Review: Vincent Lemieux and Guillaume Coutu Dumont are the producers who combine as Flabbergast and now they unveil their full-length debut, Consolation in Constellation. As you would expect from those two artists, it is a boundary-pushing journey through sound that is rooted in improvisation, classical training and deep electronic exploration. The album fuses jazz, acid house, breakbeatand cosmic textures into a seamless exploration that adds up to a sonic constellation-carefully composed, yet full of spontaneity. 'Binary Star' is like IDM, minimal and electro all distilled into a siren new sound, 'Orion Belt' is rich in pixel thin pads and glinting chords and 'Phaser' is a slithering, high speed electro workout from another world and with a playful charm despite its highbrow design.
Review: A shape-shifting force from the American South, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones rerouted genre boundaries with their early 90s experimentations-none more so than this landmark second release. Built around banjo, bass, keys and Future Man's custom SynthAxe Drumitar, the quartet's playing here is deft, joyfully off-kilter, and quietly revolutionary. Their self-coined "blu-bop" style hits full stride, blending bebop's angular shifts with bluegrass warmth on 'Turtle Rock' and the dizzying 'Blu-Bop'. A woozy take on 'Michelle' and a surprisingly reverent reading of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' show off their melodic instinct without sacrificing invention. The telepathic interplay and tonal sharpness-especially in the low-end counterpoint of Victor Wooten's bass-make it clear how this group managed to top jazz charts while looking nothing like a traditional jazz outfit. It's a sound not pinned to any one era or idiom, but to pure creative glee.
Review: Master drummer and producer Alexander Flood debuts his rhythmic first record on Atjazz, following up the sumptuous first single 'Life Is A Rhythm'. A truly exciting record on foliate green vinyl, this LP packs a production paradox, bringing both boomy bodyweight and a shape-cutting, 2-stepping sense of ease at the same time. With extra layers of perc in the rhythm section, with Brazilian percussionist Aduni on congas and Cuban percussionist Alexander Scull Castillo on bata, it's actually really the dance-flooring production that grabs us here, heard best in the plum chords and erratic pianos of 'Don't Wait For Me', and/or the live bruk ghost dance 'Sidestep'.
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