Echofikibausik comes from Kraków, Poland and mixing dubstep, dub, downtempo, raggae, jazz, chillout, trip-hop, ambient and nu-jazz into an exciting sonar cocktail. You can grab for free his latest release from his Bandcamp page for free, this smooth and groovy five track album entitled “Addicts of chillout”.
I didn’t manage to dig out any background information about Echofikibausik, but the music is quite enough. “Addicts of chillout” is a slow glowing, sparking material with smooth jazz perfume and nice electro and ambiental textures. Read more Echofikibausik – Addicts of chillout (2011)
jazz
The Odd Trio – The Odd Future Sessions (2011)
Groove-centric, fluid and dynamic, The Odd Trio plays classic jazz in modern style, merging classic-like themes with the freedom and grooves of modern, improvising jazz remaining classy and fresh simultaneously. Three technically gifted and inspired musicians: Matt Tavares on Piano, Alex Sowinski on Drums, and Chester Hansen on Bass .
The Odd Future Sessions Part 1 is a tribute to Odd Future classics, including “Bastard,†“Orange Juice (Lemonade)†and “AssMilk.†Part 2 is made of three songs straight from the latest Tyler the Creator album “Goblinâ€: “Untitled 63″, “Nightmare†and “Yonkersâ€.
This is absolutely groovy and smooth, good morning! Read more The Odd Trio – The Odd Future Sessions (2011)
Pat Metheny – What’s It All About (2011)
This is a beautiful, quite acoustic album. As it’s written on Metheny’s official web site: “The new acoustic solo guitar album from Pat Metheny called “What’s It All About” features classic tunes from songwriters like Paul Simon, Lennon & McCartney, Burt Bacharach, and Henry Mancini. Pat describes it like this: “I wanted to record some of the music that was on my radar before I ever wrote a note of my own, or in a few cases, even before I played an instrument. Every one of these tunes has something going on that is just hip on a musical level, no matter how you cut it. They have all stuck with me over the years.” While Matheny played with John Scofield, Charlie Haden, Jim Hall, Ornette Coleman, Brad Mehldau, Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, Dave Holland and Roy Haynes, Joni Mitchell, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Bill Stewart, Kenny Garrett,and his older brother, Mike Metheny, a talented jazz musician and a trumpet player, among many others, it’s almost strange that “What’s It All About” actually it’s his sixth solo album while his first, “New Chautauqua” was released by ECM back in 1979. Read more Pat Metheny – What’s It All About (2011)
Marcus Miller – Tutu Revisited (2011)
Released in December 1986, 25 years ago, “Tutu” divided the world of jazz: some loving it, others labeled as “not jazz” and quite hating it. As Marcus Miller said in a recent interview: “I bought a Downbeat magazine when I was 15 years old and they were arguing about that. The last time I looked at Downbeat, they were still arguing the same stuff.” Thinking of music in genres, I believe, it’s a quite stupid approach. And there’s not even “good” or “bad” music, eventually there’s music we like or we don’t. It’s about the vibe I guess. And about our perception and not at least it’s about the moment and the mood, not to mention the contradictious matter of taste. I won’t definitively play Morbid Angel or Slayer when I’m in mood for sex. I admit, I discovered Miles Davis through “Tutu” and for years I did paint exclusively on Miles Davis and Jan Garbarek’s music. And still, I prefer to paint on jazz.
Marcus Miller wrote and produced “Tutu” at the age of 27 while by age of 13, Marcus was already proficient on clarinet, piano and bass guitar, and already writing his own songs. Miller soon became a top call session musician, gracing well over 500 albums, a short list of which includes Herbie Hancock, Mariah Carey, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Frank Sinatra, Dr. John, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Grover Washington Jr., Donald Fagen, Bill Withers, Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Bryan Ferry, David Sanborn, Billy Idol, Chaka Khan, LL Cool J and Me’shell NdegOcello and Flavio Sala. Read more Marcus Miller – Tutu Revisited (2011)
Fire! – Unreleased? (2011)
Pour les connaisseurs! Fire! are the trio compound of Mats Gustafsson (The Thing), Johan Berthling (Tape) and Andreas Werliin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums) and “Unreleased?” is their second full length album, but this time they bring into the supergroup one more individual: Jim O’Rourke. Mats Gustafsson is an improviser, free jazz saxophone player, in 2000 he put together the Swedish/Norway trio, The Thing with bass player Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. The Thing is one of the must “media unfriendly” band: no MySpace, no YouTube channel, they mainly sell their records at the gigs, lucky me, I saw them once live. Swedish trio Tape (@ MySpace ) was set up in 2000 by brothers Andreas and Johan Berthling with Tomas Hallonsten and they merging pop and experimentalism in minimalist manner using both, acoustic and digital instruments. Wildbirds & Peacedrums (@ MySpace) is an experimental band from Sweden consisting of two members, Mariam Wallentin and her husband Andreas Werliin, merging experimental rock with psychedelic folk. Jim O’Rourke (@ MySpace) maybe knowned for played bass guitar, guitar and synthesizer with Sonic Youth, in addition to recording and mixing duties with the group, he joined the band in 1999 and left in 2005. O’Rourke is long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene, he has collaborated with Thurston Moore, Derek Bailey, Mats Gustafsson, Mayo Thompson, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Merzbow, Nurse With Wound, Phill Niblock, Fennesz, Organum, Henry Kaiser, Flying Saucer Attack, also he was once a member of Illusion of Safety and Gastr Del Sol and also released many albums under his own name on a variety of labels exploring a range of electronic and avant-garde styles, exploring different genres from jazz, noise to electronica and rock music. Read more Fire! – Unreleased? (2011)
Romane – Swing for ninine (2011)
Born in Paris in 1959, Patrick Leguidecoq, better known simply as Romane, is a jazz guitarist who plays in the style of Django Reinhardt. He plays in varies band formations, from duo to sextet such as Django Vision and the Roman Acoustic Quartet, and also have many collaborations, from Florin Niculescu with Didier Lockwood, Tchavolo Schmitt, Angelo Debarre to Stochelo Rosenberg. Armed with his trusty Maurice Dupont Selmer-style guitar, Romane creates flowing lines that dazzle with their rapid-fire pace and their sensuous musicality. His arpeggios and runs mix Django’s phrasing with a style that is all his own and Patrick Leguidecoq don’t to stay stuck in a particular style, he plays a sparking, flowing and colorful music shifting easily between styles and genres. Read more Romane – Swing for ninine (2011)
Lisabi – Au Diable Les Bananes (2011)
This year I had a few quite nice surprises from bands from Brazil. Most recently The Campbell Trio, in March I stumbled into MindFlow and The Tape Disaster, and there was a few others as well as I believe Sepultura once again delivered a consistent album again. So, Brazil rules, might be a dangerous place for strangers, but from the safe distance of my living room it’s something quite exciting about the world’s fifth largest country, about Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, the samba and the carnival, the girls and the music.
