Presenting the 3rd outing from the DMV crew, thank you for waiting patiently inline. On the A we have Busta Bus, flexing his lyrical flow all over Rick’s sweet Mary Jane. On the flip side, 90s underground stalwart “Red Hot Lover Tone” gives his approval to the Stars in Herbie’s eyes.
Commissioned and curated by Flora Yin Wong for her label and publishing house Doyenne, ‘Venus Rising From The Sea’ is a collection of love-themed cover versions featuring Teresa Winter, Susu Laroche, Alex Zhang Hungtai, aya, Maria Minerva, Christina Vantzou, Spivak, Salamanda, clare rousay, Wild Terrier Orchestra, Dania and Flora Yin Wong herself covering songs by The Cure, Robert Wyatt, Mariah Carey, The Cranberries, Pentangle, The Carter Family, Spiritualized, Debussy and more.
‘Venus Rising From The Sea’ takes its cues from the classical deity Aphrodite - whose name literally means “sea foam” - for an ever necessary expression of love in the modern age. The label asked friends and collaborators to interpret “love” in whichever way they saw fit, be it obsession, self-love, unrequited, unconditional, whatever. But despite the open brief, and the vastly different modes of execution, all the artists involved somehow ended up linking hands with a shared determination to smudge the original songs into bleary-eyed, uncanny traces of the originals.
To open, Pentangle's jaunty 'No Love is Sorrow' is puffed into stormy clouds by Teresa Winter, who retains the original’s unmistakable bass twang and teases Jacqui McShee's siren song into a saturated buzz of layered, obfuscated words. Verses twist into verses, lines into echoed-out lines, capturing the song’s boundless yearning, rather than tracing its exact contours. Next, Susu Laroche yields one of the set’s highlights on a brilliantly nuanced, highly impactful version of Nina Simone’s take on folk standard ‘Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair’, turning the original’s multi-faceted Appalachian/Scottish routes into a heart-stopping, Nico-esque fuzz we haven’t stopped playing for weeks. Christina Vantzou (the CV ov CV & JAB) is joined by pianist Ezra Fieremans in the absorbingly filmic scenes of ‘Hot Springs’, while Maria Spivak's interpretation of Robert Wyatt's 'Just as You Are' finds her singing Brazilian vocalist Mônica Vasconcelos' words with reverence, smearing them into a hypnagogic fantasy.
Flora Yin Wong takes an inconspicuous approach on her love-letter to Mariah Carey's 'The Roof (Back in Time)', itself a melodramatic interpolation of Mobb Deep's Herbie Hancock-sampling 'Shook Ones, Part II'. The unmistakable piano line is frayed into a granulated gurgle, fleshed out by gauzy cries; Mariah's ecstatic diva logic haunts the edges like a furtive glance, hanging beautifully behind Wong's dense soundscapes. Alex Zhang Hungtai's take on the 1927 standard 'Me and My Shadow' is even more atomised, reduced to a disembodied vocal that oozes around a clattering woodblock.
Always a standout, aya's tribute to The Cure's 'Lovesong' infuses the 1989 classic with the same self-investigatory charm she exhibited on 'im hole', slowing it down to a giddy, infatuated lurch, and replacing the guitars with eerily-tuned oscillations and drums with hollowed-out, electrically charged thuds. "I will always love you," she moans through a wall of static, like some lost “Pop Artificielle” addendum. The album’s biggest surprise is saved for last, however, a cover of The Cranberries' 'No Need To Argue' from Paralaxe Editions boss Dania Shihab. Already a poignant memory of a faded romance, Dania's version is even more glacial, her tender voice gusting over inverted guitars and looping, wordless moans, guiding us ever so gracefully into the nether-world.
‘Venus Rising From The Sea’ is a gooey, emotionally raw set of recollections and affirmations from some of the scene's most open-hearted operatives. In the end, the love that's most evident is the love each of the artists has for their source material, somehow binding loose threads into a rich tapestry that will leave you gasping, perhaps a little tearful too.
Stalwarts of the London music scene The Boom Yeh are at the forefront of redefining British Jazz-Funk with the release of their new album Near-Earth Objects. Featuring a host of musicians that have worked with Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies, Incognito, Alice Russell and Leroy Hutson.
Keep Right On
A blistering syncopated jazz-funk assault reminiscent of The Brecker Brother and Tower Of Power. Featuring solos from trombone player Tom White and sax player/horn arranger Ian Bailey, followed by a virtuosic drum solo courtesy of Alessio Barelli.
Chronic Tonic
A smooth jazz-funker with hip-hop undertones, echoing early Prince with a boogie funk outro in the vein of George Duke, propelled by bass player Matteo Grassi.
Hot Tamale
If Jimi Hendrix was stuck in a Mexican traffic jam, it would probably sound like this. An abrasive funk-rock stomper featuring a heavy duty guitar solo from band leader Jon Speedy.
Pocket Rocket
Deep pocket funk in tribute to George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic with be-bop infused horn riffs. Featuring solos by Paul Silver on baritone sax and guest keyboard player Carl Hudson on Oberheim synth.
Near-Earth Objects
High energy jazz-fusion exploring the universe of Herbie Hancock and The headhunters with an afrobeat inspired horn outro. Featuring guest keyboard Carl Hudson on Fender Rhodes and synth.
Othership
Bombastic big band jazz-funk with a rare groove flavoured mid section. Composed by band leader/guitarist Jon Speedy as a nod to his father Dave Speedy - a jazz trumpet player and big band leader.
Mind's Eye
Laid back Ibiza chill out mixtape vibes meets Donald Byrd and the Mizell Brothers. Featuring blissful Fender Rhodes and synth by guest keyboard player Carl Hudson.
Possibilities
A slow burner in the spirit of Roy Hargrove's RH Factor and early neo-soul with a gospel flavoured outro.
With J Jazz volume 4, the BBE J Jazz Bullet Train continues its journey traversing the expansive landscape of modern Japanese jazz. Volume 4 is the latest in the universally praised compilation series exploring the best, rarest and most innovative jazz to emerge from the Far East. Please take your seats for a first-class ticket to J Jazz central. This latest station stop off is with the famed Nippon Columbia label, one of the biggest labels in Japan, whose jazz output embraces every possible style imaginable. Focussing on the key years 1968-1981, J Jazz volume 4 sees compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden dig even deeper into their record collections and pull-out tracks that span styles ranging from solo to big band, jazz classical interpretations and heavy jazz rock, to febrile post-bop, white hot samba fusion, and modal psychedelic wig-outs. J Jazz volume 4 features icons such as drum master Takeo Moriyama, keyboard magi Hiromasa Suzuki, Fumio Itabashi, and Masahiko Satoh, and guitar wizards Kazumi Watanabe and Kiyoshi Sugimoto, alongside big band maestros and innovators Nobuo Hara and his Sharps and Flats, and Toshiyuki Miyama’s New Herd. Thunderous basslines nestle alongside glistening runs of electric piano, bubbling synths and air-tight drumming as the heavy psychedelic modal blues of Jiro Inagaki flows with the infectious samba grooves of Takashi Mizuhashi featuring Herbie Hancock; Shigeharu Mukai’s fusion funk epics take the music to another level and Mikio Masuda’s driving keyboard rhythms brings the heat to an incendiary dancefloor zone.
