The Adventures Of A Waterboy

With the publication of his autobiography, it’s time to recognise that Mike Scott belongs in a heavy duty club of modern day artists who serve their musical muse like a God. Those who let nothing as trivial as industry marketing strategy or record label expectations, contractual or otherwise, block their path. Neil Young is the chairman of the board here; leaving behind him a motherlode of ‘collateral damage’ with barely a hint of regret for friendships broken along the way in over 40 years of impulsive left turns away from the predictable path. But since his infamous 1980s Geffen battle, few have questioned Young’s decisions as his output remains so prolific it will surely keep the analysts busy for decades into the 21^st Century playing catch up on what Neil’s been up to. Ditto Bob Dylan, although while his unique concert game plan leaves enough punters scratching their heads moaning that he “didn’t speak and you couldn’t recognise anything”, there’ll be a musically uneducated faction wrongly painting him as the confusing, curmudgeonly old eccentric. But Dylan is a giant, an icon of the 20^th Century and it matters little what the casual observers make of him in the current marketplace, his work will endure forever to people craving literary songwriting depth, the only entry level hurdle being that unconventional voice. Now even though Mike Scott is a fully paid up member of the muse serving club, now with a back catalogue rich in soul and depth, he has not been as bullet proof as Young and Dylan because Mike came to prominence in the 80s, when the industry and business levels of music went into overdrive. He did not have the kudos of a reputation cemented during the golden dawn of the 60s and early 70s.

It is quite remarkable that he never really crumbled or compromised his music at any stage. Yes, this wonderful autobiography reveals a certain frustration at how records such as ‘Dream Harder’ didn’t realise the sound imagined in his minds ear, but it’s never for a lack of searching for the key. It was just that, like a good deal of Dylan concerts, the magic wasn’t unlocked at that time because Mike couldn’t find the right combination. But his integrity remained a constant despite repeatedly leaving himself in the wrong place, wrong time, with the wrong band line up and even sometimes the wrong music for anything like a conventional career arc to take place. So instead of standing shoulder to shoulder with U2 in the late 80s as the only credible challengers to their big rock crown, the Waterboys would relocate to Ireland and immerse themselves for half the decade in traditional Folk sounds. Then in 1990, as the second of the Folk albums solicits knee-jerk negative reactions from the music press because Mike had travelled too far into the tradition, his harcore-trad having pushed tunnel-visioned writers into a head spin of folksy prejudice, a large scale raggle-taggle rolling thunder revue style tour in a big-top was booked and promoted for The Waterboys to take the music to the people and turn the tide in their favour. But it doesn’t happen that way because immediately prior to the tour commencing, all the key traditional style players in the band leave and instead they have to play a compromised Rock set, thus excluding most of the tracks from the new album but playing mostly to crowds expecting jigs, reels and fiddles. Then in 1991, as ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ becomes a belated top 10 hit in the UK and ‘The Best Of The Waterboys’ compilation raises their profile to its highest ever status, Mike has moved to the US and not yet begun the process of putting together a new Waterboys line up; Anto Thistlethwaite now being the only other permanent member left (and even he soon slipped out of the picture). Next it’s 1993 and newly signed to Geffen, with the most straight ahead Rock record of his career to promote, Mike has pointedly failed to put together a new line up of the band to tour with. Reading between the lines it’s clear Mike’s head had been turned by the call of a spiritual community on Scotland’s North East coast and sure enough he’s living there by the start of 1994, leaving behind both the demands of a major US record label and his first marriage too.

Often the purity of his ideals leads to comical moments. The look of horror on his face in the mid-1990s when waking up to the reality that he was being managed by a former member of Modern Romance must have been priceless; sure enough the former early 80s New Romantic Popster is quickly fired. But you have to admire the man’s resolve too, service to his music didn’t always target those deemed guilty of crimes against pop in an earlier lifetime. What musician when invited to not only jam with an idol at the age of 25, but throw a tune or two of his own into the mix too wouldn’t have pitched one of his best efforts? Not Mike that’s for sure; so when he had Bob Dylan’s ear and perhaps limitless potential future collaboration on the table, he holds on to every killer song he must have had up his sleeve at that point (all the early ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ era stuff) and instead offers one of his weakest tunes, mindful of giving away too much too soon even then. The irrefutable response the song earns from Dylan is priceless. Over ten years later Mike is just a production decision away from the chance to work with George Harrison, surely a Mike Scott musical soul mate in waiting? All he had to do was take former George Harrison backing musician Jim Keltner’s advice on which track to offer the ex-Beatle, but that involved scrubbing a guitar solo of his own that Mike felt strongly about and so, as Keltner warned, the track Mike sent over didn’t capture the quiet ones imagination and the meet up didn’t happen.

It has to be said that many a music industry ‘name’ come out of this book without too much credit. Not Alan McGhee of Creation, the impression Mike gives of this now legendary name of 1990s Indie is that of a man who walks it like he talks it. However, shouldn’t David Geffen really have learned something about handling a wayward, creative talent a little better after his awkward Neil Young situation in 1980s? It shouldn’t have taken a British rival record label manager, who really had no business being involved at all, to recognise what an astonishing piece of work 1994’s ‘Bring ‘Em All In’ actually was. So while Alan McGhee went on to be that ill fated record’s biggest champion, Mike’s real label boss was sending  messengers to the studio to ensure an album with three hit singles that would be played on FM Rock radio would be delivered. And I find it hard to countenance how, in early 1990 after the ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ album and after the mind blowing Waterboys live shows of 1989, the producer Barry Beckett would immediately ditch the key winning formula of recording and capturing the band live in the studio, feeding and bouncing off each other. A man who cut his teeth with the Muscle Shoals studio band should surely have got to the essence of the Waterboys Folk-Rock groove without alienating the band to the extent that his beeping electronic metronome had to be stolen by Mike and Noel Bridgman in the middle of the night and buried deep in the gardens of Spiddal House?

‘The Adventures Of A Waterboy’ comes to a close around 2000 and the ‘A Rock In The Weary Land’ album. By this time a lot of the debris from his difficult 1990s period had been tidied up. Recognition that his music is better received under the all-encompassing Waterboys banner arrives and it’s a nice touch that he sees his fellow musicians as having a better stature as members of the band rather than mere back up players, that’s true. He details how in 1998 he located and reconnected with the father he lost touch with as a young boy and best of all, for the music, repairs the relationship with fiddle player Steve Wickham that fell apart in 1990. Probably the only thing that you sense Mike steers clear of in this book are his real feelings about early keyboard player and future World Party leader Karl Wallinger. Mike keeps the comments about Karl fairly neutral throughout although there’s a barely disguised smirk when he recalls an early road manager punching Karl ‘poetically’ into a rack of Europop cassettes in a Swiss service station. At a London book launch a few weeks ago it was pointed out to Mike that the music press advert Wallinger responded to when joining the band requested the applicant must not be a “jack of all trades” or a “pop fan”. “Well he shouldn’t have bloody answered the advert then” Mike snapped in response, sounding momentarily venomous in a way we didn’t see for the rest of the evening. The 1988 track ‘World Party’ was a direct poke at somebody (and who honestly believes it isn’t Karl?) and the pair have been more than a little spiky with each other in the music press in recent times; definitely some unfinished business there that’s not dealt with in this autobiography I think.