“Au Diable Les Bananes” migh be downloaded for free from HERE and Lisabi delivering a nice mixture of ska, jazz, punk and indie rock with exotic flavors and perfumes. Mateo Piracas on guitar and vocals, Sebastian Piraces on drums, Gabriel Slenes on trumpet and vocals, Andra Cardoso on bass and vocals, Matheus Fattori on guitars and vocals, and Anderson Kaltner on trombone and percussion delivered a vibrating, pulsing, colorful material. Read more Lisabi – Au Diable Les Bananes (2011)
John Scofield – A Moment’s Peace (2011)
Since the 70s, John “Sco” Scofield always is up to something, he’s shifting from one thing to another, rewinding now, I recall that “This Meets That” released in 2007 was filled up with horny horn section and blasting jazz, the previous “Piety Street” lead us to the gospel flavored edge of jazz and this brand new “A Moment’s Peace” have the smoothness of the quiet, dinner-jazz. Don’t expect this time punchy funk-playing, Sco bring the blues and some shattered bop after-taste with bittersweet harmonies and solitary, intimate solos. Some classics (You Don’t Know What Love Is or I Loves You Porgy), some his own, Sco with pianist Larry Goldings, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade serve us 12 “luxuriates in balladsâ€. Ivan Hewitt from The Telegraph said “it’s lovely for five minutes, enervating after 20” and perhaps for some that might be true, but others probably will really enjoy it more and more after the first 20 minutes. Taste are not a matter to discuss. As it’s also true, many journalists and critics expect more than a free CD to write a few nice words in a review. Well, there’s no lunch as free lunch after all, isn’t it? Read more John Scofield – A Moment’s Peace (2011)
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation – Anthropomorphic (2011)
The improvising alter ego of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble , The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation delivering one hour of diving into the shady, gloomy, suggestive world of neo-jazz and cinematic meltdown.
Gideon Kiers, Jason Köhnen, Charlotte Cegarra, Hilary Jeffery, Eelco Bosman, Nina Hitz, and Sarah Anderson and various interchanging guest musicians including Ron Goris, following “Doomjazz Future Corpse!” and “Succubus”, “Anthropomorphic” is the third released session of TMFDC.
If for some, TKDE may sounds pretty strange, TMFDC it’s one step further. This may be the fourth dimension Doomjazz, a doorway to a dark, but sparking universe made of noises, gloomy textures and vibrating improvisations in the best avant-garde tradition of free jazz. As they describe it: “take a piece of THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA’s cinematic jazz, a dash of THE BROADWAY PROJECT’s dark/noir, a hint of AMON TOBIN’s twisted mutant jazz and a little FREEFORM ARKESTRA orchestral ambience. Throw in a minipinch of DJ SHADOW and MAJOR FORCE WEST, and a good dose of Planet Mu-ism and you’re pretty much there.” Read more The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation – Anthropomorphic (2011)
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – From The Stairwell (2011)
I discovered them back in 2009 through the “Mutations” EP which promised to be the preamble for the new album. It’s been over a year and finally we’ve got “From the Stairwell” and eight fresh tracks. This is a Jazz experiment with gloomy electronic textures and atmospheric noise spices, it has a deep Miles Davis after-taste and abstract post-industrial flow, well, this is avant-garde in it’s deepest meaning.
TKDE started in 2000 as a project to compose new music for existing silent movies. Jason Kohnen (better known as Bong-Ra) – double bass and fretless, respectively Gideon Kiers – beats and effects, both graduates of the Utrecht School of Arts, combined their audio and visual skills to reinterpret classic movies by F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) and F. Langs (Metropolis).
While Bong-Ra is quite known having several releases through labels such as Planet Mu, Cock Rock Disco and Sublight, Gideon Kiers worked with Jochem Paap (Speedy J), on the development of the 5.1 surround sound ‘Umfeld’ project. Runs the bi-annual Sonic Acts Festival in Paradiso Amsterdam. Read more The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – From The Stairwell (2011)
