More Pop Than An Over Inflated Balloon
The Cast (Albums) : FRQNCY LDN, Kim Deal, Maribou State, Shine Grooves, Thee Housecoatees, Vega Trails
The Cast (EPs, Singles and Songs) : Matthew Halsall
Free Waltz : Shine Grooves
Best for : Gently hypnotic electronic ambient dance music
Listen to the opening track, 'Kazumi' and you'll be transported to the kind of warm summer's day that has left you with just one option - sit back lazily and drift away. It's an ambient dance album that's mellow and gently hypnotic. It whispers 'balearic' so it comes as a surprise that upsets your stereotypical preconceptions to find that it's arrived from the heart of a Russian Winter.
It's not until 'Probuzdenie' that you catch the Russian vibe in the spoken word part. A childhood spent in front of Cold War movies and James Bond's battles with S.M.E.R.S.H. made me wary, but the music remains brightly lit and bordering playful.
Shine Grooves (aka Andrey Kurokhtin) brings the feeling of modern art to his music. There is a tight structure within the tracks, heard in the repetitive musical lines that slowly morph from one to the next. Step back and hear the complete tracks and they feel more improvised, but that belies the careful bringing together of all the different elements. It can be tinkly, bleepy, blurry and innovative, but it's always relaxing. What does it all mean? Who knows.
Inevitably it wanders into the background from time to time as all good ambient music is designed to do. 'Faktura' is typical. You can dance to it if you wish, but it will be when you've completely lost yourself in the music, and your body has moved onto autopilot, responding to the insistent bass rhythms that allow the embellishments above to flourish. It's promoting dad dancing for Generation Z.
'Saturday Dub' is deep cut ambient, enjoyable for its sounds but not overly concerned with tunes. 'Muzyka Iz Vesterna' is another highlight and 'Metamorphosis - Ambient Version' brings gentle waves of sound that serve as a pause to the day, a refresh, a soothing wash away of life's clutter and stresses.
In the end I laid down my pen, well laptop, and laid back my head to lose myself in the calm of the music.
Taster Track : Kazumi
Sierra Tracks : Vega Trails
Best for : Cinematic, emotional jazz with uplifting and memorable melodies
Everyone will tell you about the cinematic qualities running through this album. They're not wrong. Their sound has expanded from their debut based around double bass and saxophone to incorporate piano and strings that soar above mountain tops to reveal endless vistas below. It's not just about the views. This is also music that heralds a turning point at the point where confusion and uncertainty are replaced by quiet determination and a knowledge that you are about to do the right thing.
Thrilling though the cinematic, not quite orchestral surges are, they're not the greatest strength of this album. You'll find that in the emotional heft of the tunes. They can extract deep emotion from the double bass and saxophone. It's those instruments that make the mournful release of 'Largo' where pent up emotion can be finally released as tears.
These are tunes that are both intimate and carry the murmurs and echoes of music heard from far away - the sound of church bells cutting through the dawn, the alarms of reveille or the voices calling the faithful to prayer. All the tracks have a serious beauty Above all they have peace.
This is jazz that wears its clothing comfortably, neither trying too hard to dazzle with pyrotechnics, nor to be something that it is not. Its power comes from the richness and depth of something like 'Clarifantasia'. It's in the pulse of 'Els' that feels like life returning as the first shoots of Spring penetrate a hard Winter. Notes are allowed to linger, not shuttled away with an impatience to move on. It's also in the satisfying and uplifting ebb and flow of 'Sleepwalk Tokyo'.
When I started this blog, one aim was to learn to find a way to like and appreciate jazz. That quest finds its rewards here.
Taster Track : Els
The White Edition : FRQNCY LDN
Best for : People who like their music to sound as if it comes from another dimension.
FRQNCY LDN is the new project from Alex Lavery and James Ford. Ford was one half of Simian Mobile Disco, best known for 'We Are Your Friends'. (He's also the producer behind the forthcoming 'Help 2' charity album, despite hospitalisation with leaukemia) This album is recorded from a live performance at St Mathias Church in Stoke Newington in 2024. It's a challenging and difficult album to absorb, and Chat GPT was unable to provide any helpful reviews to illuminate our understanding of the record.
