alternate Ending’
Opening up like never before, Liza exudes confidence in its purest and most unfiltered form with her stunning new EP, ‘The Alternate Ending’. The Ethiopian-Canadian singer/songwriter brings a dynamic range to her neo-soul songwriting, seamlessly shifting between moments of hushed intimacy, delicate introspection, and climactic catharsis all delivered with an accessible flourish. Intricate and ambitious …
Album Review : Forest Law –‘Zero’ : Bossa beats, international grooves and so much more on this globetrotting musician’s debut.
Sonic explorer, creative adventurer, soundscape navigator are all phrases you could apply to Alexander Burke a.k.a Forest Law. Romford born, now London based he’s taken a globetrotting route to the release of his debut album ‘Zero’, available now courtesy of a Bongo Joe/ Total Refreshment Centre collaboration. Coming through Giles Peterson’s ‘Future Bubblers ‘unsigned artists’ …
Album Review: Voidgazer – Dance Of The Undesirables
Founded in late 2015 by mastermind Manny Watts, death prog merchants Voidgazer have been a band that have honed their craft for a while. Their debut EP ‘Years Of Exile’ was released the following year, and the band jammed around the Midwest of America over the next three years, naturally evolving the music and band until the current line-up. The covid …
Album Review: L’Étrangleuse – Ambiance Argile : Rootsy influences and a post punk mindset make for a pulsating return from the Lyon-based outfit.
The fact that guitarist / n’goni player Maël Salètes and harpist Mélanie Virot have been releasing albums as L’Étrangleuse since 2012 is down to much more than endurance or stubborn self-belief. These dynamic, probing musicians have always got something new to say and invariably exciting ways of saying them. Their intertwining string tones, raw, bluesy, …
Album Review : Don Glori – ‘Don’t Forget To Have Fun’ : Fresh, funky and inspired soul jazz from the revitalised and relocated multi-instrumentalist.
Now this is a bit different. An album of contemporary instrumental music shaped within the mundane pressures of the day to day, paying the rent, food on the table, making ends meet. Don Glori (aka Gordon Li) is a producer, multi-instrumentalist and composer originally out of Melbourne who has detached from Naarm’s vital scene to …
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 …
Album Review: Dani Scheffels – hi
Daniel Scheffels has established himself as a drummer, composer and producer in various formations and genres. As a drummer, he has played with K.I.Z., Tarek K.I.Z., Ralph Heidel, Simon Popp and Enji, among others. As a composer, he has already written for his own sextet (contemporary jazz) and as a producer, he has worked with …
Album Review: the black watch take us on an enticing sonic excursion through their ‘Weird Rooms’.
LA band the black watch are a veritable institution. Their albums have a sparkle and a sense of yearning that permeates every note and every song is a stadium filling anthem suffuse with melody and atmosphere. Lead singer and songwriter, John Andrew Fredrick, a songwriter and a writer (his fifth novel came out this September …
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 …
Say Psych: Album Review: The Third Sound – Most Perfect Solitude
Berlin psych/post-punk band The Third Sound have recently released their sixth studio album Most Perfect Solitude. It is the follow up to 2022’s First Light and has been eagerly anticipated for some time. The LP marks a new chapter, not just in sound but personnel, for the band led by Icelandic musician and author Hakon …