Rodrigo Amarante ‎– Cavalo (2013)

Style: Indie Rock
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Easy Sound, Polysom, Rough Trade, Mais Um Discos

Tracklist:
01.   Nada Em Vão
02.   Hourglass
03.   Mon Nom
04.   Irene
05.   Maná
06.   Fall Asleep
07.   The Ribbon
08.   O Cometa
09.   Cavalo
10.   I'm Ready
11.   Tardei

For fans of artists like Jorge Ben and João Gilberto, there’s just something about a nylon-string guitar and the Portuguese language that’s hard to resist. Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Rodrigo Amarante brings some of both with his debut solo record, but manages to mix in indie flavor and more. 

Amarante may not be a household name, but he’s collaborated with Devendra Banhart for years and has received accolades with his bands Little Joy (with Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti) and Los Hermanos. He holds down most all the singing and instruments throughout Cavalo, but both Banhart and Moretti make appearances here (as does Kristin Wiig, interestingly, who contributes vocals on three tracks). 

From crooning the gorgeous and unhurried opener “Nada Em Vão,” Amarante wastes no time jumping into the catchy, Strokes-flavored “Hourglass.” A few tracks later, “Irene” is simply a man and his guitar playing a delicate ballad that conjures an instant daydream of sitting in a Rio café in the late ’60s after a lazy beach day. That’s until you get to the ’70s-kissed funky samba of “Manau,” which would probably get just about any dance party started. Cavalo is a diverse and entertaining listen indeed.

Rich Osweiler / Premier Guitar

3rd Bass ‎– The Cactus Cee/D (The Cactus Album) (1989)

Genre/Style: Conscious, Hip-Hop
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Def Jam Recordings, CBS, Columbia

Tracklist:
01.   Stymie's Theme
02.   Sons Of 3rd Bass
03.   Russell Rush
04.   The Gas Face
05.   Monte Hall
06.   Oval Office
07.   Hoods
08.   Soul In The Hole
09.   Triple Stage Darkness
10.   M.C. Disagree
11.   Wordz Of Wizdom
12.   Product Of The Environment
13.   Desert Boots
14.   The Cactus
15.   Jim Backus
16.   Flippin' Off The Wall Like Lucy Ball
17.   Brooklyn-Queens
18.   Steppin' To The A.M.
19.   Episode #3
20.   Who's The Third
21.   Wordz Of Wisom (II)
22.   Brooklyn-Queens (UK Power Mix)

Besides the upper-middle-class frat-punks-in-rap-clothing shtick of the Beastie Boys and emissary/producer Rick Rubin, who both gained a legitimate, earned respect in the rap community, there were very few white kids in rap's first decade who spoke the poetry of the street with compassion and veneration for the form. That is, until The Cactus Album. Matching MC Serch's bombastic, goofy good nature and Prime Minister Pete Nice's gritty, English-trained wordsmithery (sounding like a young Don in training), 3rd Bass' debut album is revelatory in its way. For one, it is full of great songs, alternately upbeat rollers ("Sons of 3rd Bass"), casual-but-sincere disses ("The Gas Face"), razor-sharp street didacticism ("Triple Stage Darkness," "Wordz of Wizdom"), and sweaty city anthems ("Brooklyn Queens," "Steppin' to the A.M.," odes to day and night, respectively), with A-plus production by heavyweights Prince Paul and Bomb Squad, as well as the surprising, overshadowing work of Sam Sever. The duo may not have come from the streets, but their hearts were there, and it shows. The album embodies New York life. Not every single idea plays out successfully -- Serch's Tom Waits impression on "Flippin' Off the Wall..." is on the wrong side of the taste line, and "Desert Boots" is a puzzling Western-themed insertion -- but they are at least interesting stretches that add to the dense, layered texture of the album. The Cactus Album was also important because it proved to the hip-hop heads that white kids could play along without appropriating or bastardizing the culture. It may not have completely integrated rap, but it was a precursor to a culture that became more inclusive and widespread after its arrival.

