1. Lenny Kravitz - Let Love Rule
2. Little Feat - Feats Don't Fail Me Now
3. 4Hero - Creating Patterns
4. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
5. Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
6. Beck - Sea Change
I seem to remember when Lenny Kravitz appeared on the scene he was hailed, like Prince, as a new Hendrix? He had the looks, the guitar and the girlfriend. This didn't last long. Barely much longer than his debut album Let Love Rule in 1989. He was cool for fifteen minutes and then suddenly became a bit mainstream and ubiquitous and not the new Hendrix any more. This album's alright, and possibly one of his best (I can't be sure about that as it is now the only one I have). I like Mr Cab Driver - a good basic rock song.
Mr. cab driver don't like to way I look
He don't like dreads he thinks we're all crooks
Mr. cab driver reads too many story books
More great stuff from Beck. Sea Change is a mellow yet powerful album, and the one that many consider his best. For many years I only had Odelay but now have a core of albums to draw upon.
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| Beck in 2002 with Sea Change |
The Hidden Orchestra is actually a solo project by Brighton based composer Joe Acheson who records and mixes a range of guest musicians in his studio to create an "imaginary orchestra that doesn't really exist". Yet it does in some live form as I've just noticed the "group" is touring a new album in the UK as we speak including a Brighton date on 9th December.
You'd never guess the accomplished and authentic jazz fusion music on Archipelago was not created by a fully fledged band. With it's trademark Tru Thoughts label drum beats it's just the sort of modern jazz that would go down a storm at our annual Love Supreme festival.
Thinking of my personal provenance with this music: A few years ago I got into playing an amazing "point and click" mystery computer game called Samorost. If this at all appeals check out Samorost edition 2 here - even if you don't play it at all you'll immediately appreciate the brilliant graphic illustrations (I warn you it is an addictive slow burner!). I also loved the rhythmic industrial clanky music composed by Tomáš Dvořák aka Floex. This led me to discovering some Floex recordings on Soundcloud and then from there to some extended instrumental mixes by an artist called M & Ms. When you have a spare 90 minutes have a listen to his Into The Wild an instrumental mix based on the excellent film of the same name and featuring both Floex and... Hidden Orchestra. There are heaps of very talented (mostly amateur) musicians and composers on a website like Soundcloud.
From supremely modern jazz to an old classic. One Christmas I decided I'd like to get into jazz and after collating a few "best jazz albums of all time" lists, Charles Mingus was added to my Christmas list. I'd heard of him but didn't know anything about him. In fact I think I assumed he was a pianist for some reason, not a double bassist. Santa brought me a box set of three albums, including my cover album this week, Mingus Ah Um. There are some catchy tunes on here which I'm sure many of you would have heard before, not realising, as I didn't, that it was Charles Mingus.
Creating Patterns is the 2001 release from electronic hip hop drum 'n' bass duo 4Hero. Smooth songs fronted by guest vocalists are interspersed with the occasional grating instrumental or spoken word interlude - but as a whole it sort of works. The most intriguing track is the oft-used elsewhere track Les Fleur which sounds like a West End musical showpiece with it's climatic chorus:
Ring all the bells sing and tell the people everywhere that the flower has come
Light up the sky with your prayers of gladness and rejoice for the darkness is gone
Throw off your fears let your heart beat freely at the sign that a new time is born
Rather evangelical don't you think?
Little Feat were just great at what they did - which was basically loose funky swampy honky tonk boogie rock 'n' roll!
Little Known Rock Fact: Little Feat leader Lowell George was originally in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Having what he described as "no real function in the band" he left in 1969 taking several Mothers with him to form Little Feat.
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