All in all though the book ends in the right place. As Mike rightly attests, you need a bit of a distance from events to write about them with any clarity of thought. In the last twelve years he’s really settled with the band and band name, striking a good balance between the Folk and Rock elements of his sound and, with the collapse of the music industry and the rise of the internet as a communication tool working to his advantage, he’s turned the Waterboys into the evolving platform within which he can move in any direction he feels necessary; the platform it was always meant to be essentially. The new releases have been punctuated with eagerly awaited archive trawls as Mike has finally felt ready to sort out the massively potent avalanche of creation that arrived in those early Ireland years. That kind of adventure probably couldn’t occur again, at least to an artist who’d already stepped into the mainstream arena. In travelling to Ireland then gradually moving to more remote areas further west, in that period before mobile phones and the internet, was a serious disappearing act. There are quaint tales in this book of record label representatives having to send messages to pubs Mike might be known to drink in just to keep some level of communication going with him. All the while he immersed himself in his music without diversion or distraction, in the process bringing alive worlds and cultures seemingly from another age; that couldn’t be done now. I’ve noticed too in the last couple of years, that Mike is slowly enjoying a newfound seniority within the music world and the respect too afforded a survivor with a strong back catalogue that comes with that; not quite a living legend yet but well on the way.

So, once you've been over to www.amazon.co.uk and bought your copy of the book, check out the Waterboys on film playlist below for some great Mike Scott music alongside some of the rare and fascinating moments exquisitely described by Mike Scott in the book.

SEPTEMBER 2012 PLAYLIST

Two of my favourite albums this month are new releases by female singers who enjoyed their heyday in the 1980s. Susanna Hoffs latest record is rather exclusively categorised as ‘baroque pop’ but really it’s just simply gorgeous, flowing pure pop (albeit with a wistful 60s feel). While the musically aware Bangles observers will know that a classic, vintage pop thread runs right back to the start of Susanna Hoffs career, Tanita Tikaram on the other hand belongs in the collective consciousness to a very specific, very brief episode of late 80s chart action. That is the sudden re-emergence in 1988 of a folksy, singer-songwriter boom in reaction to the rave culture that grew alongside it. Although it could hardly be argued that acts like Michelle Shocked, Eddi Reader, Tracy Chapman or even Suzanne Vega went on to have solo careers of great, mainstream longevity, Tanita more than any has spent most of the last two decades in obscurity. In fact the brilliance of her new album ‘Can’t Go Back’ is one of the most welcome yet unexpected surprises of the year. What’s so special about it? Well, her singing for a start is nothing like the rather reserved, almost grunty font I remember from the ‘Twist In My Sobriety’ days. No, there’s an expressiveness and soulful quality to the delivery here; she owns it. And the songs themselves, they’re belters. Full of groove busting intent and intensity and played, because they were recorded thus, with all the cut, thrust and delicate touch of a live rock and soul revue band. Not just that, but the track included below could so easily be picked up by a Dance DJ and taken to audiences not even born when ‘Good Tradition’ shot Tikaram to early fame. So here it is, our September 2012 playlist:

Patricia – Perez Prado

Better Off Without A Wife – Tom Waits

Dirty Girl – Eels

Tighten Up Your Tie Button Up Your Jacket – Aretha Franklin

Operation Heartache – Lee Dorsey

96 Tears – Big Maybelle

Take Me For A Little While – Dusty Springfield

Heavy Pressure – Tanita Tikaram

Is Your Love Big Enough? – Lianne La Havas

2 Bit Blues – Kid Koala

Duquesne Whistle – Bob Dylan

November Sun – Susanna Hoffs

You’ll Never See My Face Again – The Bee Gees

Flood’s New Light – Thee Oh Sees

Tell Me (What’s On Your Mind) – Allah-Las

Waiting For – Poor Moon

Half Gate – Grizzly Bear

Gun Has No Trigger – Dirty Projectors

Cyrk – Cate Le Bon

Can’t Get Away – Rodriguez

New New Orleans (King Adjuah Stomp) – Christian Scott

Blue Sands – Chico Hamilton Quintet

Doubt – The Corin Tucker Band

Sun – Cat Power

Don’t Say Nothing – The Heavy

Until The Sun Comes – Rival Sons

Dreams – Taken By Trees

Would That Not Be Nice – Divine Fits

Right String But The Wrong Yo Yo – Piano Red

Slavemaster – Flick Wilson

Who Do You Think You’re Fooling – Symphonic Four

Cupid’s Boogie – Esther Phillips

Break Down And Let It All Out – Nina Simone

Love Potion No.9 – The Clovers

Lyin’ Down The Middle – Dillard & Clark

Best Friend – Tashaki Miyaki

Light Enough To Travel – The Be Good Tanyas

Nowhere To Be Found – Sera Cahoone

Greedy – Inara George

Train Song – Pentangle

Opening Move – Gryphon

Horses – Sean Rowe

Call Of The River – Linda Perhacs

The Clyde Water – The Big Eyes Famile Players & Friends

Felton Lonnin – The Unthanks

Feel It – Kate Bush

Fenlight – Sue Stone & Richard Newman

Empires – Bill Fay

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – Flaming Lips & Erykah Badu

Eclectic Warrior Sep 2012

AUGUST 2012 PLAYLIST

There’s brand new Blur to be found near the beginning and end of this months playlist; that’s what you’re going to get here at a time when one of my favourite bands not only reform to make some new music, but play some incredible gigs and release a 21 disc box set. Yes indeed, it’s all been a bit of a Blur in August, something which will be reflected with a major Essex Boy Review Blur appreciation coming soon. Meanwhile, here’s our August 2012 playlist:

