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“Released on Joe Boyd’s Hannibal label here was a band rooted in Thompson/Swarbrick Fairport but also a snatch of the Velvet Underground and a sprig of The Byrds. The Eighteenth Day Of May evoked a legendary era, and now they are a justifiably legendary band too.” – KLOF Mag

Beginning life as a trio in London, 2003, the original line-up consisted of Allison Brice (vocals, flute), Richard Olson (acoustic guitar) and Ben Phillipson (guitar, mandolin) before expanding the following year to include the rhythm section of Mark Nicholas (bass) and Karl Sabino (drums, autoharp) and finally Alison Cotton (viola).
This being the mid zeros, the independent music scene in the UK was reluctant to embrace a sun-dazed folk band but this, their sole album, has gradually feathered a bed of affection amongst international folk fans. Twenty years on, the album is now rightfully seen as a trailblazer for the myriad alternative/psych folk bands that emerged in its wake.
Andy Childs who signed the band originally takes up the story. “I first heard their music on a cover mounted CD with the much missed Comes With A Smile magazine and as far as I could tell no-one was making music like this anymore, certainly not with such panache and confidence. To my jaded ears it all sounded so uninhibited - old weird folk songs, Americana, original psych-folk, minimalist drones. Great melodies and all six of them could sing! A joyous, unfettered sound that could in one moment conjure up flashes of The Byrds and then effortlessly the spirit of Velvet Underground would drift through. They even covered a Spacemen 3 song. I loved the fact that they had the aplomb to tackle traditional folk songs like Lady Margaret and Flowers In The Forest and not be afraid to stamp their own identity on them.
Signing them to the Hannibal label was straightforward. If anything the album somehow sounds fresh and undated, even better than it did in the day when perhaps eclecticism was out of synch with the times; its subtleties have become more apparent.”
“Their rendition of Lady Margaret builds to a headswirling crescendo that challenges anyone who claims Shirley Collins, Buffy Sainte-Marie or Trees have recorded the definitive version and the hallucinatory The Waterman’s Song To His Daughter raises an already brilliant album to an unholy level” - IT’S PSYCHEDELIC, BABY Magazine

Über drei Jahrzehnte nach ihrer Gründung durch Leslie Mandoki, setzen Mandoki Soulmates mit ihrem Album "A Memory Of Our Future" nicht nur musikalisch neue Maßstäbe, sondern präsentieren ein produktionstechnisches Meisterwerk: Das gesamte Album wurde analog aufgenommen und produziert - vom ersten Ton bis zum fertigen Vinyl. Die Produktion des rund 80-minütigen Konzeptalbums ist ein seltenes Unterfangen in der heutigen Musiklandschaft. Mit durchgehend analoger Signalverarbeitung vom Mikrofon bis zur Vinylpressung ist die Produktion von "A Memory Of Our Future" ein Manifest von Präzision und Leidenschaft, die in jedem Ton des Albums zu spüren ist. Das Mastering des analogen Magnetbandes durch Greg Calbi im renommierten Sterling Sound Studio in New York und der Vinylschnitt in den Emil Berliner Studios sind ein Symbol für die audiophile Exzellenz des Albums. Mit einem Setup, das in der gegenwärtigen Musikproduktion kaum noch zu finden ist, und mit der die Band eine Wärme und Lebendigkeit in ihrer Musik eingefangen hat, die in digitalen Aufnahmen oft verloren geht, haben die Soulmates ein Werk musikalischer Vielfalt geschaffen, das von Prog bis Jazz Rock reicht, und kompositorische Reife, spielerische Leichtigkeit und kunstvolle Solos mit großen Spannungsbögen und tiefgründigen Texten zu gesellschaftspolitischen Themen verbindet. Die generationsübergreifende Supergroup von Rock- und Fusion-Großmeistern mit Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Mike Stern, Al di Meola, Randy Brecker, Till Brönner, Bill Evans, John Helliwell (Supertramp), Cory Henry, Richard Bona, Steve Bailey, Simon Phillips (Toto), Leslie Mandoki, Tony Carey (Rainbow), Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew), Jesse Siebenberg und Mark Hart (beide Supertramp) ruft mit dem Album zum Handeln gegen Spaltung und für Menschlichkeit auf. Mit "A Memory Of Our Future" gelingt den Soulmates eine einzigartige Verschmelzung audiophiler Exzellenz und gesellschaftspolitisch relevanter Musik. Dieses Album ist nicht nur für Fans von Prog und Jazz Rock, sondern für alle, die echte Musik zu schätzen wissen.

