Les Baxter - Jewels Of The Sea

Label: Trunk Digital

Released: 2011

Style: Easy Listening

"One of the earliest underwater music experiments, and bloody marvelous it is too, by the first composer I really fell in love with (but not in a sexual way)." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Sunken City

2 Stars In The Sand

3 Sea Nymph

4 Singing Sea Shells

5 Dolphin

6 Dawn Under The Sea

7 The Enchanted Sea

8 Girl From Nassau

9 The Ancient Galleon

10 Coral Castle

11 Dancing Diamonds

12 Jewels Of The Sea

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Guano Padano - Guano Padano

Label: Important Records

Released: 2009

Style: Jazz, Rock, Western

"This band is tight but they are comfortable enough in each other’s playing to not sound formulaic or over-rehearsed. The music flows in a way that brings to mind the rougher side of surf music, leaving The Beach Boys out in the sun while unkempt youths play their guitars in the shade. The guitar playing of Dick Dale ghosts through this album as the ragged but precise fretwork from Alessandro Stefana provides a treat for the ears. “Epiphany” puts a film noir spin on their music, sounding like Fantômas’ mutilation of Morricone’s “Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion” (Stefana has worked with Mike Patton in the past).

The echoes of Morricone are more than just an influence, “El Divino” and “Bull Buster” feature the whistling talents of Alessandro Alessandroni who is responsible for those whistles in the Sergio Leone films. It is impossible not to think of these Guano Padano tracks as out-takes from the Spaghetti Western soundtracks as the group have created a very authentic sounding Morricone-tribute (“El Divino” may as well have a writing credit for Morricone beside it, so perfect does it sound). Another famous guest pops up on “A Country Concept,” namely Gary Lucas (formerly of The Magic Band and guitarist for countless other artists). Here Lucas plays a resonator guitar to add a more authentic Wild West feel to Guano Padano’s music; his bluesy ambience giving the impression that a gunfight is about to go down.

Yet another strand of influence runs through the album as Guano Padano appear to be as serious about American country music as they are about their other passions. A cover of Hank Williams’ “Rambling Man” makes an appearance later in the album, Guano Padano bringing fresh life to the song. Bobby Solo’s vocals are especially evocative; rich with years of experience, his vocals are like grit being blown against the corrugated steel roof of Stefana’s guitar. It is too bad that Solo only appears on this one song, an entire album like this would be something else.

Recently I have been getting more into surf music thanks to exposure to things like Neil Young’s early group The Squires and having a listen to an old tape copy of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. However, this renewed interest aside, Guano Padano would have struck a chord with me in any case as they are fantastic on their own. Granted their music is not exactly original but it is refreshing in its whole-hearted embrace of styles usually picked apart by modern bands in search of something new hidden in their corpses." - Brainwashed

Tracklisting:

1 Guano Padano (3:40)

2 A Country Concept (6:38)

3 El Divino (4:36)

4 Epiphany (4:40)

5 Bull Buster (3:28)

6 Ramblin Man (3:37)

7 Jack Frost (5:33)

8 Del Rey (4:21)

9 Danny Boy (5:45)

10 Tromp Valley (3:38)

11 El Divino (Alternate Version) (4:37)

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Jon Hassell - Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street

Label: ECM Records

Released: 2009

Style: Jazz, Ambient

"...Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street is Hassell's first recording since 2005's Maarifa Street: Magic Realism, Vol. 2; it's an assembled montage of sessions recorded in France and Los Angeles, and concerts are also woven into the rich fabric here. Hassell's music, even now, sounds alien, beguiling, mercurial, seemingly formless and airy but full of subtle washes, shifts of tone, and polyrhythmic strategies. The ten cuts here are mostly middle-length pieces that range between five and eight minutes, but three -- "Time and Place," "Clairvoyance," and "Scintilla" -- act as transitions segmenting, however seamlessly, the album into roughly thirds.

