jazz
Track: Quantic – Creation (East L.A.) plus album news
We’ve long had a thing for Quantic, aka British born producer Will Holland. He moved through so many areas of electronic music during his years, and has spent the last handful of years studying and immersing himself in the music of South America, Africa and the Caribbean, producing a handful of brilliant (and often collaborative …
Track: Lauren Desberg – He Loves and She Loves
Seems a bit of a cheek to have this, the new track from 23 year old Los Angeles singer Lauren Desberg, given that it was written by George Gershwin for his 1927 musical ‘Funny Face’. A Graduate of Berklee where she won the ASCAP Foundation’s Leiber and Stoller Music Award, Lauren Desberg has been gaining …
New Music: Nostalgia 77 & The Monster – Measures / Island in the Sun
Out right now via the consistently brilliant Tru Thoughts is the new digital single from Ben Lamdins crew of jazz warriors and producers, aka Nostalgia 77. Measures / Island In The Sun are both taken from the second album under his Nostalgia 77 and The Monster guise, also called Measures, which came out back in …
Album Review: Troyka – Ornithophobia
Ornithophobia is the third album from experimental jazz trio, Troyka. Following on from their last recording, Live at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, which showed they could adapt their wilful experimentalism to other formats, the trio – keyboardist Kit Downes, guitarist Chris Montague and drummer Joshua Blackmore make their first outing for Naim Jazz, the sound of …
New Music: Melanie De Biasio – I feel you (Eels Remix)
Taking Mark Hollis as inspiration is one thing, producing an album of the quality of No Deal is quite another, wearing its jazz influences proudly on its sleeve, stripped back and semi-improvised with its brooding piano trio-like backing, and De Biasio’s rich alto able to get under the skin of the song. It’s been recieved …
See: Flying Lotus releases new video for Never Catch Me feat. Kendrick Lamar
It would be fair to say that Kendrick Lamar’s new single ‘i’ has been controversial, with many seeing it as Kendrick’s play for the radio. That the Kendrick featuring ‘Never Catch Me’, off of Flying Lotus’ new album ‘You’re Dead!’, came out just a week or so beforehand probably didn’t help matters. Whilst both tracks …
Meet: Mercury Nominees GoGo Penguin interview
Its been quite a few weeks for Manchester Jazz Trio GoGo Penguin. Fired skywards by their recent Mercury Barclaycard Album of the Year nomination, they followed it up with a spot on Live on Jools Holland the other night. After a couple of years skirting around the edges of public consciousness, which saw heavy support …
Just Lions – Great. OK
I’m worried about Chandler, and not for the first time. Before it was The Bing Man: increasingly strung out, sweaty, scrawny and unable to convince us that there was any light left with which to leaven his self-disparaging quips. Right now, however, it’s yer man Strutz who is our Chandler of Concern There’s clearly trouble …
Album Review: Taylor McFerrin – Early Riser
Lets get this straight right from the off. Taylor McFerrins debut LP Early Riser is one of the albums of the year, and the fact that its taken this long since its release (nearly a month) to get a review together is a crime for which we here at Backseat Mafia are torturing ourselves with …
Meet: Zara McFarlane
“I was at a point where I hadn’t tried to do my own thing. I had lots of plans but I hadn’t really given it a try yet, to be an artist, to do my own music … So I needed to at least try.” We were almost defeated before we began. Our meeting …