Stanton Swihart / AllMusic

CFM Band ‎– CFM Band (1992)

Style: House, Acid Jazz, Deep House
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Rey-D Records, Soulid Gold

Tracklist:
01.   Intro
02.   Make It Funky CFM
03.   Hold Me Tight (CFM Mix)
04.   Jazz It Up
05.   Acid Soul
06.   Let's Do The Tapdancing
07.   Make Your Move "Swing"
08.   My Baby
09.   Welcome Back Brother James
10.   I Don't Want To Be Your Friend
11.   Check This Out
12.   CFM Groove
13.   Hold Me Tight (Pal Joey Remix)

Credits:
Backing Vocals – Reynald, Richie Weeks, Rosa Russ
Bass – Philip "Paris" Ford
Guitar – John Putman, Ron Gibbs
Horns – Kevin DiSimone
Keyboards – Kevin DiSimone, Warren Rosenstein
Saxophone – Charlie Sanders
Tap Dance – Ariel Powers
Vocals – Rosa Russ
Vocals– Keith Rose, Richie Weeks
Vocoder, Talkbox – Reynald, Warren Rosenstein
Arranged By – Reynald "Crazy Frenchman" Deschamps
Written-By – Reynald "Crazy Frenchman" Deschamps, Richie Weeks

Cocteau Twins ‎– Blue Bell Knoll (1988)

Style: Downtempo, Ethereal
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label: 4AD

Tracklist:
01.   Blue Bell Knoll
02.   Athol-Brose
03.   Carolyn's Fingers
04.   For Phoebe Still A Baby
05.   The Itchy Glowbo Blow
06.   Cico Buff
07.   Suckling The Mender
08.   Spooning Good Singing Gum
09.   A Kissed Out Red Floatboat
10.   Ella Megalast Burls Forever

Credits:
Remastered By – Robin Guthrie
Photography By – Juergen Teller
Sleeve – Jeremy Tilston, Paul West
Written-By, Producer – Cocteau Twins

Anar Band ‎– Anar Band (1977)

Style: Experimental
Format: Vinyl
Label:  Alvorada

Tracklist:
A1.   Aquaman / Plasticman / Batman / Superman
B1.   Fantasma / Sandokan / Mandrake / Tarzan

Credits:
Composed By – Jorge Lima Barreto
Electric Guitar – Rui Reininho
Percussion – Jorge Lima Barreto, Rui Reininho
Piano – Jorge Lima Barreto
Synthesizer – Jorge Lima Barreto

Notes:
Dedicated to Abel Mendes and Rui Neves.

Telectu ‎– Camerata Elettronica (1988)

Style: Abstract, Contemporary Jazz, Minimal, Ambient
Format: Vinyl
Label: Ama Romanta

Tracklist:
A1.   Zingaro's Tune
A2.   Sasa Slow Fox
A3.   Jazz Dell'Arte
A4.   Casino
B1.   Very Good Vibes
B2.   Jazz-Off/Caravan
B3.   Picnic
C1.   Musica Totale
C2.   Arepo Il
C3.   Arepo Ill
D1.   One For Varga
D2.   Jazz-Off/In Walked Bud
D3.   Flutrams

Credits:
Engineer – Vitor Rua
Producer – Telectu
Sampler, Bass, Electric Guitar, Vibraphone – Vitor Rua
Sampler, Brass, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute, Trombone, Vibraphone, Piano , Drums – Jorge Lima Barreto

Tenderlonious featuring The 22archestra ‎– The Shakedown (2018)

Style: Jazz-Funk, Afrobeat, Latin, Hip Hop
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Inpartmaint Inc., 22a

Tracklist:
1.   Expansions
2.   Yussef's Groove
3.   Togo
4.   SV Interlude
5.   The Shakedown
6.   Maria
7.   You Decide
8.   SV Disco
9.   Red Sky At Night

Credits:
Bass – Fergus Ireland
Drums – Yussef Dayes
Keyboards – Hamish Balfour
Percussion – Jeen Bassa, Konrad, Reginald Omas Mamode IV
Producer, Flute, Synthesizer – Ed Cawthorne

In Britain, the incidence of self-taught jazz musicians has declined dramatically over recent decades. Jazz-studies programmes have mushroomed in colleges and more and more young players have been signing up to them. Successful stylists of earlier eras, who may have studied informally with an older musician but who learnt most of their art on the bandstand, increasingly belong to the past.  

