Category: Album Reviews – Archive

January 18, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

CHICKEN CHILI BASIL (elsenprice.bandcamp.com) 7/10 Energy and excitement can be paradoxical elements in music, in that musicians who play with too much vigour can stop their instruments vibrating and sounding to their full capacity, and excitable performances can result is music that is merely overwrought. Elsen Price understands this, and…

January 17, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

CONFLUENCE (Bamboozle Music) 8/10 The first vibraphone notes tinkle like wind chimes in the lightest summer breeze, while a shaker mimics an insect. Soon enough other sounds – breath through a trumpet, swelling cymbals, electronics, a chattering snare – darken the mood. A groove emerges that only amplifies the sense…

December 26, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

 BLUE MAQAMS (ECM) 9.5/10 Is this the year’s finest release? It is two decades since the great Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem last collaborated with jazz musicians on the timeless Thimar. That was with John Surman and Dave Holland, and now Holland returns to the fold in company with drummer…