When Marissa Stands Her Ground – Christian Scott

Under The Westway – Blur

Sugarplum – Eugene McGuinness

That Ain’t My Trip – The Flaming Lips & Jim James

Moose Point Maine – The Ghost Train Porters

Little Talks – Of Monsters And Men

Pickin’ Tomatoes – Shocking Blue

Down In The Woods – Richard Hawley

Always Crashing The Same Car – David Bowie

Children At Play – Marcia Griffiths

Fold The Cloth – Cate Le Bon

Lazy Afternoon – McGuinness Flint

Raining – Susanna Hoffs

Mule On The Mountain – The Be Good Tanyas

Ring-A-Ding-Doo – Esther Phillips

Good Jelly – Big Bill Broonzy

Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk – The Unthanks

Adagio Ma Non Troppo – Charles Mingus

Devils Whisper – Mighty Baby

Give Your Best – Bee Gees

Elephant – Tame Impala

I Wonder – Rodriguez

Trimmed Wing – Mary Epworth

Lightning Bolt – Jake Bugg

Accidental – Inara George

Well You Can Do It Without Me – Father John Misty

You Are Not Needed Now – Townes Van Zandt

True Affection – The Blow

Good Morning Mr Magpie – The Dials

Sleeping Ute – Grizzly Bear

Cloudburst Flight – Tangerine Dream

The Puritan – Blur

Eclectic Warrior Aug 2012

JULY 2012 PLAYLIST

This months playlist came together shortly before I undertook a bumper armchair Folk Festival weekend bonanza. With the Sky Arts TV Channel giving the Cambridge Folk Festival massively comprehensive coverage (and not having quite the same headliner transmission difficulty they endured with Isle Of Wight) I also discovered that the Newport Folk Festival in America was being streamed in live chunks on the internet. Wow, what a rare opportunity this was to compare and contrast the two premier folk events from the UK and the US.

America’s Newport Folk Festival was the scene of perhaps the pivotal cultural moment in 20^th Century traditional based music when, in 1965, Bob Dylan come up against a brick wall of musically-conservative resistance by trying to introduce the crowd to his electric sound. I’m not sure Cambridge ever had such a high profile moment of collision (but anyone present at Cambridge about twelve years ago when Nick Cave played the main stage might disagree) and anyway, since Dylan let the cat out of the bag there’s been a gradual shift to electric instruments being treated as the norm and the umbrella encompassing any musical form that’s got a few roots showing and veers away from the mainstream.  In the end though, it’s clear to me that Newport wins the battle of the folk festivals hands down.

You find yourself sitting watching someone like Seth Lakeman at Cambridge and, he’s good. He’s an upbeat, amiable sort of fellow playing alongside his studious looking brother but for me, the jigs and reels based folksy ditties just don’t weave any magic. Here’s a performer giving you dexterous proficiency but very little in the way of actual passion. Then glance over at the internet and it’s Conor Oberst on Newports main stage, a musician of markedly less technical skill than Seth, not even a particularly great voice but still he captures your attention; there’s an effortless charisma and a certain angst in his performance that takes it away from mere track and field work out and into actual art. Then he’ll pull Jim James and Jonathan Wilson out onto the stage thus elevating proceedings into a serious musical happening. This really must be the place to be right now! This happens quite a few times across the weekend; I mean with headliners like Newports Wilco and Jackson Browne set against The Proclaimers and Clannad it might look an unfair contest but the US event just seemed to have far more emphasis on music of the modern world as opposed to combos whose sole purpose is a preservation of the past. I just don’t see Cambridge booking acts like My Morning Jacket and Of Monsters And Men and if they ever put Sharon Van Etten on the main stage there she’d surely get removed under a barrage of rolled up copies of the Daily Mail.

Therein lies my problem with Cambridge Folk Festival, the overbearing devotion routinely showered on polite yet dull workhorses like Show Of Hands and Kate Rusby (neither present this year from what I could tell) and nowhere near enough kudos given to some of the exciting young folk talent that’s arisen over the past decade. Indeed bands like Vetiver or Fleet Foxes haven’t had so much as an invite because annually the rotation of the Karine Polwarts and Jim Morays has to be maintained so inevitably there’s no room. It’s a shame because the festival gets it so spectacularly right in spurts; this year the Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band looked like a spellbinding combination whilst other acts such as June Tabor & Oysterband, Anais Mitchell, Ruthie Foster and Lau sounded absolutely vital. For now though it looks like it’s the US that has the (cutting) edge, it’s the one that’s screams ‘relevant’ and seems to offer an open minded inclusiveness. Cambridge comes across like an exclusive little private club that’d prefer it if you didn’t try and join in and pollute the safe mix. Ironically, in 2012 it is the Cambridge Folk Festival that needs a Newport ‘65 style storm to shake the audience out of its comfort zone and take the event on into a new golden era.

While we’re waiting, why not enjoy a nice eclectic mix of tunes and styles with our July 2012 playlist:

Water – Nigel Kennedy

I Don’t Need You – Ral Donner

She Brings The Sunlight – Richard Hawley

I Bought My Eyes – Ty Segall Band

Weep Themselves To Sleep – Jack White

The Real World – The Bangles

Josephine – Billy Joel

Imagination – The Quotations

Then The Heartaches Begin – The Hollies

Blackeye – Love Inks

After You – Chastity Brown

Take It Back – Norah Jones

Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas) – Regina Spektor

Gimme Some – Nina Simone

Back In Love Again – Donna Summer

Let’s Stay Together – Al Green

Grandma’s Hands – Bill Withers

Goodbye – Melody Gardot

This Land Is Your Land – Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Judas (Was A Red Headed Man) – June Tabor

Looking For A Home – Bert Jansch

Let Me Know – Smoke Fairies

Elder Tree – Tarantella

Lipstick Traces – Benny Spellman

Shut Eye – Stealing Sheep

I’m Writing A Novel  - Father John Misty

Why She’s Acting This Way – Townes Van Zandt

Trying To Get To You – The Eagles

I (Who Have Nothing) – Ben E.King

Oh My Love – Inara George

Strange Mercy – St. Vincent

Forever In Blue – Ren Harvieu

Miroirs: III Une Barque Sur L’ocean – Anna Vinnitskaya

Eclectic Warrior July 2012

JUNE 2012 PLAYLIST

As I write this introduction to the June playlist I've just read that The Word Magazine is about to fold. I do genuinely think that's a shame, I recall it launching around 2003 with the tagline "at last something to read" and remarkably it's hard to argue that they haven't stayed true to that remit. Despite this my loyalty as a reader has ebbed away over the past couple of years. It's hard to put a finger on why, although spotting editor Mark Ellen at Latitude festival a couple of years ago mincing around in skin tight jeans that would have looked illegal on a man half his age did (probably unfairly) shatter any credibility I'd attached to his writing. I suppose it just cemented my impression that this magazine was in essence an old gentleman-of-the-music-press's drinking club; a safe environment for them to utter their seen-it-all-before missives and blatantly lust after the younger women in their industry still just about grateful enough for the attention (Beth Ditto...erm, Roberta from Spotify!). But The Word was a publication that generally kept the content levels high and you'd often still be reading it a week or two after purchase, something you can't say for Mojo or Q. I was once stuck on a coach sat next to the horse racing commentator Derek 'Thommo' Thompson and it was only my copy of Word Magazine that provided me with enough of a diversion to avoid too much inane chat with the Alan Partridge-style buffoon, but that's another story. Optimistically, this does clear the way for Shindig! Magazine to consolidate a position as the premier music publication on the newsagent racks; now there's a publication I recommend without reservation. Anyway, onto this months playlist...

