Review: International Anthem continues to serve up inspired debuts from some of the more intriguing members of Chicago's jazz and experimental music communities. The latest comes from multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser Macie Stewart, who has delivered what's being dubbed "a companion piece for moving through life". At the heart of the album is Stewart's use of both piano and 'prepared piano' (a technique where various items such as coins and pieces of felt are attached to the instrument's strings). These picturesque and occasionally melancholic musical motifs come wrapped in atmospheric field recordings and sensitive string quartet arrangements. The results are rarely less than memorable, mesmerising and magnificent.
Review: World music and downtempo pioneers Thievery Corporation dropped their seminal It Takes A Thief album back in 2010 and it instantly became another one of their many classics. Drawing on sounds from across the globe from Indian tablas drums to Lebanese funk via Far Eastern strings, it's a cultured and laid-back listen rich in instrumentation and escapist grooves. The beachy bliss and gentle horns of 'All That We Perceive' and dubby swagger of 'The Richest Man In Babylon' are just two standouts among many.
Review: Tom Perera-Chamblee is one of New York's more interesting jazz musicians - a long-term, genre-bending member of Brooklyn's DIY music community whose creative efforts have to be balanced with a day job as a 'bioinformatician' (we have no idea what that entails, but it sounds fairly weighty). A Willed and Conscious Bias is the multi-instrumentalist's debut album and was recorded with an impressive ensemble of independent musicians and fellow rising stars of alternative jazz. Musically, it's undoubtedly exceptional, drawing as much influence from contemporary musical culture as jazz of old - all inventive rhythms, slowly unfurling solos, soul-fired electric piano stabs and heady spirituality. For proof, check out the gentle musical flowering that is 'Love' and the jazz-funk and fusion-infused warmth of 'Life'.
Review: In classic jazz style, this collaborative three-way debut album brings together three musicians at the top of their game: SML members Gregory Uhlman (guitar and effects) and Josh Johnson (saxophone and effects), and sometime Louis Cole, Sam Gendel and Chaka Khan collaborator Sam Wilkes (bass and effects). Musically, what the trio offers is undeniably unique, with International Anthem describing the album as "a jazz-informed take on progressive electro-acoustic chamber music". Certainly, there's much to enjoy, from the tracked bass, guitar and sax loops and subtle changes of 'Mavis' and the dreamlike ambient jazz of 'Arpy', to the bubbling cosmic jazz of 'Frica' and a stunning, off-kilter instrumental cover of Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles number 'The Fool On The Hill'.
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