Everything that follows this short paragraph takes us further into uncharted territory. Stick with me and I'll try to be your guide, though I have no musical map, compass or equipment to get our bearings.
Here be ambient, jazz, classical, experimentation, spooky spoken word and all other elements of modern music that can put off faint hearted lovers of pure pop. Take my word for it. This is only going to work if you let yourself be immersed in the sounds and stories that unfold.
This is music that takes you on a near hallucinogenic journey. It feels as if it has madness at its core and a cult as its community. It's a unique, powerful and unnerving vision, a seamless passage from start to finish over 61 minutes. Once you start, there's no turning back.
'Pouring Elixir' draws you into a mix of drone, oscillator, perhaps theremin and mournful, heavy duty strings. It's as if you've embarked on a journey into the Underworld. There's a sense, undoubtedly, of progression but nothing resembling a tune. You're joining the show as the tuning begins to evolve into music at the meeting point of music and sound.
The darkness in the sound is occasionally lightened by woodwind that flutters towards a new dawn, even as it doesn't arrive. Some of the effects are uncanny, for example the way that 'Skin Contact' includes a sound that calls to mind paper rustling underwater. A harp on the seashore brings momentary prettiness to 'Everything I Never Asked Him', but in this track woodwind drags you back to something more unsettling.
The introduction of the spoken word in 'Unwitches' is startling but also compelling. It's a passage that deals with witches, potions, unexplained miracles, myths and prophecies - just in case you were thinking it might provide a touchstone back to our world! The spoken parts fragment into out of phase echoes, adding to the fever dream like tone. The storytelling is so powerful here, particularly on 'Icarus and Lucifer'. Repeated listens may reveal the music contribution in its own way to the story.
There's no denying that this is a challenging and difficult listen that the pure pop fan may walk away from. If you stay though, you could become a disciple.
Taster Track " Icarus and Lucifer (for the storytelling) but Skin Contact for the approach to sound and music.
Man-Trap : Thee Housecoatees
Best for : Being the 21st century version of joyous garage punk
Aside from missing the opportunity for some Ramones style "Wun, too, free, for", this is pretty much a perfect descendent of girl band rock and roll crossed with garage punk. These are not the sweet sounds of the girl next door. You could describe the sound as 'Trash Thrash'.
How much of that is an act doesn't matter. Thee Housecoatees sound authentic, even if it's a tongue in cheek homage. Listen to their cover of Fang's 'The Money Will Roll Right In'. It's a song that even Malcolm McLaren may have baulked at for 'The Great Rock and Roll Swindle.' overflowing with immoral nastiness.
Talking of covers, there are a few here. The Ramones are covered twice, with 'He's Gonna Kill That Girl' and 'The KKK Took My Baby Away'. Thee Headcoatees earn the right to play in their company whilst reminding us how good a pop band we had with The Ramones. The other cover is a surprise - The Rolling Stones' 'Paint It, Black'. They invest it with an attitude that the Stones could only dream of, back in the '60s.
The originals are excellent too. 'Man-Trap' shows that Thee Housecoatees are avid followers of surf punk rooted in the 50s and 60s. In fact, it's easy to argue that they've bypassed punk and drawn their main inspirations direct from the basic impulses recorded by the likes of The Kingsmen. 'Becoming Unbecoming Me' is all drawled 60s harmonies and Halloween violins. The four women (Holly Golightly, Kyra LaRubia, Ludella Black and "Bongo" Debbie Green) share out the vocals. Each of them has perfected the obligatory snarl and whine that is full of attitude and takes no prisoners.
This album is an adrenaline shot with a clean sound even as it clatters towards chaos. It's fast and it's furious, shouty and glorious. Above all it's F-U-N.
Taster Track : The KKK Took My Baby Away
Hallucinating Love : Maribou State
Best for : Lovers of chilled, optimistic dance music.
It's odd. Take the sound of music and add the benefits that come from movement, and you've guaranteed a great start to the day. It's energising and relaxing at the same time, and it works whether you're in company or on your own.
Maribou State know that in their bones. Their lyrics may tell of rejection and break ups (and strength and optimism) but their music will lift you out of the doldrums and into a state of mind that can be receptive to the opportunities all around. Take 'll Remember' as just one example.There's nothing jagged, angular or bombastic here. All the irrelevant noise has been removed.