Cosmic Candy – CAPTAIN HAMMOND (Is there a better way to introduce any playlist than with a meaty, beaty slice of juicy cosmic Hammond organ? This is the sound of a trio lead by the former Mother Earth organist Bryn Barklam) / Dedication To My Ex (Miss That) – LLOYD (The trouble with focusing less and less on what’s populating the UK singles chart these days is that occasionally I miss out on a hit that’s just a brilliant pop moment no matter what the era; this modern R&B cut from 2011 is one such example, featuring Lil’ Wayne and Andre 3000) / Sky Is Falling – NATALIE DUNCAN (Occasionally the world of reality TV and light entertainment has to, albeit inadvertently, shine a light on some real and exciting talent. Duncan’s biggest exposure to date has been on a BBC show in which Goldie put together a band to perform music at Buckingham Palace, but whatever prejudices that information fires up I’d suggest you set to one side as Verve Records have too, for there's clearly something pretty special going on here) / Out Of The Game – RUFUS WAINWRIGHT (He always sounds classy, even on a record such as this where he admits he’s trying to sell more albums and get an increase in plays on the radio) / What Did The Hippie Have In His Bag? – CORNERSHOP (Where once Cornershop would release a single that, with a sprinkle of Norman Cook fairydust, would go on to top the charts, nowadays their output seems to be buried amidst exclusive e-mail subscriptions and downloads. And yet, their music is still a thoroughly commercial pop proposition and fun too. Just listen to this track from ‘Urban Turban’, the album that collects together the releases from their ‘Singhles Club’) / Longest Day – SOULSAVERS (In which they coax something moving out of Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan) / Mr E’s Beautiful Blues – EELS (Funky soul horns and chops give this tune a fresh dimension) / Lottery Winners On Acid – THE CRIMEA (Still an under-rated band despite the kudos of being a favourite during the later radio career of John Peel) / ESP – HOODED FANG (More modern Psych madness) / Elephant Head – COLD SPECKS (Al Spx is a pseudonym of a London based Canadian singer-songwriter who records music with her band as Cold Specks for Mute records. There’s a soulful element to this music with a hint of Gospel too that gives it a real burning, soaring edginess) / Take Me To Heaven – LAIBACH (The Slovenian Avant-Garde collective are extraordinarily gorgeous on this track from the ‘Iron Sky’ soundtrack, a film that sees the Nazis fleeing to the moon after the second world war to build a space fleet and attack the Earth in 2018) / Be My Friend Awhile – PUGWASH (The latest album from songwriter Thomas Walsh touches base in the ELO and XTC camps as before with Pugwash, quietly suggesting that his Duckworth Lewis Method collaboration with Neil Hannon could and should have featured him in a more forthright role, this is lovely stuff) / Idea – BEE GEES (The sound of the Bee Gees rocking out is rarely heard and celebrated even less but it remains a 60s pop sound to treasure) / Through Eyes And Glass – ANN WILSON AND THE DAYBREAKS (If, like me, the band name Heart makes you think of dreary Soft Rock agony, then this early piece of wispy, Acid-Folk finery from the singers who’d later become the heart of erm...Heart will both surprise and delight you) / Can’t Be Wrong – LOVE INKS (Low key Art-Rock from Austin, Texas) / Henryk Part II – DAVE STAPLETON (From the concept album ‘Flight’ in which Stapleton works with the Brodowski String Quartet and establishes himself as one of the most talented and exciting new composers in Jazz) / She’s 22 – NORAH JONES (She doesn’t hold back on her latest album, primarily focusing on a relationship ended by infidelity. There’s no neat resolutions to the mess, in fact Norah isn’t ruling out murder by the albums end!) / Be Here To Love Me – TOWNES VAN ZANDT (Sublime) / Constantine – MARISSA NADLER (Exquisite) / Two Weeks Last Summer – SANDY DENNY & THE STRAWBS (These days Sandy is a heavily archived artist, pretty much every last scrap of recorded material must have been sourced and documented by now. It’s right and just that she should be studied so extensively of course, hers was indisputably one of the premier female voices of the twentieth century. Lately I’ve been sampling that brief pre-Fairport period she spent working with The Strawbs. It’s not regarded as her golden patch and she would re-record some of the material they worked on later to greater effect and acclaim but, it is an interesting point for me because for a woman working in the Psychedelic era of a progressive mind she hardly touched on the eras typical style of music. That is except for here and on one or two other, at the time un-released, moments in those Strawbs sessions. We’re not talking Incredible String Band style way-outness; just a sort of floating exploratory vibe that suggests whatever musical direction Sandy could have walked down at this point, she would surely have left an indelible mark ) / Seven Curses – JUNE TABOR & OYSTERBAND (Jumping to the most alive and vital sounding Folk album we’ve seen so far in 2012 and its great to hear the Bob Dylan songbook approached with such blistering intent) / Since I Fell For You – DAVY GRAHAM (if this isn’t a seamless segue from Folk to Jazz I don’t know what is) / That Old Feeling – CHET BAKER (Baker’s vocals are frequently as beguiling as his trumpet playing) / The Face Of Mount Molehill – NEIL COWLEY TRIO (Still giving us kick-ass piano Jazz) / Black Gold – ESPERANZA SPALDING (with ALGEBRA BLESSETT) (If Esperanza Spalding’s fourth album is supposed to replicate the experience of listening to the wireless today you’ve got to wonder which station she’s tuning in to. Hers is the kind of out and out musical eclecticism that I wholeheartedly believe in but I don’t know of any radio station that covers such an all-music, all-eras, absolutely-anything-can-come-next remit. I mean if such a music station existed I’d listen. But whether her celebration is based on a fantasy matters little when her album is such a treasure trove of slowly revealing gems) / Something’s Got A Hold On Me – ETTA JAMES (From Chess Records in 1963, so already you should know how good this one is!) / Oh Marcello – REGINA SPEKTOR (Her latest album includes a lot of material previously only played live, including this astonishing re-imagining of an old Nina Simone classic) / Get A Job – NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE (Is Neil Young making a social comment by including this as part of his album of Americana standards or is it simply that he and Crazy Horse enjoyed playing it during the sessions?) / Who You Got To Love – McGUINNESS FLINT (Once upon a time Folk-Rock was always part of the mainstream) / TVC15 – DAVID BOWIE (Is it too optimistic to still hope for a Bowie return now?) / I Am The Rain – STEALING SHEEP (This harmonious touch of DIY Folk-Pop was recorded at Abbey Road when Stealing Sheep made a midnight pit stop during one of their early tours last year) / In The Past - ULVER (Norwegian experimentalists Ulver cover The Chocolate Watchband on their latest album which includes other Garage classics by the likes of The Electric Prunes and the 13^th Floor Elevators) / Army – BOY (Switzerland and Germany combine to make some alluring pop melancholy on the new album ‘Mutual Friends’) / St Thomas – SONNY ROLLINS (This standard by the tenor saxophonist has a real Caribbean flavour which is down to its origins as a nursery song from the Virgin Islands, a song that itself was developed from a traditional English song called ‘The Lincolnshire Poacher’. Despite this, it is the Sonny Rollins tune that’s become a Jazz classic and it is he who is often credited as the composer. It’s the opening track on his 1956 album ‘Saxophone Colossus’)

