From: Jon Freer (jon-freer_at_excite.com)
Date: 2003-08-08 19:14:38
Jon Freer’s Reviews. 9th August 2003.
Thanks to Nik Weston, Natalie at Electric Monkey, Lauren at Warp and Paul & Kirsti at Ether PR for these...
Jol – Moody Aow (April)
Cat No: APR 064. Release Date: 15th September 2003.
Outlandish yet accessible, conceptual yet tangible, Jol’s “Moody Aow” is a bamboozling paradoxical collection of astonishing sleazy up-beat down-beat cuts. “Moody Aow” confirms his repute as a talented beat technician and multi-instrumentalist. “Spirit Of Pyrinee” looks to the mountains for inspiration, as liquid gold keys jam with exposed guitar strums and aggrieved strings that conceal a terrible secret. “Cool Cat” is a fitting name for a majestic impressive solo vibraphone, which grooves alongside a digitised fragile synth, a quirky grinning bass and confident beats. “Kids In The Song” is an effortlessly cheerful number, with light-hearted vibraphone keys, excited synth edges, appealing clarinet and distinct guitar bass. This album exudes a good-natured amiability alongside darker undertones from start to finish.
The Latin Project – Nueva Musica (Electric Monkey)
Cat No: 1003-2. Available Now.
Collectives, who attempt to sculpt a dancefloor-orientated project under the influence of such an emotive and sensuous genre as traditional Latin music, often end up with a spiritless and contrived soul-devoid collection of tracks, which fail to do justice to either their Latino forefathers or electronic contemporaries. Thankfully “Nueva Musica” is exactly the ‘new music’ it professes to be, with a little help from established Latino styled vocalists and musicians. “Le Lo Lai” is a passionate and emotive vocal assault on the senses, with committed guitars, strutting brass, dreamy-eyed keys and an electrified bass groove. Their version of George Duke’s “Brazilian Love Affair” turns the romantic escapade into an off-centre beat driven nu-breaks courtship dance for lovers, with a soul invigorating bass, life giving vocals and an enthusiastic trumpet. “Rio Negro” fuses head filling didgeridoo blasts alongside acoustic loveliness and a dubby call to action bassline to create !
a unique fusion of cultures and creeds. Muy Bien!
Broadcast – Ha Ha Sound (Warp)
Cat No: WAP106LP/CD. Release Date: 11th August 2003.
Laughing at the technology obsession of the world in which we live today, Broadcast show that good old-fashioned melodies can still have a home in modern society. Spurning complex multifaceted modern technologies, “Ha Ha Sound” is an enchanting album that features magical vocals that gaze in wonderment at the world around, and subtle experimental additions that set them apart from the rest. “Before We Begin” hopes that mistakes of the past won’t be repeated, as dreamy chords, screeching keys and dazzling vibraphone touches combine alongside a distinctly unfriendly bass. “Lunch Hour Pops” takes fairy dust sprinkled vocals combine alongside psychedelic kaleidoscope keys, disappearing and reappearing drums and deranged crashing synths. “DistORTION” is a disorientating mind-altering affair, with a dangerous bass, cluttered breaks and scaring keys. The sour echoes and FX swirls of Broadcast’s electronica styled experimentation make an album’s worth of sugary sweet vocals fro!
m Trish Keenan infinitely more palatable.
Nacao Zumbi – Nacao Zumbi (Trama)
Available Now.
Refusing to fit into the style constraints usually characterised by ‘Brazilian Music’, Nacao Zumbi are all about the energy. Taking influences from old and new native sounds, along with a punkish attitude and today’s electronic stylings, their debut is a unique collision of cultures and styles. “Amnesia Express” takes an exciting ride into the unknown, courtesy of p-funk sirens, roughened breaks, brash keys and a wild bassline. “Prato De Flores” is considerably more relaxed, as pattering percussion combines with a sassy bass, sombre guitar and teary-eyed keys. “Organ De Bele” is a patient bass ambush, as potent bass hits partner a lilting guitar and questioning echoey vocals, before gunshot handclaps pierce their air and the ferocious crazed bass takes control alongside a vicious synth. Unlike anything before or after them…
Jon Freer(jon-freer_at_excite.com)
reviewer and writer for the following
websites and magazines:
littleplanet.net, City Life Magazine, XLR8R Magazine,
Keep On Magazine, pitchadjust.com, beyondjazz.net
Store Records(Sheffield), cratertechnology.com,
vybemuzik.com, Steel Press, deephousenetwork.com,
offitsface.com, Sandman mag, breakevencrew.com,
overloadmedia.co.uk, funk-me.com, Vanguard online,
quadrastate.co.uk, spaced.co.uk, hotwatermusic.co.uk,
beats.to, housecollective.org, capitolvibes.com,
www.selekta.com, djriri.com, universalsource.co.uk,
Inner Loop Magazine, housemuziq.com, undergroundhouse.net, worlddj.com,
mosoul.co.uk, discotribe.net, flygarictracks.com,
skansen.no,
planetsoulnetwork.com
mundovibes.com
nwdnb.co.uk
allaboutdj.com...
Writer for:
Brique Rouge, Foreplay Recordings,
Robsoul Recordings, Dust Traxx,
Spiritual Life Music and more...
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