There’s a fantastic amount of great electronic music coming out of South America at the moment and here we’ve got Brazilian Gui Boratto, once a member of the band Sect, adding to that output with his album Abaporu. The opening lines of the first track immediately put me in mind of William Orbit and this […]
The Turn by Jerome Sabbagh was recorded live by James Farber at Sear Sound, New York City on June 6th 2013 to analogue tape and on this Bee Jazz release from HIGHRESAUDIO it really shows. This is a really fantastic recording in the true tradition of jazz music. There is spontaneity and freedom within the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
Now, I have been known to enjoy a bit of 10 000 Maniacs in the past but I never really got into them in any kind of big way and they were never top of my list when it came to choosing what got played next, so when Natalie Merchant’s eponymous album landed on my […]
Out yesterday in the UK and today in US, this album on Kompakt is one I’ve been looking forward to taking a listen to for a while now. Icelandic band Gus Gus and their Arabian Horse record were what initially highlighted the Kompakt label to me after a long time in the electronic music wilderness.
Induologue are Alexandra Lerta (vocals) and Vasilis Stefanopoulos (double bass) and is described as a dialogue between the voice and souble bass…simple enough then. Blue Skies was recorded in a chapel in the woods of a Dutch National Reserve over a couple of days and this adds a really beautiful atmosphere to the record. The […]
Out now on the Comeme label The Silver Album from this self exiled Russian now living in Berlin is a difficult one to tie down and I must admit that on the first few listens I found it difficult to get my head around. The Silver Album could never be accused of being easy listening […]
This is the first full length album for Elekfants Daniel and Leo who first met over 20 years ago when they played together in a blues band. Daniel is well known in his native Brazil and is something of a local hero where he is considered one of the country’s finest Djs. Leo on the […]
Kompakt is fast becoming one of my favourite “go to” labels when it comes to techno but this release from Rebolledo is a bit different in that it’s actually a DJ mix…yes, remember them?? This is the first major outing for Rebolledo since his first full length debut Super Vato way back in 2011 and […]
What a great title for a record first of all! Badgers and Other Beings is an album of clever jazz featuring pianist, drums and bass. The Helge Lien Trio has been a bit of a hit on the jazz scene since their breakthrough album Hello Troll and it’s no wonder really. Lien is joined here […]
Recorded and mixed by Stefano Amerio in Italy on July 15th – 16th and November 1st 2013 Flowers of Sendai is released on the Bee Jazz label and here it’s been downloaded from HIGHRESAUDIO. The trio is made up of Jan Lundgren (piano), Mattias Svenson (bass) and Zoltan Csors JR (drums). Style wise Flowers of […]
I was very excited when the post lady pipped and handed me the envelope that I knew would contain what is being heralded as “A stunning new album in the finest tradition of progressive rock and space rock” because being a bit of an ageing hippie I’m partial to both a smattering of prog and […]
More funky disco rereleases here and I really make no apology for it…disco is making a comeback in the Hifi Pig household and we’re loving it. And so this time we have the expanded edition of the classic Patrick Adams Presents PHREEK. I think the opportunity to rediscover some of these classics from the 70s […]
As soon as I see that rainbow coloured logo and the name Salsoul I know I’m gonna just love the record it’s attached to – somewhere I’e got a press cutting of me Djing with the caption “Salsoul at Nine o’clock” underneath. And the six original (and four remixed bonus tracks) on Street Sense really […]
Well, this one came as a bit of a shock. After several lineup changes, the temporary hijacking of the band’s material by increasingly egotistical frontman Andrew Stockdale and a break-up which lasted about a month, Wolfmother have pulled a Beyonce. No they haven’t been captured un-photogenically at a Superbowl half-time show, they’ve dropped a surprise […]
Alan Wilkes (AKA Vinny Peculiar – his real name is “lame”) is a Salford (NW England) based singer songwriter and “The Root Mull Affect” is a collection of outtakes and remixes picked from 15 years of his recordings and represents his 10th album release. Some will be aware of Vinny Peculiar and he has indeed […]
Slowly Rolling Camera is a British four piece band made up of Dionne Bennett (lyrics and vocals), Deri Roberts (sound design, electronics, trombone, additional saxophone and production), Elliot Bennett (drums and drum programming) and Dave Stapleton who is the composer as well as playing keys. There’s a whole host of other contributing musicians on the […]
Fire were a late 60’s/70’s three piece band, The Magic Shoemaker (“a fairytale opera”) was released on the Pye label in 1970 and was recorded in January 1970 at the label’s studios in London. This reissue is re-mastered from the original master tapes by Ben Wiseman at the Audio Archiving Company and released on Esoteric […]
I must confess that I’m a bit of a new comer to Jazz but the more I explore its wide and varied sub genres the more I am enjoying it. Step up to the turntable Gearbox Records and Tubby Hayes “Seven Steps To Heaven: Live at The Hopbine 1972”. Now, to aficionados of British Jazz […]
OmenOpus are, it has to be said, a new band to me and they have a handful of albums and EPs on the Monty Maggot label that we’ll take a listen to over the next couple of months, but judging by what I’ve heard so far they certainly know where they’re going and what they’re […]