Eclectic Warrior June 2012

MAY 2012 PLAYLIST

“Sunshine came softly through my window today”. So said David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd on live TV commentary, early in England’s second Test Match against the West Indies at Trent Bridge this month. The Donovan quoting pundit also indulged in an on-air berating of Ian Botham for his ignorance of “a big music night last night”, in reference to a gig involving Happy Mondays and the Inspiral Carpets. It went something like “not heard of the Carpets Beefy? ‘Saturn 5’?” As if these are the very tunes on the tips of the nation’s collective tongues. On the surface he’s a droll Cricket pundit a couple of steps removed from Geoff Boycott but his cultural reference points begin at Mark E Smith and branch out from there. His contributions to the Cricket coverage are a delight, not that this latest series has needed any help, basking in glorious sunshine for the second match the West Indies have been significantly more competitive opponents than predicted, even though England have already taken the honours. So we kick off this month by toasting summers late arrival via a cricket theme and a nod to the supreme musical taste of David Lloyd (and if you’re wondering why a sportsman/commentator liking good music is such a big deal consider this, Glenn Hoddle, when manager of England, used to play his team “a bit of Kenny G to relax them”). Further on there’s a nod to a couple of musical giants who we lost this month, Robin Gibb and Donna Summer. Mostly though, there’s been an overwhelming air of sunkissed joy to the music Essex Boy Review has been enjoying this past month, I hope you get a taste if that too!
Soul Limbo – BOOKER T. & THE MG’S (indelibly linked to the cricket coverage in the UK, which is just as well because I don’t like cricket, I love it...yeah!) / Saturn 5 – INSPIRAL CARPETS (from the raging ’96 Tears’-alike electric keys of the intro to the pounding singalong chorus, this late period Carpets track is indeed one of their best, a good call Bumble) / Sunshine Superman - DONOVAN (perfect summer music) / Soul Vibrations – DOROTHY ASHBY / Save Me – NINA SIMONE / Dirty Paws – OF MONSTERS AND MEN (some impressively rousing Folkish-Pop from the Indie ranks of Iceland) / Can’t Get None Of Your Loving Baby – THE UNKNOWN MOD BAND (not sure if that’s their name or just a statement of fact, great tune though) / Leave Your Body Behind You – RICHARD HAWLEY (if Bumble hasn’t picked up on this fella then he wants to, it’s right up his street I should think...but I’m not going to underestimate the great man, in fact he and Richard Hawley are probably drinking buddies) / Cowboys Don’t Get High – THE MEMORIES (caught by the fuzz) / It’s About Time – THE BEACH BOYS (From the underachieving and largely underappreciated ‘Sunflower’ album) / The Mountain Dogs – STEALING SHEEP (The kind of perfect pop that no radio station seems to be able to accommodate amidst the deluge of processed shit major labels still get away with churning out) / What’ll It Take – GRAHAM COXON (hey Bumble, us Southerners are capable of a bit of spiky, edgy melodic grit too you know, check this mop-topped jazzer out for size!) / When Your Garden’s Overgrown – PAUL WELLER (superior song of detachment, apparently Syd Barrett is part of the subject matter) / Would You Believe – THE HOLLIES (are the Hollies criminally left off the top table of sixties bands? harmonic elegance like this would seem to suggest they are) / Answers On A Postcard - PUGWASH (if you’re going to lean heavily on XTC, ELO and The Beatles then you’re surely going to produce music of a superior grain, Pugwash are clearly up to the task) / To Love Somebody - THE BEE GEES (for the already sadly missed Robin Gibb) / Life’s A Beach – DJANGO DJANGO / In Summer – JANE WEAVER / September – THE SHINS (there is simply no truth to the suggestion that The Shins have smoothed out their music to detrimental effect on their latest album, they’re as melancholy and sharp as ever) / Red Moon – LAURA GIBSON / Free – DENIECE WILLIAMS (I can often be heard spouting my considered opinion that the Punk era was a little over-rated musically, my argument based around my belief that after the top-of-the-tree acts like the Pistols, Clash and Buzzcocks there’s very quickly a lot less essential stuff to be found than you’d expect while a lot of the other celebrated names from the era aren’t really Punk music at all. However, I am more than prepared to concede after watching the BBC4 re-runs of Top Of The Pops that the impetus for Punks arrival was almost burning. Seriously, anyone who thinks pop music is bad now should go back and witness the drivel the pop kids of 1976 and ’77 were being fed. In amongst the emergence of the tiresome MOR Disco we’ve been shown, the odd slice of true class has stood out; this number one from 35 years ago is one such track) / Country Song – JAKE BUGG (talking of class, this tune is currently used in a Greene King advert and if you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was made by some beardy, sweater wearing folky perched on a stool and released on some shit-hot rare private pressing, not a hip young gunslinger who wouldn’t look out of place in an Oasis tribute act) / I Am A Motherless Child – IKE & TINA TURNER / Miroirs: V.La vallee des cloches – ANNA VINNITSKAYA / Slims – NEIL COWLEY TRIO (the three piece return with immediacy, hooks, grooves and a good deal of wallop) / Radio Song – ESPERANZA SPALDING (if only radio really was as life changing as Esperanza tries to tell us it is, I can’t imagine Kiss FM inspiring music of such inventiveness and Soul but I suppose it’s nice to kid ourselves occasionally and let hope spring eternal) / Cups – LULU & THE LAMPSHADES (think I mentioned this tune in a previous playlist, it deserves another play) / Cruel – ST.VINCENT / Baby’s Got A Bad Idea – JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE / Hypocritical Kiss – JACK WHITE / Same Way From The Sun – MIGHTY BABY / A Daisy Through Concrete - EELS (has any band captured the absurdity in life’s moments of hope and beauty as acutely as the Eels?) / Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings – FATHER JOHN MISTY (from the former Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman) / Cadastral Survey – RYAN TEAGUE / Fly On Strangewings - JADE / Montauk – RUFUS WAINWRIGHT (the man whose Father wrote ‘Rufus Is A Tit Man’ for him really ups the ante in the songs to/for my children stakes; this is both goose-bump inducingly lush and in possession of a genuinely fresh song writers perspective) / Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning – BERT JANSCH (what a suitably warm track this is, lovely lovely lovely) / I Feel Love – DONNA SUMMER (Most things labelled ahead of their time are in fact merely of their time; this though reached so far into the techno future that it barely feels like we’ve caught up. RIP Donna Summer)