Ed "Tenderlonious" Cawthorne is among a handful of autodidacts who have bucked the trend. He spent much of his early childhood abroad (his father was in the military), and music lessons did not figure in his school curricula. As a teenager, he happened on records by Yusef Lateef and John Coltrane and, inspired by a Lateef album cover, bought a soprano saxophone he saw in a shop window and taught himself to play. He later taught himself the flute. By that time an in-demand DJ, spinning jazz, broken beat and deep house in London clubs, going to college did not figure in his plans.  

In 2018, Cawthorne is one of the musicians blowing new life into the London jazz scene, alongside a host of exciting players which includes saxophonists Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia, trumpeters Yazz Ahmed and Dylan Jones, drummer Moses Boyd, and keyboardists Joe Armon-Jones and Kamaal Williams. Cawthorne has his own label, 22a, and two bands, including the 22archestra, who are featured here. Like that of his peers, Cawthorne's take on jazz is a hybrid, involving hefty infusions of hip hop and hip hop-derived styles, and like Kamaal Williams, he is at the beat-centric end of the new-jazz spectrum.  

On The Shakedown, the core of the 22archestra is keyboardist Hamish Balfour, bassist Fergus Ireland and onetime Kamaal Williams collaborator, drummer Yussef Dayes. When building his arrangements, Cawthorne has to employ unconventional methods. "I was never educated talking about music as a diminuendo or crescendo," he said in a recent interview. "So for me it's about describing the music [to the band] as if I was writing it for a film. Like 'we're in some alleyway and it's dimly lit and there are a couple of shady characters,' or 'you're walking down the beach and you're trying to play it cool and puff your chest out.' And they laugh, because they don't hear that normally."  

But it works. The Shakedown is one of a dozen or so albums to have been released in Britain in late 2017 and early 2018 that are radically redefining jazz. Also prominent among them are Shabaka Hutchings's Sons of Kemet's Your Queen Is A Reptile (Impulse!), Joe Armon-Jones's Starting Today (Brownswood), Kamaal Williams's The Return (Black Focus), Yazz Ahmed's La Saboteuse (Naim) and the various artists showcase We Out Here (Brownswood), all previously reviewed here. Jazz is on a roll in Britain and, boy, it is an exciting ride.

Chris May / All About Jazz

Children Of Zeus ‎– Travel Light (2018)

Style: Soul, Contemporary R&B
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label:  First Word Records

Tracklist:
01.   The Story So Far...
02.   All On You
03.   360º
04.   Slow Down
05.   Hoodman2Manhood
06.   Kintsugi
07.   The Heart Beat
08.   Fear Of A Flat Planet
09.   Hard Work
10.   Sling Shot Riddim
11.   Respect Mine
12.   Daddy's Car
13.   Vibrations (Divine Signature)

The journey of the Manchester duo has been an arduous one. Throughout their individual careers, Konny Kon and Tyler Daley have been plagued by setbacks, heartbreak, and glimmers of hope. Rather than hiding the cracks that have unwillingly formed, Children of Zeus show their scars as evidence of what they have been through, and where they are destined to be. 

Travel Light is an ode to the soul food sounds that Kon and Daley grew up listening to from a young age. Drenched in low-slung, summer-ready rhythms, their impressive debut draws heavily from the classic hip hop sound of the mid-nineties, but with an edge that could only be sharpened by decades of refinement. 

Opening with the defiant “Story So Far”, the pair use the introduction as a chance to face their demons and start afresh. The past may lay heavy on their minds, but Travel Light is filled with humour, honesty, and self-realisation – with Kon himself admitting: 

“Tyler hasn’t checked his emails in six weeks/but without T there’s no females just tramps in big jeans” 

Without this contrast between Daley’s unparalleled vocals and Kon’s fractured bravado, Children Of Zeus would never work. This sense of loyalty is a common theme throughout Travel Light. Not only are they loyal to each other, but they remain loyal to the music they love, and the people they believe in – shining the light on fellow Mancunians [ K S R ] and LayFullStop, as well as the undeniable talents of DRS and Terri Walker. 