The band contains a pair of holdovers from his last outing in bassist Peter Freeman -- who doubles on laptop -- and guitarist Rick Cox, who has been augmented by no less than Eivind Aarset on the instrument. The other new players include Jamie Muhoberacon keyboard and laptop, drummers Helge Norbakken and Pete Lockett, Kheir Eddine M'Kachiche on violin, and Jan Bang on live sampling. Together they root and extend the aerial sound of Hassell's trumpet that flows everywhere and anywhere. Check the simple bass and guitar rhythmic attack on "Abu Gil," the album's longest track, where In a Silent Way's "It's About That Time" meets the desert blues feels of "Anouar Brahem" and the Master Musicians of Jajouka meet the noir-ish ambient funk of early Shriekback. The title track, by contrast, is a long, loping, beautiful number where moods of morning, marketplaces, and nocturnal sunsets all loosely entwine around the listener. The obvious postmodern jazz soloist's approach hovers all around the shapes and colors evoked by keyboards and trumpet in "Courtrais," as soundscape, loops, and ambiences all deepen and widen before being grounded by a subtle but unflinching backbone-slipping bassline by Freeman. Hassell moves toward everything -- samples, drifting sonics, hints of melody, and, for such quiet and subtle music, an impressive harmonic palette -- to create a montage that evokes the timelessness of the past with a firm grasp on the unknowable, perhaps even unspeakable, future. His jazzman's sense of time and phrasing is enhanced by his painterly sense of space and shade. This album is further proof that Jon Hassell inhabits a terrain of his own, and reflects the true vibration of poetry as it meets the human ear as something akin to pure sound." - Allmusic

Tracklisting:

1 Aurora (5:22)

2 Time And Place (3:48)

3 Abu Gil (13:04)

4 Last Night The Moon Came (11:15)

5 Clairvoyance (1:05)

6 Courtrais (5:44)

7 Scintilla (0:50)

8 Northline (6:43)

9 Blue Period (7:58)

10 Light On Water (7:59)

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Food - Quiet Inlet

Label: ECM Records

Released: 2010

Style: Jazz

"Food has defined a new kind of lyrical electro-acoustic improvisation in the course of its twelve year existence. Founded as a quartet in 1998, since 2006 the group has been a core duo of UK saxophonist Iain Ballamy and Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen joined by guests for diverse projects. At the Molde Jazz Festival and the Oslo Blå club in 2007/8 their guests were trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, well known to ECM followers, and Austrian improvising guitarist Christian Fennesz, making his label debut. The resultant music, with melodic improvising, trancelike pulses, and shifting clouds of sound is highly attractive." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Tobiko (7:08)

2 Chimaera (5:00)

3 Mictyris (5:41)

4 Becalmed (7:51)

5 Cirrina (6:16)

6 Dweller (6:20)

7 Fathom (8:39)

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Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Dolores

Label: Ipecac Recordings

Released: 2008

Style: Jazz, Ambient

"Everything, as David Lynch would say, is never quite what it seems. Bohren and Der Club of Gore are a real connoisseurs band, their intense blend of heaving doom reductions and late night Badalemanti style midnight jazz has bought them a fanatical following in both the Avant-Metal and Jazz communities. Their sound really can be best visualised with reference to the 'Bang Bang' Bar in twin peaks, all sleaze, unease and glamour in the archetypal Lynchian sense. The members of Bohren started out in various Hardcore outfits, but when the band formed in the early 90's they soon settled on a blend of Metal, Ambient and Jazz that confounded and confused most listeners. Almost two decades later and Bohren enjoy something akin to a secret members following, with the likes of Mike Patton being so into the band that they are now signed to his own Ipecac imprint in the states. 'Dolores' is their first album since 2005's 'Geisterfaust' and is their most beautifully realised album yet, oozing mystery and atmosphere with a more muted take on that super luxurious sound. Opening track 'Staub' unfolds with a solitary mournful organ, eventually coupled with that unmistakable, spine-tingling Fender Rhodes played so ably by Christoph Clöser. The track continues with spacious, staggered percussion and Vibraharp, whirling through 8 minutes of mystery and wonder. At the other end of the album 'Welten' closes off proceedings with a monkish drone most suitable to a Sunn 0)) opening, before once again those shimmering keys create that kind of immeasurably addictive confusion between darkness and light that could be said to be Bohren's calling card. 'Dolores' is a stunning, mesmerising 60 minute journey into that sh*t that lurks beneath the surface, confusing, confounding and oddly uplifting all at once. A wonderful album that comes to you with our highest possible recommendation = ESSENTIAL PURCHASE!" - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 Staub (7:51)

