MUSIC | Records – Jazz & World ALSO RELEASED
HOW TO DRESS WELL What Is This Heart? (Weird World) ●●●●● Intimate, largely downbeat, so- called ‘indie’ R&B from Tom Krell, whose yearning tenor set against a manicured electronic backdrop bears comparison with a less lascivious The Weekend. The album thoughtfully measures out Krell’s hopes and fears while throwing in commercial pop sweeteners like ‘Repeat Pleasure’. (Fiona Shepherd) ■ howtodresswell.com
VARIOUS ARTISTS Hyperdub 10.1 (Hyperdub) ●●●●● Be overjoyed by this ten-year celebration of Kode9’s electronic label, which pioneered dubstep and has expanded to embrace wider forms. Disc 1 is a strong selection of new tracks from artists like Kyle Hall and Kode9 himself (pictured), while Disc 2 compiles best-ofs from the likes of Burial, Cooly G and the late DJ Rashad, all in brilliantly atmospheric and sonically exploratory fashion. (David Pollock)
DRCARLSONALBION Gold (Daymare) ●●●●● BAD AURA Bad Aura (Self-released) ●●●●●
Earth mainman Dylan Carlson presents 24 short instrumental tracks of economical, sonorous guitar twang and clang to soundtrack a German western about prospectors in Canada. Falling between Ry Cooder’s parched blues and Jonny Greenwood’s unsettling There Will Be Blood score, it's probably best experienced with the film itself. (FS) ■ drcarlsonalbion.wordpress.com PHANTOGRAM Voice (Island) ●●●●●
The nation’s coffee chains are spoiled for background music these days, with everyone from Coldplay to Daughter getting in on the blandly sophisticated electro pop act. Brooklyn duo Phantogram have little to distinguish themselves from the pack, just more mediocre melodies set to a terribly mode-ish backing. More flat white than an eye-popping espresso. (FS) ■ phantogram.com
Not for the faint-hearted, Bad Aura is a new Glasgow noise quartet formed from the components of sometime fellow travellers Moon Unit, Pyramidion and Vom, a fuzz- toned apocalypse of wailing guitar riffs, crunching rhythmic pulses and atonal, utterly unintelligible (possibly Finnish language?) vocals. We’d love to see them live for ‘Horsepower’ alone. (DP) ■ See interview, page 75. JULIE BYRNE Rooms With Walls and Windows (Orindal Records) ●●●●●
A major talent arrives here, as Chicago-raised, Seattle-based Julie Byrne demonstrates just how affecting music can be with only a voice, a keyboard and a guitar. Her sound is sparse, with plenty of room to breathe amid her light, reverb-heavy guitar picking, and the vocal is lush and dream-like. One of the lowest-of-key slowburners to have emerged this year, surely. (DP)
HOW TO SWIM Niagarama (Personal Hygiene Recordings) ●●●●● MARTYN The Air Between Words (Ninja Tune) ●●●●●
Breezy big band How to Swim have settled on a more focused six-piece for this concept album – with a blend of wistfulness and wit worthy of Paul Heaton. Strings, brass and woodwind are all confidently deployed in the service of whimsical, bubbly and slightly eccentric songs such as the unexpected funky and forceful crooner ‘Long Division’. (FS) ■ howtoswim.bandcamp.com Making his debut on Ninja Tune with his third album, Dutchman Martijn Deijkers joins the likes of Machinedrum in rebranding the sound of the label for a new generation. This is a strong record which explores different facets of Martyn’s explorative muse, from the loose house groove of ‘Empty Mind’ to ‘Love of Pleasure’s soulful acid atmospherics and the futurist soul style of ‘Lullaby’. (DP)
74 THE LIST 12 Jun–10 Jul 2014
JAZZ & WORLD JAZZ BLACK TOP WITH STEVE WILLIAMSON #One (Babel Label) ●●●●●
An inspired set of Afro-futurist free improvisation, Black Top’s #One sees the London-based duo of pianist Pat Thomas and multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson joined by the saxophonist Steve Williamson. ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’ sees Williamson relaxed and inquisitive on tenor, as Robinson’s marimba skips around him, with Thomas’ deliberate piano jabs raising the tension. Subtle electronic beats are used for texture, with the musicians resisting the anchor offered by the dubby bass bubbles and bossa nova presets of Thomas’ laptop to create their own off-kilter rhythmic momentum. On ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’, Thomas lays electronic buzzes and whines under Williamson’s harmonic inventions, before the saxophonist wryly comments in mocking tones over a submerged techno rumble. ‘Archaic Nubian Stepdub’ sees Thomas and Robinson vamping over Drexciyan bleeps and whooshes, while Williamson unspools clusters of soprano sax notes. (Stewart Smith) JAZZ RODRIGO AMADO MOTION TRIO & PETER EVANS The Freedom Principle / Live In Lisbon (No Business) ●●●●●
Two simultaneous releases documenting Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado’s Motion Trio live and in the studio with New York trumpet agitator Peter Evans. There’s a giddy lightness to the rhythm section of Miguel Mira on cello and Gabriel Ferrandini on drums, giving The Freedom Principle a swing and swagger, which Amado and Evans respond to with parallel melodic inventions that recall Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. Live In
Lisbon is more outlandish, with Evans conjuring an array of bizarre trumpet effects: ‘ah phooey’ exhalations, squeegee noises, a dog grappling with an old pair of slippers. At one point, he even smooches his mouthpiece. An abstract passage, all whistles and scrapes, veers into an anxious hard bop canter, with Amado’s tenor belching hot lava while Evans and Ferrandini scrabble for the escape hatch. On the flipside, raggedly beautiful snatches of melody rise from drones, leading into conversational free-bop. (Stewart Smith)
WORLD KASAI ALLSTARS Beware the Fetish (Crammed Discs) ●●●●●
A new entry in the Congotronics series is always a cause for celebration. Beware the Fetish is the second album from the Kinshasa collective, following 2008’s magnificently titled In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish. Consisting of around 15 musicians from five different bands, Kasai Allstars draw on the folk-customs and rituals of five Congolese ethnic groups. On this second album (a generous two disc
package), a host of charismatic vocalists trade saucy banter, moral lessons and supernatural tales over mesmeric trance grooves built from distorted thumb pianos, slit drums, xylophones and electric guitars. There are a range of tempos and moods, but the highlight is ‘The Ploughman’, a heavy live jam with Juana Molina and members of art-rockers Deerhoof and Wildbirds & Peacedrums. Psychedelic guitar noise and buzzing thumb pianos spit and sizzle over a simmering polyrhythmic stew. Play loud and dance! (Stewart Smith)
WORLD NOURA MINT SEYMALI Tzenni (Glitterbeat) ●●●●● It’s the voice that floors you; a powerful, agile alto which dances around the modes with virtuosic invention and soars on the long notes. Coming from a long line of Mauritanian Moorish griots, Noura Mint Seymali is a tradition bearer and visionary, giving voice to poems and songs of love, change and faith, while carrying traditional forms into the future. Named after the circular Moorish wedding dance, Tzenni fizzes with heady electrified tinidit (lute) and urgent grooves from a rhythm section steeped in rock, funk and reggae. Her take on the ‘azawan’, or traditional ensemble sound, sees the spindly tones of her harp-like ardine interlocking with the cyclical riffs of husband Jeiche Oul Chighaly’s phase-shifted tidinit and guitar, over and around which she weaves gorgeous vocal melodies. Psychedelic roots music for the 21st century, Tzenni deserves to make Seymali a global star. (Stewart Smith)