In terms of hip hop, Travel Light doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but it has definitely made the ride a whole lot smoother.

Simon Edwards / The Line Of Best Fit 

Ohio Players ‎– Pleasure (1972)

Style: Funk
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Westbound Records ‎Tracklist

A1.   Pleasure
A2.   Laid It
A3.   Pride And Vanity
A4.   Walt's First Trip
B1.   Varee Is Love
B2.   Walked Away From You
B3.   Paint Me
B4.   Funky Worm
B5.   Our Love Has Died

Credits:
Arranged By, Producer – Ohio Players
Engineer – Arlen Smith
Mastered By – HC
Written-By – Ohio Players

Lucrecia Dalt ‎– Syzygy (2013)

Style: Experimental, Ambient
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Human Ear Music

Tracklist:
1.   Glosolalia
2.   Inframince
3.   Soliloquios
4.   Vitti
5.   Levedad
6.   Volavérunt
7.   Edgewise
8.   Murmur
9.   Mirage

Upon introducing her Guest Mix, “en medio,” Lucrecia Dalt left a number of clues concerning the role of film in her music. Through describing its placement in the mix and the impact certain classics had on her third album, Syzygy, she explained that “these movies became the external shifter elements, the vectors of disorientation, guides to other moods.” As opposed to subjective depictions of scenes or images that the Colombian musician may have found affecting, their association had more to do with subtle characteristics, calculated movements, and the camera’s direction, all of which pointed Dalt toward a modified space, a new way of seeing. Her technique allowed for realigning compositional objectives while investigating the environmental adjustments that effected the sound quality — Syzygy was recorded in Dalt’s Barcelona apartment, which was so close to the metro line that she was forced to work at 04:30 AM to avoid outside interference. The resulting tracks expose a range of textures and emotions, a consequence of interrupted sleep patterns and an intriguing approach to the films that influenced the musical arrangements 

Dalt isn’t alone in reflecting cinematic experiences within her music; a recent example came from Commotus affiliate Julia Holter, who based Loud City Song on an appreciation of Vincente Minelli’s 1958 musical, Gigi. Both musicians are renowned for their home recordings, and they share a great deal stylistically — it just happens to be a coincidence that they are releasing film-influenced material within weeks of each other. Following an announcement that they would also be sharing a stage on the European leg of Holter’s tour, it seemed as though their connection may extend beyond artistic collaboration and taste, perhaps beckoning for the consideration of additional similarities in recorded output. But by emphasizing the differences that exist in their relationship with film, the further apart they begin to appear and the more distinct Dalt’s methods become. 

Where Holter loosely interpreted a particular production, she was also influenced by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette’s novel, on which the film was based. Her interest came grounded in the story’s narrative and the manner in which each character was projected into their surroundings. With Syzygy, Dalt is inspired by the non-linear, in reversing processes, of finding a way into every conversation and investigating the messages within. The technique implicates a balance of control where the musician permits moving imagery to infiltrate her creative spectrum and pursue its own refracted course. This leads to deeply intensified responses, an inter-splicing of language that’s set on a unique trajectory — Dalt melds Spanish, English, and Catalan in a fusion impinged upon by personal anxieties and a deep-seated literary enthusiasm, where numerous pieces of writing by Benjamin, Weber, Calvino, Duchamp, and Peter J. Carroll run through her aesthetic strategy as well as the multilingual lyric sheet. 

Syzygy feels more like a meshing of affiliations, a disclosure of how dialogue scraps and seemingly unrelated philosophical observation have stirring significance. Where musician’s such as Holter channel that directly into their music (in a gorgeous rendition, “Maxim’s I” takes a scene straight from Gigi’s plot), Dalt manipulates the setup, either by turning the sound off and watching for hidden expressions, looping clips back and forth, or even displacing the discourse entirely. This leads to avid transformation on a song such as “Vitti,” which she indicated was a dedication to the actress, Monica Vitti, for her role in Deserto Rosso. The track opens with keys that swirl and skip between Dalt’s breathy vocals before the bass strings sink in, dragging the track into an eerie realm that demonstrates a departure from the haunted sheen of Commotus and into an environment that exudes both passion and mystery. During the film, Vitti’s character, Giuliana, comes to terms with drastic alterations in her day-to-day life (director Michelangelo Antonioni mirrored this adjustment in his first color production to explore the possibilities of new equipment, which enabled him to capture the “ultimate moving painting”). As a listener, it’s troublesome trying to pinpoint the root of Dalt’s influence (personal crisis? socio-economic change?), but there is a key moment when Giuliana is narrating a story to her son and describes the following landscape: a deserted beach where nature’s colors were so lovely, where there was no sound and the rocks resembled flesh. A lone, singing voice then pours over Antonioni’s pristine abandon; it’s a marvelous moment of clarity that’s surely responsible for breaking “Vitti” into separate halves. 