2 Karin (3:37)

3 Schwarze Biene (Black Maja) (8:11)

4 Unkerich (5:31)

5 Still Am Tresen (3:58)

6 Welk (6:18)

7 Von Schnäbeln (3:56)

8 Orgelblut (6:13)

9 Faul (5:56)

10 Welten (6:53)

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Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Sunset Mission

Label: Wonder
Released: 2000
Style: Contemporary Jazz

"A long-time favourite of ours, Bohren’s “Sunset Mission” is finally available again and is a must-have item for anyone looking for something to sit alongside Angelo Badelamanti’s soundtrack work for Twin Peaks. Whilst Motren Gass, Throsten Benning and Robin Rodenberg (aka Bohren & Der Club Of Gore) would like to have you believe they all live in unlit basements and only venture out to stare balefully at the moon, the truth, based on the reissue of 2000's 'Sunset Mission', suggests that they're all just a bunch of hopeless romantics... Comprised of piano, bass, sax and guitar, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore craft caliginous instrumental compositions that slow-waltz around the 'Jazz/Noir/Twin Peaks Soundtrack' divide with a sound they rather misleadingly refer to as 'horror jazz'. Referencing the likes of David Lynch at every turn, Bohren's sound takes deeply textured journeys into the smokey and crepuscular outer-reaches of Loungecore. Elegant, inviting and covered in Black-Lodge red velvet 'Sunset Mission' is perfect for long and sweaty summer evenings or cold and brooding winter ones. Highly Recommended." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 Prowler (5:03)
2 On Demon Wings (7:02)
3 Midnight Walker (7:18)
4 Street Tattoo (9:51)
5 Painless Steel (5:41)
6 Darkstalker (5:44)
7 Nightwolf (16:31)
8 Black City Skyline (5:51)
9 Dead End Angels (10:26)

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Zelienople - Pajama Avenue

Label: Loose Thread Recordings
Released: 2002
Style: Experimental, Post-Rock, Jazz

"Although Zelienople might now be best known for their basement psychedelic jams, all crunching guitars and floorboard-rockin' free drumming, they actually started as something slightly different altogether. 'Pajama Avenue' was the band's first album and originally surfaced back in 2002, and showed the band to have much more of a leaning towards 'Spirit of Eden'-era Talk Talk, Bark Psychosis and early Verve (when they were good). This is no bad thing in my book, and the album stands as not only a reminder where the band came from but also as a stunning piece of work in its own right containing enough classic Zelienople moments to surely win over fans who have only recently discovered them. The first thing you notice from the gorgeous opening track 'It's Hard to Steal Cars' is the use of gently reverberating synthesizers, something which sets the mood perfectly - a shimmering navel-gazing ambience punctuated by Mike Weis's tight percussion and brought to life by Matt Christensen's breathy vocals. This is carried into the second track 'Chase Scene' that brings the bass guitar into the fore, yet keeps the mood intact with the whole track sounding as if it was recorded in a reverb chamber, giving a dream-like quality which becomes synonymous with the record itself. Elsewhere we get the Slowdive-esque 'Back to Dangerous' (possibly the most ineffably beautiful track the band have ever made?) and the anthemic title track 'Pajama Avenue' and you realise that back in 2002 Zelienople made an album of pure unashamed pop. While now they might now be associated with the wyrd folk/avant psyche scene more than necessarily the pop world, it's easy when you hear this album to work out how they reached the grimy heights of 'His/Hers' and 'Pajama Avenue' stands as a hugely impressive debut and should really be heard by far more people than it has been already. Huge recommendation and an essential purchase!" - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 It's Hard To Steal Cars (4:15)
2 Chase Scene (3:49)
3 Friendly With The Father (3:47)
4 Back To Dangerous (3:52)
5 You Got Shot Down (5:36)
6 Pajama Avenue (3:14)
7 Christmas (3:37)
8 Please To Police (5:07)
9 Untitled (5:04)

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