Eclectic Warrior May 2012

APRIL 2012 PLAYLIST

I introduced the playlist last month as if announcing the arrival of summer. I should have known better than to put faith in the British weather; the only things you can really rely on are music and Arsenal’s ability to mess up a certain top 3 finish. I think my mantra for this site should be that there just isn’t enough time to listen to everything now we have 100 years worth of recorded music available to us, so be selective. That’s where I come in, I’ll help point the way...

ECLECTIC WARRIOR APRIL 2012

Silver Morning Branches – VOICE OF THE SEVEN WOODS (I saw this guitarist, real name Rick Tomlinson, supporting Davy Graham around 2006. Graham was probably showing his age a little and so it’s fair to say that this support act, playing solo acoustic on the night, gave the audience the closest taste of the kind of Acid-Folk wizardry they’d come to hear; it’s a shame Voice Of The Seven Woods turned out to be a single album project, although Rick has continued to wave his wand in other musical explorations) / Black Doe (Radio Edit) – MARY EPWORTH (Talk about finding the very thing you’re looking for on your doorstep! Weird and wonderful Psychedelic folk magic from a North Essex chanteuse with songs inspired by, amongst other things, Hatfield Forest! I’m writing this the morning after witnessing Mary Epworth & The Jubilee Band sweep all before them at a gig in Bishops Stortford and it’s not very becoming of me to start gushing too much so I’d better stop typing but I do just want to say first...they do a far more extensive, dramatic version of this track live and if you’ve got even the most passing ear for anything Psych, Acid-Folk or Garage you have got to catch this band in 2012, they’re a happening thing for sure!) / Love Interruption – JACK WHITE (At no point in the past 15 years has Jack White been anything less than vital, he continues here on his first solo outing) / Zumm Zumm – DJANGO DJANGO (If only more current pop music had this much fun bouncing out of its grooves) / Kling I Klang – PAUL WELLER (Like on so many other tunes from his latest album, there’s a healthy dose of the “what’s he on about?” to this lyric, my guess it’s a kind of hellish snapshot of the mindset of a soldier firing on the adrenaline of a violent war situation. Then you catch a lyric that mentions the ‘Saracens Head’ and it could be about the after affects of a heavy night at an Essex boozer. I doubt it though, once again Weller’s juiced up and sounding inspired. 2008-to-now has been arguable his greatest ever period) / Lazy Projector – ANDREW BIRD (A devastatingly beautiful moment of wistful reflection, a highlight from Andrew Bird’s brilliant latest album ‘Break It Yourself’) / Terremoto – EL GRAN CHUFLE (Trance like surf guitar meets swinging Morricone lines from...well London, Paris and everywhere, let’s call them an international combo. Their Myspace page says that they transport you “on a Lisergic Sicodelic Dance experience with fun and sensual kinesis”. Well if you don’t want to listen after that description stop pretending you like music!) / Sit Right Down – TOOTS & THE MAYTALS (When Toots Hibbert appeared on the Ronnie Wood Show he told a great story about how ‘Pressure Drop’ was written as a kind of threat-in-song to shady record company types who weren’t paying him the money he was owed. “The pressure’s gonna drop on you”. He also played Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ and sat there grooving and gurning with Ronnie just digging the music; this is what all music TV should be like) / I Take What I Want – THE ARTWOODS (Hard, soulful, pile-driving R&B from one of the most under-rated of 60s bands. Ronnie Wood was not a member of The Artwoods incidentally as is so often thought, although his older brother was and they took their name from him, Mr. Art Wood) / Down Down – THE SILENCE (Found on a Mod compilation, it would be more at home on a Freakbeat or Nuggets set but either way it’s ace) / A Piece Of Leather – DONNIE ELBERT (This is the funky little track the Ronnie Wood thought has a girl singing, one of those infectious little 60s numbers that after a couple of listens beggars belief it’s remained relatively obscure) / Tell Me What You See In Me (Alternate Take) – SANDY DENNY & THE STRAWBS (Sandy Denny seems to be getting a decent amount of appraisal and attention at the moment which has to be a good thing. There’s a tour coming up in May with members of Fotheringay and cool people like Joan As Policewoman playing her music which should be worth checking out. For me the love affair with her sound has lasted 15 years or more and I, regrettable, rarely hear anything that I’m not extremely familiar with. This however, is a genuine hidden gem in her catalogue. The ‘Sandy & The Strawbs’ album is an often over-looked moment in her legacy, perhaps collectors are put off by the over-familiarity of the early 70s budget label issue of the album which inevitable does give it the air of a lesser essential work. However, it isn’t. This track actually comes from the CD re-issue and is one of several must-hear bonus tracks; in this case a version of the song with fantastic swathes of gentle, folky psychedelia) / La Grande – LAURA GIBSON (Opening track on the fantastic new album ‘LA Grand’) / Belmont Jackass – LORD MELODY (There are no hidden meanings to the lyrics of this twee little slice of Calypso but then again...at times it sounds like a personal attack on the wife of Mighty Sparrow?) / Demons – LULU AND THE LAMPSHADES (They got my attention with the exceptional ‘Cups’ video that did the rounds on YouTube last year; this helping of ghostly lo-fidelity tunefulness shows however, that there’s a good deal more to love here than mere gimmicks) / Through The Night – REN HARVIEU (In a similar vein, this is a singer with a classy line in yearning 60s flavoured pop tunes who has a long awaited debut album coming up this year; it has been on hold while Ren has recovered from a bad accident that left her with two broken vertebrae) / Bold Soul Sister – IKE & TINA TURNER (As the playlist takes a soulful turn, check out the Tina Turner ad-libbing on one of Ike Turner’s funkiest licks; I like the idea that she was just told to sing about “things and stuff” and so did just that! What, though, was she thinking with “sock it to me biscuit”!) / Bitch I Love You – BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS (I’d like to dedicate this one to my wife) / You’ve Got It – BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (It’s too easily ignored what a great Soul Revue style of performance Bruce can pull off when he’s in the mood. On this great tune from latest album ‘Wrecking Ball’, it’s clear that he’s still got it as well) / You’re