'Dance On The World' is full of the fluid ease that you find in jazz, although it sounds nothing like it. It has the celebration of gospel, the effortless sound of a band experiencing euphoria as it performs. If dance music is traditionally made up of bangers, these are tracks made up of sparklers.
Maribou State collaborate with four vocalists - Andreya Triana, Holly Walker, North Downs and Gaidaa. They all bring a touch of soul to the mix. It helps to support the belief that this is music made for lithe and graceful dancing.
This is music that flows from one highlight to another. 'All I Need' is music for the end of a very good evening, one that has been marinated in happiness. It ends with the excellent 'Rolling Stone', a song that provides the top up of warmth and sunshine that's much needed as January turns into February.
Blissful.
Taster Track : Rolling Stone
Nobody Loves You More : Kim De
Best for : Folk who are tempted by an album that covers styles from diner doo wop to experimental grunge.
As you might have gathered from the tagline, to get the most from this album you will need to embrace its diversity. It's full of surprises and unexpected twists, jumps and turns.The good news is that wherever you are at any point, you're listening to something that's rather good.
Kim Deal, as you'll know, was the bass guitarist with the Pixies. You'll have to be patient to pick up direct influences from her band work on this record. The quavery and sweetly vulnerable vocals, and the American Big Band interlude, on the opening title track 'Nobody Loves You More' is a surprise. It's as if you've bumped into the girl next door for the first time in years and found her both familiar and changed. 'Wish I Was' suggests that her life hasn't followed its pre-planned course. It's been a little rockier and less obvious but by no means a bad one.
Just as the Pixies had their roots in surf rock and roll, Kim Deal also reaches back into her musical past. 'Coast' is an entertaining take on big number show tunes. 'Are You Mine?' draws on the heritage of American diner rock and roll country ballads as reinterpreted for the big screen. This side of Deal is lushly lovely, with strings, steel guitar, brass and class.
'Crystal Breath' is closer to the alternative sound of the Pixies, a suggestion of how they could have evolved. 'Disobedience' rocks. 'Big Ben Beat', a collaboration with Goddess, is a sharp left turn away from the mainstream into noisy experimentalism. It's disruptive and is followed by 'Bats In The Afternoon Sky', haunting and quieter but just as alternative. By the end you can switch from the stringladen, dream soaked ballad of 'Summerland' to the grunginess of 'Come Running' without thinking twice.
One thing prevents this becoming a ragbag mix of contrary styles that could appeal to everyone and no one. All the songs have a steely conviction that whilst they may be different individually, they're all good enough to brook no argument against their inclusion.
And if that's good enough for Kim, it's more than good enough for me.
Taster Track : Are You Mine?
EPs, Singles and Songs
Something from jazz trumpeter Matthew Halsall this week, three tracks on the 'Bright Sparkling Light' EP. This is easily likeable jazz. Actually, forget the genre, it's easily likeable, full stop! The title track is soothing, like a walk through a water garden lit by fairylights. Time stands still as you drift away on the music lost in your own thoughts. 'Newborough Forest' is excellent. It conjures up the sense of chanted choruses, even though it contains no vocals. The glockenspiel and chimes lend an innocence to the music that's filled with soft sunshine and warmth. And if, like me, your teacher at infant school would fill gaps between lessons with the instruction "Take your pencil for a walk" you'll recognise the approach he takes with his trumpet in 'The Tide and the Moon'. It meanders into interesting shapes that are coloured in with bright colours.
Halsall is also the founder of Gondwana Records, an excellent record label for indie jazz. If Ornette Colman and Miles Davis do nothing for you, if you consign the jazz vocalists of the 50s to the shelf marked music for when your parents come to visit and you tense up at the thought of improvised free jazz, it's still well worth looking at what they offer. Their current roster is full of artists who can be classified as jazz, but also have an intuitive sense of the melodies and rhythms that should appeal to anyone. Its roster delves into something closer to cosmic and contemporary electronica - artists like GoGo Penguin, Hania Rani, Mammal Hands, Svaneborg Kardyb and Vega Trails. Try this introductory 94 minute playlist on Spotify This Is Gondwana Records.
You're welcome!