Luciano Cilio was born in Naples, Italy, in 1950. He studied music and architecture and, in the late '60s, collaborated with local artist Alan Sorrenti, American expat Shawn Phillips and various avant-garde theater groups. A virtuoso guitarist and self-taught composer, Cilio released only one LP before his untimely death at the age of 33.

Dialoghi Del Presente (1977) is a work like no other, one that sounds both ancient and ahead of its time. Produced by Renato Marengo, it features a series of muted tableaux for strings, woodwinds, guitar, chorus, piano and percussion. Cilio carves out a space where subtle, repetitive phrases yield – almost imperceptibly – to breathtaking silence.

As Jim O'Rourke writes, "These recordings sound as if they were to please no one but himself; they feel self-contained, introspective, and determined ... You can feel in the music a sort of necessity that can be rarely found, like in This Heat's debut or Nick Drake's Pink Moon."

While each subsequent "quadro" grows slightly more abstract, Cilio draws the listener into an expansive, pastoral soundscape. The closing piece, "Interludio," begins with a plaintive guitar, which is joined by haunting strings and woodwinds before concluding, poignantly, as the album began, with Cilio and his guitar, alone once more.

Superior Viaduct's edition reproduces the original sleeve design. Recommended for fans of Johann Johannsson, Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden, Arvo Part and Popol Vuh.

Old-time and traditional music stay exciting for their contrasts. Exacting instrumentation honed through mentorships and late-night jams at fiddler's conventions tangles with a community-sourced inventiveness that influences variants and new sounds. Joseph Decosimo is a master of this genre for this very reason, blending deep technique with an openness and curiosity that keep his music crackling with life. A "marvelous fiddler" (No Depression) and banjo player who braids "exultation and veneration" (INDY Week) into his music, on his third solo album Fiery Gizzard Decosimo gathers a close-knit ensemble of friends from his musical career to infuse his interpretations of fiddle and banjo pieces with a contagious communal joy. As an artist working with traditional music from the South and Appalachia, Decosimo chooses songs based not only on historical significance and lineage but also his own sensory approach. For Fiery Gizzard, his ear was tuned to otherworldly tones and mystery, sourcing from field recordings such as Virginia fiddler Luther Davis' hypnotic version of "Shady Grove" while amping up the music's psychedelic potential. On the middle Tennessee banjo composition "Flowery Girls," a VHS of bluesman Abner Jay inspired Decosimo to rig up a pickup inside a fretless banjo and play it thr ough a tube amp to capture some of Jay's edge and funkiness. But to round out the sound and keep it kinetic meant galvanizing a genre-eschewing crew to jam out - and not in a "spaced-out drooly" kind of way, he laughs, but as a sort of "responsive conversation." Decosimo has always been a community-minded artist. He began playing as a seventh graderin Tennessee, fostering relationships with older players at jams and in homes, a learning mode natural to his inquisitive nature and desire for musical connection. A folklorist by intuition, he later became one by profession, studying with old-time legend Clyde Davenport, teaching in East Tennessee State University's renowned bluegrass program, and receiving his PhD at the University of North Carolina with a dissertation titled "Catching the `Wild Note': Listening, Learning, and Connoisseurship in Old-Time Music." In North Carolina, Decosimo kicked about in the verdant environment of Durham and Chapel Hill's folk and indie scenes, collaborating with artists including Alice Gerrard, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Jake Xerxes Fussell. This community has influenced his own music, including his "sublime and strangely heartening" (Bandcamp Daily) 2022 release While You Were Slumbering and Beehive Cathedral, Decosimo's 2024 "Appalachian mountain music treasury" (New Commute) trio album with Luke Richardson and Cleek Schrey for Dear Life Records. Continuing on this path, Fiery Gizzard is home base for a loose outfit of mostly Tarheel-based musicians from within and beyond traditional music. Inspired by a tour with fiddler Stephanie Coleman (Nora Brown), guitarist Jay Hammond, and synth builder and multi-instrumentalist Matthew O'Connell, Decosimo assembled studiomates based on close friendships and comfort. Coleman, O'Connell, and Hammond contribute to Fiery Gizzard, along with bassist and producer Andy Stack (Helado Negro, Wye Oak), horn player Kelly Pratt (Beirut, David Byrne), Mipso and Fust's Libby Rodenbough, Joseph O'Connell (Elephant Micah), and trad/experimental artist Cleek Schrey. Decosimo's fiddle and banjo work is virtuosic, intricate and simple simultaneously, a testament to his many years of study. On some tracks, his playing or lovely, plain-hearted singing is the centerpiece, such as on his interpretations of Texan street preacher Washington Phillips' 1929 recording "I Had a Good Father and Mother" or the Eastern Kentucky fiddle barn-burner "Glory in the Meetinghouse," famously played by Luther Strong for Alan Lomax. But there's also a trusting open-door policy, like where Southern Appalachian tune "Ida Red" relaxes into Coleman's sweet, confident fiddling and Hammond's loping guitar. As a bandleader, Decosimo's confidence and enthusiasm for the music reveal the heart of traditional music and how it can come to life through community. Fiery Gizzard is Joseph Decosimo as a powerful champion of traditional music - a sponge who soaks up as much as he squeezes out, a responsive artist who makes his genre accessible, and a magnet who can bring musicians of all sorts into his orbit with his same passion.