The Kind Of Girl – LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS (Cool bit of new old school from the old school) / Tell Me A Tale – MICHAEL KIWANUKA (Cool bit of new old school from the new school) / I’m Going Home – PRINCE CONLEY (That this is Memphis Soul on the Stax label by a popular Blues singer from back in the day is pretty much all that needs to be said really) / Tosta Mista – HOODED FANG (It’s not only Essex that’s getting delightfully fuzzy in 2012 it seems; from the new second album by the Canadian collective) / Wild Goose – M.WARD (Sometimes it seems that all the best new stuff sounds a little like old stuff at the same time. They don’t always sound quite as ancient as M. Ward’s tracks though; his best tunes shine like they’re tapped from a long forgotten golden font at the dawn of creation) / Fine Horseman – ANNE BRIGGS (Sandy Denny remains my favourite female vocalist but, if Anne Briggs had just recorded a bit more music than the handful of sessions we know about, she could well have been her closest challenger) / Lonely Woman – THE MODERN JAZZ QUARTET (An Ornette Coleman tune, played by one of the most musically dexterous combos Jazz has ever seen; the mixture of innovation and proficiency makes for a classic) / Down To Earth – ZOE RAHMAN (Opening tune from my favourite Jazz album of the year so far) / P.S. You Rock My World - EELS (1998’s study on a slow death brought on by cancer is brilliant yet harrowing in places. I feel the Eels masterstroke though was ending the album on such an uplifting note; emotive doesn’t even begin to describe it) / The Yellow Princess – JOHN FAHEY (Picking up the expressive, far-out acoustic vibe that Voice Of The Seven Woods kicked off this playlist with; this time from one of the masters leading us neatly into more unexpected Psych territory) / The Earnest Of Being George – BEE GEES (That the Bee Gees are famous for their Disco era stuff is almost as wrong as it would be if Paul McCartney were best remembered for ‘Mull Of Kintyre’. Their 60s and early 70s period is routinely masterful) / Guru-vin – DON SEBESKY (As a Jazz arranger for labels like Verve, A&M and CTI in the 60s and 70s, Don Sebesky frequently showed a flair for the eclectic with his genre merging creations as demonstrated impeccably with the far-out vibes on this one) / Everything’s Blue – FAT MATTRESS (Noel Redding left the Jimi Hendrix Experience to form Fat Mattress and explore the West Coast flavoured sound he couldn’t get near in Hendrix band. Their debut album was a classy effort, not anything like as heavy as people might have expected and this track is one of the few penned by Redding on his own) / Port Of Morrow – THE SHINS (Wrongly accused of too much production polish and gloss on their latest album I think, this title track from said record does enough in itself to rubbish all those theories) / Ooh Yeh Yeh – GRAHAM COXON (Typically, Coxon saves the most immediate track off his latest album to last, it’s as if he doesn’t want you to notice how good he can be) / It Be’s That Way Sometimes – NINA SIMONE (The late 60s RCA run of albums was Nina’s best period, here we have the opening track from the ‘Silk And Soul’ record which was actually written by her brother Sam Waymon) / Unfortunately Anna – JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE (From the new album ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now’) / The Heart Of Saturday Night – TOM WAITS (In my appreciation of the later Tom Waits art-project years, I sometimes forget to enjoy the finer moments of his earlier Jazz’n’Jive incarnation) / Can’t Be Long Now - CARAVAN (Last month I featured a late period Soft Machine track, this time round it’s the other great act to form out of the ashes of Canterbury’s mid-sixties cult band The Wilde Flowers. Caravan rarely get the credit they deserve as pioneers in the Prog-Rock movement yet they were effectively playing with that genre before it was even recognised as such. Other than the lavish Psychedelic progressions and passages in their sound, the one other key element that pulled them free of the studious instrument-gazing pack was a subtle humour and playfulness in their work. This track comes from the brilliantly titled second album ‘If I Could Do It All Over Again I’d Do It All Over You’ and being by far the longest track on the album they obviously had to be knowingly contrary with the song title too. Basically though, it’s a great late 60s period piece and a gorgeous way to bid farewell to this months’ playlist and look forward to some cricket that isn’t rained off. As I write this, the sun has just started to shine for what feels like the first time all month. So we bid farewell to, as people have frequently called it this past week, “the wettest drought on record”.)
Eclectic Warrior April 2012

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Wrecking Ball

Bruce Springsteen has built a 40 year recording career around his all-American everyman persona, singing of life in his homeland from the perspective of the people who can relate tangibly to his subject matter. From the burning desire and aspirations of a young man from New Jersey in the seventies, yearning for escape but unsure which way to run, to the good-old-boy blue collar rocker persona he inhabits today. It’s worked so well for him over the decades too, enabling frequent comment on the political situation and the painting of lucid pictures on relationship dramas, scenarios and consequences from the real world around him. In 1987, when aiming to write more broadly about love, with added depth, he took inspiration perhaps more than ever from his own personal life, in particular a recent divorce. That album, ‘Tunnel Of Love’, was one of Springsteen’s best but his writing suffered for the first time in his career immediately after. The Bruce we first glimpsed in the 1990s sounded lost, uninspired even, singing about not-so-taxing problems such as failing to find something worth watching on TV. It took a re-connection with the E-Street Band (quietly laid off around 1989) and the impetus of September 11^th 2001 to refocus him, which when it happened did so in spectacular fashion on 2002’s ‘The Rising’. Since then he has generally maintained a high standard of work, a healthy output both live and in the studio that's included his own unique take on American Folk music with the ‘Seeger Sessions’ album, effectively putting a rocket up the genre in atypical Bruce style. Approaching his sixties though, it did start to look like another classic album of original material could be a big ask. When will we learn to stop underestimating the man? Once again, home soil turbulence that has stoked The Boss’s creative juices leading to a remarkable new record.

