rescuing musical virtue in distress.
There is something old-school about Clara Zimm’s voice. Like a mid-twentieth century, European diva meandering her way through polite society and cafe culture, tugging heartstrings with the depth and emotion, regret and romance of her lingering and languid torch songs. But in contrast musically speaking she is about as modern as you can get. And... Continue Reading →
Trying to work out exactly where 5G4B’s music fits in to the scheme of things depends entirely upon which thread you pull at first. Tug at one funky rhythm and you get a slight inkling as to what’s going on but grab another and you might find yourself holding a soulful break or a hip-hop... Continue Reading →
If the term “concept album” conjures up images of keyboard players dressed as wizards and ten-minute drum solos then perhaps it is best to think of In The Hills of California as an album of interlinked ideas, an instrumental narrative or a series of scenes and scenarios told through music. Based around the idea of... Continue Reading →
Music is made for many reasons, from escapism to autobiography, from joyful euphoria to howls of anger, but perhaps it is at its most powerful, most poignant, when it is raising real-world concerns, when it is using its platform, its sonic soapbox to broadcast ideas to the world in general. And it is this that... Continue Reading →
Just as the weather begins to take on a chill and you start thinking of more Autumnal activities, Miss Sunshine comes tumbling through the air to add some sun-soaked, soulful sass to the day. It’s a song which lands easily on the ear, which oozes warmth and good feelings, from the understated guitar work to... Continue Reading →
If the term “world music” has always been something that you have never really understood…don’t worry it is pretty meaningless…then Liar’s Notebook is exactly for you. Not that there is any one easy and catch all definition which works for such a broad term but a Neo-soul outfit drawn from musicians from both Southern India... Continue Reading →
What sets most music of this type, rap, hip-hop, urban…call it what you will, apart from the pack often isn’t what lies at its heart but what musical trappings are used to dress it up. It goes without saying that it is built on confident grooves and dexterous rap flows, and that is certainly true... Continue Reading →
As musicians you seem to be a perfect match, what brought you together and can you tell me a bit about the individual journeys which got you to this point? Nicolaas- I originally came to Sarasota to attend Ringling School of Art and Design as an illustration major. Ari was 8 years old at the time. While there I... Continue Reading →
Considering that Ike Kawaguchi’s back story is one which includes him running away from home at fifteen to couch surf, skate, and perform in local metal bands, Fresh Till Death might come as a bit of a surprise. Rather than the pop-punk or emo-infused rock which such a start in life might suggest, it is... Continue Reading →
It is often said that the best approach to making music is knowing that it isn’t about the amount of notes that you play but more about which ones you chose to leave out, that understatement is often a more powerful tool than throwing too many ideas into a song. And if editing and underplay... Continue Reading →
The first brilliant and surprising moment of an album which seems to be built entirely out of brilliant and surprising moments, is when the gentle, neo-classical restraint and soothing tones of opening number, Vague à l’âme, explode into a wave folk-pop energy. It would be all to easy to head into an album by an... Continue Reading →
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 →
They say you should write about what you know. The same is true in music. If you are looking for something honest and heartfelt, authentic and meaningful, then what better to write about than your own life. And whilst you could argue that most artists do this to a degree, most do it to a... Continue Reading →
You get to a point sometimes when you just run out of genres, or at least you run out of generic labels concise yet accommodating enough to describe the music you are trying to put down on paper. And, after all, if a generic label has one job to do, it is to act as... Continue Reading →
When times are tough, as they certainly are right now, when you feel that there is too much on our plate, that perhaps we don’t know how to carry on, we all look for something to lean on to something to help us through. Some turn to more destructive methods to try and blot out... Continue Reading →
The great thing, well, one of the many great things, about Sonya Teclai’s latest single, is the way that it wanders such loose, smooth and sensual lines but simultaneously plays with interesting drum patterns and slightly, and certainly purposefully, off-kilter grooves. You would think that the latter approach to the beats which underpin the song... Continue Reading →
Too many people limit their creative potential, seeing themselves as perhaps pursuers of specific artistic paths, as painters or musicians but generally not both, and within those broad realms happy to draw even more demarcations around themselves..rapper, bassist, water-colourist and so on. But it is the people who see things more holistically that are the... Continue Reading →
Four tracks in, as far as I’m concerned anyway, and I’m really falling for Phantom Phunk. I don’t understand what they are up to, how they blend their musical strands together, I just know that the world, and not just the music world, is a better place for them being in it. You have to... Continue Reading →
Somewhere at a point where soul and rock, jazz and blues all collide, you find Pointdexter. Their sound is created not so much by the colliding of those sonic worlds themselves, but more out of the mixed and cross-pollinated remains once the initial big bang has subsided. As the dust clears what appears is a... Continue Reading →
Where does hip-hop end and pop begin? Where does soul start to give way to R&B? What happens at those meeting points? The answer to all three of those questions is Complications. Vancouver rapper Emotionz seems to make music in just those musical creative collision points, where the rigidity of one genre is tempered by... Continue Reading →
When cd’s get delivered to me I usually have an A4 piece of paper to accompany the album, it’s normally PR spiel giving a brief biography and hints for the finished review, artists that the bands are likened too and often there are quotes and praise for former releases. On the sheet of paper that... Continue Reading →
Perhaps the best thing that a journalist can say about a slice of music which finds itself under the reviewing pen is that it is easy to write about. That may not seem very important or very cool but with the amount of derivative music being made, re-inventing of the wheel, or people just happy... Continue Reading →