Reviews

Punkt.Vrt.Plastik: Somit

Punkt.Vrt.Plastik

Somit

Intakt Records

This is the second album from jazz trio Punkt.Vrt.Plastik. Maybe this will be the one to cement them as one of the most exciting piano trios on the circuit today. The rhythm section of Christian Lillinger (drums) and Petter Eldh (bass) has played together for over a decade – pianist Kaja Draksler brings something new to the brittle organic drum ‘n’ bass frenzy they have perfected. Her piano trickles over and in and around the hypnotic rhythms – they race ahead one minute only to slow up and sit in underneath a double-time piano. The stop-start and herky-jerky motions won’t be for everyone – to which I say GOOD! Read More »

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March 28, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Neil Young: Young Shakespeare

Neil Young

Young Shakespeare

Reprise

Neil Young is really cleaning out his closet of late – another big box-set from his archives (Vol. II) finally arrived after many years of chat. And Way Down In The Rust Bucket was very recently released too. That’s a Crazy Horse gig from 1990. Read More »

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March 28, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Andra Day: The United States VS. Billie Holiday (Music From The Motion Picture)

Andra Day

The United States VS. Billie Holiday (Music From The Motion Picture)

Warner Records.

Cassandra Monique Batie changed her name to Andra Day in tribute to Billie Holiday (aka “Lady Day”) and now she get to play Ms. Lady Day in the movie The United States VS. Billie Holiday, an impressionistic biopic that tells the story of Holiday’s jail sentence. I’ve yet to see the film but Andra Day is netting some great reviews for her efforts – including her singing. She’s a huge fan, she’s taken influence from Holiday and the soundtrack features very credible versions of the big Billie Holiday staples as sung by Andra Day. We’re talking Strange Fruit, All of Me, Ain’t Nobody’s Business, Lady Sings The Blues and of course God Bless The Child. Read More »

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March 23, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Aretha Franklin: The Genesis of Aretha: 1960-1966

Aretha Franklin

The Genesis of Aretha: 1960-1966

Columbia

There are so many Aretha compilations on the market – but this one, one of the first since her passing, is a goodie.

Its well established that between 1967 and 1972 Aretha Franklin was crowned the Queen of Soul and in that five year period there are at least nine amazing albums; many of them worth having in any serious record collection. You can’t cover the ground she covered there by just having a single or double greatest hits; the compilations don’t get to the heart of her return to her gospel roots, nor the full funk workouts of her bands drive by Bernard Purdie. You get a few key songs but you need more than that. Read More »

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March 23, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Galya Bisengalieva: Aralkum

Galya Bisengalieva

Aralkum

One Little Independent

Sadness. It’s there in every note and texture and tone and feel throughout this, the first album by violinist Galya Bisengalieva. To be clear she is no new act – this is just her first record under her own name. Her day job is leader of the London Contemporary Orchestra and she’s collaborated as far afield as Frank Ocean and Radiohead (you might have heard her, without knowing it, as I did, on A Moon Shaped Pool for instance). And when she’s not sawing through contemporary R’n’B, hip-hop and indie-rock there’s Brahms and Beethoven and Schumann and Scelsi. Read More »

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March 23, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Ani DiFranco: Revolutionary Love

Ani DiFranco

Revolutionary Love

Righteous Babe Records

I was the biggest Ani DiFranco fan at one time, though proving that would of course create a bone of contention. The first time I saw her play live I realised what it was to truly be one of her biggest fans; still – I was a champion. She was always a spirited performer, I loved the poetry of her songwriting and her guitar playing was kick-arse too. Read More »

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March 22, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Loretta Lynn: Still Woman Enough

Loretta Lynn

Still Woman Enough

Legacy Recordings

Loretta Lynn, at 88, still sounds amazing. She still has grit and fight in her voice and her soulful, determined country music still burns. Here, in something of a victory lap, she goes back through the catalogue and re-ignites the fires. She features a few guests – and they sounds genuinely chuffed to be there. Naturally. Margo Price – whose debut album played in a loving nod on the title of Loretta’s famous Coal Miner’s Daughter, sounds like she’s been rehearsing her whole life to singe One’s On The Way with her spiritual godmother. Read More »

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March 22, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Amanda Sewell: Wendy Carlos – A Biography

Wendy Carlos: A Biography

Amanda Sewell

Oxford University Press

Wendy Carlos is one of the great pioneers of electronic music, champion of the Moog, creator of mesmerising soundtracks (A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, TRON) and as well as recontextualising classical music to make one of the genre’s all-time best sellers, it is likely she also created ambient music ahead of the genre being named and marketed.

So you would think she’d make a perfect subject for a biography. Read More »

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March 21, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Pino Palladino/Blake Mills: Notes With Attachments

Pino Palladino/Blake Mills

Notes With Attachments

New Deal Records

Pino Palladino is one of the most famous bass players alive – a session man from Wales who has provided deep funk for Erykah Badu and D’Angelo, and is now the new guy in The Who, filling in the sound created by one of the most famous rock bassists of all time. If you didn’t think you knew his work at all think back to Paul Young’s brilliant Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) which elevated a middling Marvin Gaye ditty and largely because of the fretless feel of Pino’s perfect bass. Read More »

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March 21, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Ringo Starr: Zoom In – EP

Ringo Starr

Zoom In – EP
UMe

Ringo returns with more content no one asked for – something he’s been doing since at least 1974. And when the best thing you can say about a new release is, “Thank fuck it’s an EP” that pretty much establishes the tone. Read More »

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March 20, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Richard Pryor: ‘Craps’ (After Hours) – 50th Anniversary

Richard Pryor

Craps (After Hours)

Omnivore Recordings

In the Richard Pryor story it’s often mentioned that as he was climbing the mountain of stand-up he had to shed the clothes of Bill Cosby Clone. Mentioning Cosby might be triggering enough these days but there’s no denying that in the 1960s Cosby was one of comedy’s kings. And Pryor was one of his many students. Richard’s earliest TV appearances show him doing light-hearted and observational material. When he broke big it was with a sound and feel and stories that reflected the streets, that opened up about the psychological damage of growing up in a brothel, or the sexual abuse he suffered and early introduction to drugs and alcohol. Read More »

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March 18, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Pearl Charles: Magic Mirror

Pearl Charles

Magic Mirror

Kanine Records

Pearl Charles reminds me of Weyes Blood – which is to say there is that throwback to the 1970s, to AOR and MOR but with the twist of modern vitality; a determined hipness that is never arch but which marks the work as more than just throwback; as its own thing. And where Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising (probably my 2019 Record of the Year) was like some second coming of Karen Carpenter, Charles’ reference points are less dramatic on much of Magic Mirror. The spirit of Carpenter lives inside Don’t Feel Like Myself, both the arrangement and the lyric – but for the most part the feel is more sunny and Californian; 70s early Fleetwood Mac, Carole King and some lovely countrypolitan that isn’t a million miles from Linda Ronstadt (the title track is another Karen Carpenter moment though, beautifully so). Read More »