The thunderous nature of the opening drums on ‘We Take Care Of Our Own’ pretty much sets the tempo for the whole record. The man has something to say and he wants you to listen, so it's attention grabbing hooks and beats on overload. The message is clear; Bruce is hurting and hacked off that the put upon US working populace are left to struggle to keep their own house in order amidst poverty and unemployment with no capacity or impetus to think in terms of community, it rankles with him. This is not the promised land, instead his people are forced to whore themselves out looking for 'Easy Money', as heard on the second song. ‘Jack Of All Trades’ is the first slower number; about making do in hard times, it’s a simply sung textbook Springsteen hymn but there’s an undercurrent. Scraping intensity and disquiet illustrated in the unsettling layers of sound beneath the song nearly exploding when Bruce gets to the line about having a gun and shooting the “bastards on sight”. It’s a trick pulled off exquisitely a few times across the album, with a straight ahead song, taken at face value, actually evoking the pressure of impending poverty and bankruptcy that leaves too many families feeling like they’re close to breaking point, that they could drown at any minute. ‘Death To My Hometown’ is a glorious stomp to the casual listener but here again, just like on ‘Born In The USA’ in fact; the fist pumping celebratory vibe is just a mere smokescreen for simmering rage. “We know that come tomorrow none of this will be here, so hold tight to your anger, don’t fall to your fears” he sings on ‘Wrecking Ball’, voicing it like a rallying cry that’s none more bitter and defeated; as if to say there’s nothing here we’re going to hold onto so let’s just have a ball and smash it up. Here again though, Bruce speaks with an authority that few, least of all me, would dare question; if anyone has earned the right to speak for the inner psyche of the American working man it’s him.

Next we get a little diversion from the main text, a foxy little number called ‘You’ve Got It’ that struts the kind of come-on Bruce hasn’t shown much since his 80s pomp doing hammed up live versions of his song ‘Fire’. Does it seem a little out of place in context? Of course it doesn’t, all the best dramas throw a little sex into the mix and this track is actually one of the best songs on here amongst some strong company. There’s room for a touch of reflection in the second half but it’s almost always tempered with a steely resilience. ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams’ starts quoting the old folk song ‘This Train’ but there’s a twist, for this train is carrying losers, whores and lost souls alongside the winners and saints. A moving sidenote to both this and the title track is that they feature the last recorded work of sadly passed E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Bruce's imploring everyone to keep faith always sounded so uplifting next to the 'Big Man's' emphatic accompaniment and it's effect was in no way lessened on their swansong together, but even that positivity seems like false hope on penultimate track ‘Swallowed Up’, where the beaten are merely disappeared from the world. It plays like a mournful requiem, at odds with the fight and fire we’ve seen elsewhere. Beautifully judged and arguably the only appropriate place to leave this set but that’s not Springsteen’s style, never knowingly taking his audience down and then leaving them there. The raucous barn-dance scene on celebratory closer ‘American Land’ may lyrically be the most baffling thing on here, is that sarcasm where he sings of immigrants of a land “where gold comes rushing out the rivers”? Maybe Bruce just wants to remind us of the bright and glorious land his home was once regarded as in order to reignite some of that ambition. After all, the thing that comes through crystal clear on this record is that he cares deeply about his subject matter. It’s at times like these that we really catch a glimpse of the fire in Bruce’s belly that made him one of our greatest Rock songwriters and performers in the first place.

You can Rock to Springsteen’s ‘Wrecking Ball’ by listening here:

Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball

ZOE RAHMAN - Kindred Spirits

When writing about any Jazz, particularly when it's an album that I'm seriously loving like this one, there's always a nagging tendency to over-sell or explain it. It's a habit born of the overwhelming impression I get that Jazz remains a dirty word for far too many music fans; hence the predilection to describe exactly what it is that's floating my boat. This is of course pretty insane because, more often than not, with Jazz it really is all about the music. It's the vibe and the groove and whether or not you're really feeling it. The only way to establish these facts is by listening, giving this music the time and attention it deserves and letting the magic cast a spell. On 'Kindred Spirits', super-talented pianist Zoe Rahman takes you on a multi-cultural journey that swings it's jazz pants like a bad-un; it's a record that rides the waves of musical dynamics and melody just for the sheer thrill and adventure. It's both loose and wild yet simultaneously skilled, dexterous and considered. Given time, it's pleasures are revealed to be both enduring, endearing and endlessly fascinating; a suite of music that bounces between classical, bhangra and even a traditional Irish jig at one point. Essentially though, at it's core is a purists Jazz sensibility that positions this as one of the essential Jazz albums of our time.

So therein lies the problem, because when an album is this good I really want to see it reach out as far as possible, but too often people seem scared of the genre. Zoe has been here before too, with her 2005 album 'Melting Pot' earning a Mercury Music Prize nomination. I remember throwing cricket balls at the TV screen the year Kit Downes Trio got the token Jazz nomination for the prize. Some gimp off of Radio 1 was on there talking about how he'd really had to put the effort in to listening to Kit's album and that in doing so and "nearly getting something" he had something to tell his grandchildren! I expect he's since been able to return to his more palatable staple diet of spud-in-a-bucket landfill Indie. But that's the tragedy as I see it, the brick wall any decent new Jazz record comes up against in the media. As good as the work (in actual fact, against the odds, his radio shows are exceptional) that Jamie Cullum does in music broadcasting it's not enough; and he's Jamie Cullum!

As a long term music fan I've always had affection for albums that take a bit of listening to, the ones that require a few plays before their true pearls of beauty start to reveal themselves. These are the records that can often be the most rewarding in the long run. Prog-Rock has plenty of titles that fall into this category, Classical music too but arguably the best hard-work albums can come out of the Jazz arena. The irony with this exceptional Zoe Rahman album is that it doesn't really require any effort to get into at all. She's got such a tuned-in musical ear that she pulls off the rare trick of being instantly accessible and fascinatingly intricate all at the same time. She's surrounded by some pretty heavy duty players too, all of whom bring an overall explosiveness to the table. Oli Hayhurst on double bass is a total groove monster at the bottom end whilst Zoe's brother Idris has this kind of liquid energy on clarinet. There's even a nice cameo from Courtney Pine on alto flute but nothing deters from the centre stage pounding of Zoe's keys. This is piano playing like few can master; she rocks the keys, caresses them and glides across them majestically in the same way Hendrix did on electric guitar. I know most Jazz players are blessed with great technical ability but it takes more than technique to bring music alive, there are other harder-to-define ingredients that 'Kindred Spirits' has in spades. Maybe it's time for all you Jazz-a-phobes to have a revision.

You can let Zoe Rahman's 'Kindred Spirits' take you on it's journey by listening here:

Zoe Rahman – Kindred Spirits