Born in Durban, South Africa in 1974 the violinist Daniel Hope moved to London as a child as his parents escaped the apartheid regime, and this is sort of the starting point for Escape To Paradise (released 18th August).
This album arrived a good while ago and I was really excited when it did as I was a bit of a fan of the Hippy Slags back in the festival days and as readers will know a huge fan of Hawkwind with who Bridget Wishart performed on Space Bandits, Palace Springs, California Brainstorm and […]
Ok, so the sleeve note’s are telling me that Matchbox were one of the most successful singles bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but I must confess that their popularity hit its peak just as my interest in the charts was waning and as a result they’re a new one on me. But […]
Bob James is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the smooth Jazz sound and has been heavily sampled in more recent years ( NWA, Run DMC, Soul II Soul, Missy Elliot and many more). He began his professional music career at age 8 playing piano for a tap dance class but also plays […]
él (via Cherry Red) are an interesting label that are putting out some pretty out there and unusual recordings. One flick through the titles of the tracks on Les Baxter’s Original Quiet Village album will give you a good indication that this is exotica as colourful as it comes; Shanghai Rickshaw, Deep Night and Gardens […]
Gasoline, on the excellent Comeme is the labels very first compilation and by crikey it’s a good one…very much my kind of music. For those that don’t know Comeme it’s a label that has been making all the right noises for me for a year or so now with its pared down, acidic-tribal-techno grooves.
Regular readers will be well aware of my love of the Kompakt label and it’s pretty rare that I don’t absolutely love everything that gets released on rhe Berlin imprint. Here we have number 14 in the popular compilation series Total.
The Brazilian Scene is a collection of tunes from Antonio Carlos Jobim with Herbie Mann (“One Note Samba”), Baden Powell with Herbie Mann (“Consolacao”), Zé Maria with George Ben, Gilberto Gil, Luiz Bonfa (“Murmurio”), Radamés Gnattali and Heitor Villa-Lobos all with a laid-back Brazilian theme which is just perfect for the long awaited summer. Brazilian […]
Christopher Loque was a poet, edited columns True Stories and Pseuds’ Corner for Private Eye and even wrote a pornographic novel too. He protested with Bertrand Russell against nuclear weapons and is an all-round “true original”. “Loque Rhythms” (1963) is his poetry set to music arranged by Tony Kinsey, Stanley Myers and sung by British […]
“Fresh as the moment when the pod went pop”. Patsy Kensit first entered the UK’s collective consciousness at the age of 4 when she fronted the well loved and iconic Birds Eye peas television advert…I still remember it and I’m sure many others do too! Eight Wonder were formed by Kensit’s brother Jamie who put […]
Born in 1955 in Boston but growing up in Hamburg, Richard Schumacher first began to make a name for himself as a session player in the 70s with the likes of Udo Lindenberg and Carsten Bohn’s Bandstand. In the 80’s he studied jazz composition and arrangement at the Berkley School of Music whilst in the […]
Stuart Listening to More Classical Music Shocker… and again quite enjoys it! Now I don’t know if it’s my impending birthday (I’ll be 47 nurse tells me) or what, but the last two classical music albums I’ve listened to I’ve really enjoyed a great deal indeed. Alexander Chapman Campbell is a solo pianist who decided […]
“A crack squad of the finest British early music singers” Early Music Today said about Ensemble Plus Ultra, but as regular readers of my reviews will know I’m no fan of classical music, but only a few weeks ago I was mentioning to Linette that I really quite liked the odd bit of choral music…and […]
Well, this re-release on Esoteric Recordings is certainly one for the progressive heads. The year is 1969 and Egg emerged from an earlier quartet with Steve Hillage going by the name of Uriel, but Egg founding members were Dave Stewart (No not the one of Eurythmics fame) on the organ, Mont Campbell on bass and […]