Showing posts with label Free Jazz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Jazz. Show all posts

Thursday, 26 April 2012

New Music - Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Dream Baby Dream (Smalltown Supersound, 2012)

An unexpected treat.

I have to say I wasn't expecting something as good as this. The Thing tone down the skronk and dial-down the energy to create a meandering cradle of gentle, sax-led jazzing. They mutate this Suicide song so it sounds like a lullaby written by Albert Ayler.

And over that Neneh Cherry - rather than busting rhymes about nasty girls sucking beer through straws (admittedly, that was twenty-odd years ago) - lets loose a soothing stream of the title's repetition.

The whole thing just builds and winds until it feels appropriate for the sax to cut loose with some gentle squall as a sweet trumpet anchors the track around the relentless, Jaki-Liebzeit-on-tranquilisers drumming. It reaches fever pitch before coming quietly to a stop.

A total f-ing triumph.


Sunday, 4 March 2012

Alice Coltrane - Journey In Satchidananda (Impulse, 1970)

Expansive, springy and a just a little bit Free. 

A spectacular record for its time and still pretty damn amazing today. It's underpinned by a loquatious looping double-bass running through the whole track, anchoring the chorus of bells and understated drums.

A mysterious springy sound constantly unfurls whilst Alice Coltrane's harp scats playfully across the sound field.

Whilst the track doesn't develop in either arrangement or intensity, it's completely engrossing.

Download Alice Coltrane 'Journey In Satchidananda' (Free Jazz, elongated, mp3) (Rapidshare)