Old-time and traditional music stay exciting for their contrasts. Exacting instrumentation honed through mentorships and late-night jams at fiddler's conventions tangles with a community-sourced inventiveness that influences variants and new sounds. Joseph Decosimo is a master of this genre for this very reason, blending deep technique with an openness and curiosity that keep his music crackling with life. A "marvelous fiddler" (No Depression) and banjo player who braids "exultation and veneration" (INDY Week) into his music, on his third solo album Fiery Gizzard Decosimo gathers a close-knit ensemble of friends from his musical career to infuse his interpretations of fiddle and banjo pieces with a contagious communal joy. As an artist working with traditional music from the South and Appalachia, Decosimo chooses songs based not only on historical significance and lineage but also his own sensory approach. For Fiery Gizzard, his ear was tuned to otherworldly tones and mystery, sourcing from field recordings such as Virginia fiddler Luther Davis' hypnotic version of "Shady Grove" while amping up the music's psychedelic potential. On the middle Tennessee banjo composition "Flowery Girls," a VHS of bluesman Abner Jay inspired Decosimo to rig up a pickup inside a fretless banjo and play it thr ough a tube amp to capture some of Jay's edge and funkiness. But to round out the sound and keep it kinetic meant galvanizing a genre-eschewing crew to jam out - and not in a "spaced-out drooly" kind of way, he laughs, but as a sort of "responsive conversation." Decosimo has always been a community-minded artist. He began playing as a seventh graderin Tennessee, fostering relationships with older players at jams and in homes, a learning mode natural to his inquisitive nature and desire for musical connection. A folklorist by intuition, he later became one by profession, studying with old-time legend Clyde Davenport, teaching in East Tennessee State University's renowned bluegrass program, and receiving his PhD at the University of North Carolina with a dissertation titled "Catching the `Wild Note': Listening, Learning, and Connoisseurship in Old-Time Music." In North Carolina, Decosimo kicked about in the verdant environment of Durham and Chapel Hill's folk and indie scenes, collaborating with artists including Alice Gerrard, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Jake Xerxes Fussell. This community has influenced his own music, including his "sublime and strangely heartening" (Bandcamp Daily) 2022 release While You Were Slumbering and Beehive Cathedral, Decosimo's 2024 "Appalachian mountain music treasury" (New Commute) trio album with Luke Richardson and Cleek Schrey for Dear Life Records. Continuing on this path, Fiery Gizzard is home base for a loose outfit of mostly Tarheel-based musicians from within and beyond traditional music. Inspired by a tour with fiddler Stephanie Coleman (Nora Brown), guitarist Jay Hammond, and synth builder and multi-instrumentalist Matthew O'Connell, Decosimo assembled studiomates based on close friendships and comfort. Coleman, O'Connell, and Hammond contribute to Fiery Gizzard, along with bassist and producer Andy Stack (Helado Negro, Wye Oak), horn player Kelly Pratt (Beirut, David Byrne), Mipso and Fust's Libby Rodenbough, Joseph O'Connell (Elephant Micah), andtrad/experimental artist Cleek Schrey. Decosimo's fiddle and banjo work is virtuosic, intricate and simple simultaneously, a testament to his many years of study. On some tracks, his playing or lovely, plain-hearted singing is the centerpiece, such as on his interpretations of Texan street preacher Washington Phillips' 1929 recording "I Had a Good Father and Mother" or the Eastern Kentucky fiddle barn-burner "Glory in the Meetinghouse," famously played by Luther Strong for Alan Lomax. But there's also a trusting open-door policy, like where Southern Appalachian tune "Ida Red" relaxes into Coleman's sweet, confident fiddling and Hammond's loping guitar. As a bandleader, Decosimo's confidence and enthusiasm for the music reveal the heart of traditional music and how it can come to life through community. Fiery Gizzard is Joseph Decosimo as a powerful champion of traditional music - a sponge who soaks up as much as he squeezes out, a responsive artist who makes his genre accessible, and a magnet who can bring musicians of all sorts into his orbit with his same passion.

