Outside - Discoveries
Outside Above And Beyond, in other words. This appears to be, umm... a
concept album. Space travel and all that. Fortunately it's all
instrumental, so you don't have to put up with some 70's Genesis-esque
storyline.... and this turns out to be a _great_ album.
It's definitely a new direction for Outside - you could see "The Rough
And The Smooth" as a very nicely evolved extension of the direction
started with "Almost In" - but this for the most part is the work of
just two people, Matt Cooper and Andreas Allen, rather than the ensemble
line-ups of the previous records, and it's mostly electronic. There are
elements of Chris Bowden's "Time Capsule" and D*Note's instrumental
efforts in effect too. On the other hand, despite the change of context,
this is still distinctively Outside - the 70's jazz-funk influence is
still going strong - maybe even stronger, given free rein by the
instrumental format.
Anyway... buy this record.
Sunship - Sunship
This record has been slagged off by a reviewer on Fly, but I really like
it a lot. Not a total classic, but some of the tracks - in particular
the storming opener "Sweet Inspiration" and "Down" - are completely
irristable as far as I'm concerned. It also features possibly the best
drum & bass piano solo I've yet come across. A lot of the tracks show a
surprisingly strong old-school electro influence.
4-Hero - Loveless
This track is from a forthcoming 4-Hero LP and features on the new
Talkin' Loud "21st Century Soul" sampler. To be honest I didn't really
rate much else on the CD, despite it featuring Roni Size, Krust and
Cleveland Watkiss. The 4-Hero track however is _awesome_. Beautiful
end-of-the-world jazz poetry from Ursula Rucker, over a live sounding
drum & bass backing, acoustic bass, strings... listing the component
parts doesn't really sum it up - the tune has touched me in a way that I
haven't really come across with any other drum & bass effort, and I
listen to a lot of drum & bass. I'm really looking forward to the album.
..Mark..