Instead of pursuing a film’s linear narrative by musical interpretation, then, Dalt allowed messages and sentiments to tap into her sound, where they bled through into reality: sleepless nights, integrated memory recall, and a corrosive disconnect with her instruments of choice. These experiences occurred in a personal space — standing on a noisy balcony and listening to Felix Kubin’s “Der Bleiche Beobachter,” a distant recollection of driving between Colombia and Ecuador, laying down tracks in her apartment as opposed to in a recording studio, coaxing out a tender quality that floods across the album. “My routine changes completely,” Dalt said in discussing her involvement with work and its ramifications in daily life, “dreams and thoughts become louder and more intense, conversations more enjoyable and graspable, ordinary walks become remarkable I’m able to materialize what besets consciousness, self-estrangement rises, as does my affectation.”

That’s why the album’s influences remain so striking. The philosophers and writers referenced throughout the three-page press release are there for a reason, which became apparent in the video for “Inframince”. Like the films she had explored, theoretical snippets and thought experiments leak into Dalt’s method. “Inframince” creeps very slowly into a singular melody as the singer whispers behind a backdrop of crackling condensation and delicate strings before the song builds into some dicey climax — there are traces of a voice left behind, but the uncertainty that drenches it is still perceptible no matter how one wishes to cast their glance. Dalt has taken Duchamp’s idea of the infrathin, of an undefinable difference that occurs in a fractional amount of time, and expressed it via her own intricate compositions, where key sequences fade in and out of each other, where an indescribable static nests beneath the music and refuses to shift. 

The album is an incarnation of such notions as they resounded in Dalt’s sleep-deprived state, unfolding across a scene from Sans Soleil with the sound off, or better yet, with an overlay of fractured synths and a metro electric field replacing the dialogue as it all takes on some new, contorted form. These moments come to life while flowing within the music; “Volaverunt,” for instance, is a particularly spirited offering and also the main offender in dealing humidity associations. The reverb clings to Dalt’s hushed vocals as she spills about mirages, fear, and the future — the track then slams into a split-second of fury, cutting into some wild, echoic haze. Mid-whisper, the throbbing bass strings reel the tune back at a quicker pace and force a complete reexamination of everything that vanished away beforehand — it couldn’t be further from the frantic prickle of “Glosolalia” in terms of structure and fragility; however, each piece bears a precise resemblance because of how beautifully the album is assembled. 

Syzygy is sewn tightly together with short interludes, fragments of ideas that bridge every track in a fashion that’s not necessarily comfortable, but that suits the stark thrill it induces. Each bares its own mark of intent; “Edgewise” is this reviewer’s favorite, as it carries the swampish funk of the previous track and laces it with simmering vocal vestige — Dalt’s voice is at its calmest before some shrill frequency peaks into “Murmur,” a jagged, flustering miniature that opens out into the album’s final, glorious surge. As an experiment that pulls on so many independent threads, from the secrets kept in Johan’s diary to a recollection of theories about variations in rationality, its context is bound up in the physical space Dalt chose to record in as well as the inspiring practices she brought to her approach. Syzygy is a delightful emergence, a torn and ruptured shard of apprehensions, desires, shadows, and passions, all of which cause an unsettling series of sparks that are as harsh and shrouded as they are warm and enrapturing. Dalt might have stripped her sound down to the bone here, but the remaining components make for a wondrously rich configuration, albeit a rather disturbing one.

Birkuit / Tiny Mix Tapes