rescuing musical virtue in distress.
New music is formed less out of musical leaps of faith but more often by taking existing building blocks and fusing them together to form new sonic architecture. The former approach might occasionally result in something interesting and innovative but it will generally be flimsy and transient. The latter method, standing as it does on... Continue Reading →
Blending tasteful, not to mention soulful, touches of jazz with driving, funk-infused grooves, seamless changes of pace, violins playing the part usually reserved for the guitar and mellifluous melodicism, Breeze is a gorgeous and unique song. One which goes out of its way to remind us that jazz isn’t a dirty word, that funk can... Continue Reading →
Described as a 1-Track e.p, As Is is actually an array of five tracks which are merged together by incidental music and spoken word parts and which moves between, merges and melds all manner of musical styles from rap to funk, from hip-hop to R&B and perhaps inventing a few of its own genres along... Continue Reading →
Innovation isn't about not following any of the rules, it is about knowing enough about the rules to understand which ones are actually important, which ones can be bent out of shape and which can be discarded all together. Ironically anarchy, especially musical anarchy, is a more organised place than it would have you believe!... Continue Reading →
When you have a group of musicians whose telephone numbers can be found on the speed dials of everyone from Chick Corea to Mariah Carey, Sade to Bonnie Tyler, you know that whatever they turn their hands to, the results are probably going to be a bit special. And indeed, What Do You Do proves... Continue Reading →
I’m yet to meet two people who can agree on what the term Americana actually means. If, as I suspect, it is meant to describe music which is quintessentially American, which upon hearing immediately imparts something about the place, the history and the culture it was conceived in then I guess Steve Baskin is about... Continue Reading →
One of the advantages of writing songs without the background howl of baying record executives requiring that you deliver the goods, is that you can just relax and do what you do best. Also without the context of those sonic goods having the final destination of making up an album, each song can be looked... Continue Reading →
I guess the art to getting the whole Neo-soul sound right is in knowing that you need to lean more towards the latter than the former. The music should play heavily on the soul element, should revel in sultry grooves, sassy rhythms and enticing vocal melodies; the Neo bit is really just the technical polish... Continue Reading →
The world abounds with young R’n’B wannabes, wrapping their hopes and dreams in a pop-groove and sending their thoughts out into the world to hopefully connect with like-minded individuals. And that is all very well and good but it essentially just perpetuates the tried and tested. More songs about young love, about meeting the one,... Continue Reading →