MUSIC | Records – Jazz & World
ALSO RELEASED Apostille
GRACE JONES The Disco Years (Island/Universal Music) ●●●●● APOSTILLE Powerless (Night School Records) ●●●●●
Grace Jones’ first three albums Portfolio, Fame and Muse have been collected in this boxset and packaged as her Disco Years. Jones shimmied off the pages of Vogue and into the chaotic glitz of late-1970s New York. Portfolio opens with three show tunes and includes a version of Edith Piaf’s ‘La Vie En Rose’. It seems faintly ridiculous to talk of Jones having a camp period given what’s come since, but this is a wonderfully fun way to explore her early work. (Rachel Devine)
FRANCIS MACDONALD Music For String Quartet, Piano and Celeste (TR7 Records) ●●●●● There’s always been something of a snooty disregard from the classical music establishment for pop and rock artists who dare to make the crossover. This shouldn’t worry Teenage Fanclub’s Francis MacDonald – his Morricone and Arvo Pärt-inspired minimalist compositions are a triumph. Stylistically stark with a warm and comforting core. (RD)
JOANNA GRUESOME Peanut Butter (Fortuna Pop!) ●●●●●
Everything about Joanna Gruesome is a bit over-the-top zany and slightly forced, which would be more grating if they didn’t have some fine tunes to back up the bluster. Jangly noise pop gems such as ‘Honestly Do Your Worst’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Relax’ are infectiously giddy, silly fun. (RD)
DEAN OWENS Into the Sea (Drumfire Records) ●●●●● Scottish songwriter Dean Owens’ most Nashville-sounding album to date – not surprising given it was recorded in the city – is replete with languid verses, soaring choruses and wistful lyrics. He knows how to pull on the heartstrings with driving melodies and dynamic harmonies and this has plenty of both. (RD)
Fusing crisply executed synth basslines with the vocal aesthetic of a man recording his voice in a broom cupboard with a tape recorder, this debut album from the electronic alias of Glasgow’s Michael Kasparis (Please) reminds variously of Frank Tovey’s Fad Gadget, Genesis P Orridge’s best work with Throbbing Gristle, and often – unexpectedly – of the bright, upbeat pop sensibility of early Depeche Mode. (David Pollock) MICHAEL PRICE Enlightenment (Erased Tapes) ●●●●●
His career in film music spans two decades, including work with Michael Kamen on Event Horizon and David Arnold on the Sherlock TV series, but this is the first album proper from British composer Michael Price. It’s a purely classical experience which still bears degrees of comparison with the ambient electronic explorations of Tangerine Dream. (DP)
DJANGO DJANGO Born Under Saturn (Because Music) ●●●●● Django Django consolidate and build on their perfectly formed debut, through the fuzzily synthed Syd Barrettisms of ‘Giant’ and ‘Beginning to Fade’, the psychedelic barroom gallop of ‘Shake and Tremble’ and ‘Life Me Know’, and the electronic dynamic of ‘First Light’ and ‘Reflections’. (DP)
GARDEN OF ELKS A Distorted Sigh (Song, By Toad) ●●●●● This lo-fi Scottish supergroup features members of Bronto Skylift, PAWS and Lady North, but there’s every chance they could surpass the lot in time. They fuse ferocious energy with sharp pop choruses. It’s compelling – in particular, the hypnotic indie beat of ‘Contended Contender’ and anthem-in-waiting ‘I Hid Inside’. (DP)
94 THE LIST 2 Apr–4 Jun 2015
JAZZ & WORLD
JAZZ FREE NELSON MANDOOMJAZZ Awakening of a Capital (Rare Noise) ●●●●● This Edinburgh trio’s idea of a free jazz / doom metal fusion is a good one, building on ideas hinted at by acts on both sides of the equation. Saxophonist Rebecca Sneddon has a fine line in controlled wails and squonks, but the rhythm section fail to match her energy and there’s an overall lack of spontaneity and heaviness.
(Stewart Smith)
JAZZ MATTHEW SHIPP TRIO To Duke ●●●●● Free jazz pianist Matthew Shipp has been dropping Ellington tunes into his repertoire for some time now, but To Duke is his first full-length engagement with the great man’s music. Recorded with Shipp’s long-term trio of Michael Bisio on bass and Whit Dickey on drums, the album
features Ellington-inspired originals alongside radical interpretations of classics like ‘Mood Indigo’ and ‘Prelude to a Kiss’. The centrepiece is an inspired nine-minute take on Billy Strayhorn’s ‘Take The A Train’, which replaces the original’s good-time glamour with an antsy energy, all sideways note clusters and locomotive rhythms. Shipp’s ability to open these timeless compositions up to avant-garde strategies while retaining their elegant beauty is a marvel. (Stewart Smith)
JAZZ ALEXANDER HAWKINS TRIO S/T ●●●●● A rising star of British jazz, Oxford pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins follows up his fine 2013 solo and ensemble discs with a trio set featuring Neil Charles on bass and Tom Skinner on drums. Hawkins is an avant- gardist with a rich sense of melody and rhythm, and his
Cubist takes on Ellingtonia and South African jazz are exciting and highly original. (Stewart Smith)
WORLD MELECHESH Enki (Nuclear Blast) ●●●●● Mesopotamian metalheads Melechesh are unlikely to be playing WOMAD any time soon, but the Jerusalem- based group’s inventive fusion of black metal and Arabic music is hugely potent. Ashmedi’s scatching vocals tell of Sumerian gods and ancient magic over devastating oriental riffs and thunderous blast beats. The customary
acoustic track, ‘Doorways to Erkala’, sees the group forge an intense form of Assyrian folk, while ‘Lost Tribes’ has Sepultura’s Max Cavalera unleash his unmistakable Brazilian roar over monstrous Middle-Eastern thrash riffs. Brutal, complex and often anthemic, Enki is testament to the power and creativity of non-western rock. (Stewart Smith)
WORLD INSANLAR / RICARDO VILLALOBOS Kime Ne (Honest Jon’s) ●●●●● A remarkable double EP set from Istanbul DJ Baris K’s psychedelic disco troupe, Insanlar. Kime Ne unfolds over 23 mesmeric minutes, weaving improvised baglama (saz) lines and pitch shifted vocal refrains over a steady pulse of acid house bass. The verses are adapted from
the 17th-century poet Kul Nesîmî and the 16th-century icon Pir Sultan Abdal, making for an out-of-time quality that is utterly transporting. As the track flows and builds, trickles of analogue synth usher in rapped vocals and cosmic trails of treated baglama. A stunner. The remixes, by minimalist maestro Ricardo Villalobos, are immaculate, stripping the track back and opening up the drum patterns. (Stewart Smith)
WORLD BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA Ba Power (Glitterbeat) ●●●●● Malian ngoni virtuoso Bassekou Kouyate and his band Ngoni Ba return for a fourth album. Ba Power is more polished than its 2013 predecessor Jama Ko, with the fire of Kouyate’s amplified ngoni tempered by the crystal-clear acoustic sounds around it. ‘Musow Fanga’, featuring ‘Fourth World’ trumpeter Jon Hassell, takes Ngoni Ba into oceanic drift, but the band still bring the heat on the driving funk of ‘Watti’, with Kouyate reeling off blazing leads on overdriven ngoni. Singer Amy Sacko is as much the star of the show as Kouyate, imbuing strong melodies with a graceful confidence. (Stewart Smith)