Über drei Jahrzehnte nach ihrer Gründung durch Leslie Mandoki, setzen Mandoki Soulmates mit ihrem Album "A Memory Of Our Future" nicht nur musikalisch neue Maßstäbe, sondern präsentieren ein produktionstechnisches Meisterwerk: Das gesamte Album wurde analog aufgenommen und produziert - vom ersten Ton bis zum fertigen Vinyl. Die Produktion des rund 80-minütigen Konzeptalbums ist ein seltenes Unterfangen in der heutigen Musiklandschaft. Mit durchgehend analoger Signalverarbeitung vom Mikrofon bis zur Vinylpressung ist die Produktion von "A Memory Of Our Future" ein Manifest von Präzision und Leidenschaft, die in jedem Ton des Albums zu spüren ist. Das Mastering des analogen Magnetbandes durch Greg Calbi im renommierten Sterling Sound Studio in New York und der Vinylschnitt in den Emil Berliner Studios sind ein Symbol für die audiophile Exzellenz des Albums. Mit einem Setup, das in der gegenwärtigen Musikproduktion kaum noch zu finden ist, und mit der die Band eine Wärme und Lebendigkeit in ihrer Musik eingefangen hat, die in digitalen Aufnahmen oft verloren geht, haben die Soulmates ein Werk musikalischer Vielfalt geschaffen, das von Prog bis Jazz Rock reicht, und kompositorische Reife, spielerische Leichtigkeit und kunstvolle Solos mit großen Spannungsbögen und tiefgründigen Texten zu gesellschaftspolitischen Themen verbindet. Die generationsübergreifende Supergroup von Rock- und Fusion-Großmeistern mit Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Mike Stern, Al di Meola, Randy Brecker, Till Brönner, Bill Evans, John Helliwell (Supertramp), Cory Henry, Richard Bona, Steve Bailey, Simon Phillips (Toto), Leslie Mandoki, Tony Carey (Rainbow), Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew), Jesse Siebenberg und Mark Hart (beide Supertramp) ruft mit dem Album zum Handeln gegen Spaltung und für Menschlichkeit auf. Mit "A Memory Of Our Future" gelingt den Soulmates eine einzigartige Verschmelzung audiophiler Exzellenz und gesellschaftspolitisch relevanter Musik. Dieses Album ist nicht nur für Fans von Prog und Jazz Rock, sondern für alle, die echte Musik zu schätzen wissen.

Plush, the 1982 studio album by the Eighties synth-boogie band Plush, is a standout in the genre. The band, consisting of Siedah Garrett, Tony Phillips, and Ambrose Price, was known for their smooth blend of R&B, funk, and synth-driven melodies. Garrett, who later gained fame as a solo artist and songwriter, brought a distinctive vocal presence to the band. Not long after the band broke up, she was discovered by Michael Jackson, for who she later provided backing vocals and co-wrote ""Man In The Mirror"" with. The album was produced by Bobby Watson, René Moore and Angela Winbush. It features catchy tracks like ""Free and Easy"" and ""We’ve Got the Love,"" showcasing their polished production and soulful harmonies. Despite not achieving major commercial success, Plush has garnered a cult following for its authentic early Eighties sound. It's a significant work within the disco boogie genre, reflecting the transitional period of early Eighties music and is one of the rare and sought-after albums from that era. Plush is available on coloured vinyl for the first time as a limited edition of 500 copies on red coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Specially prepared liner notes by renowned music writer Brian Morton.

After an impasse in which she mostly recorded with tightly arranged groups (for Commodore) and big bands with strings (for Decca), Billie Holiday signed her last long-term contract with Norman Granz who tried to repeat the small group magic of her early days.

Solitudewas among Billie's first studio sessions for Granz and features the singer backed by Charlie Shavers, Flip Phillips, the Oscar Peterson Trio, and Alvin Stoller or J. C. Heard.

Zumindest äußerlich scheint The Grape in Ventura, Kalifornien, nur ein weiteres anonymes Gebäude in einer Reihe von Restaurants und Geschäften zu sein. Doch im Sommer 2022 sollte dieser einnehmende Veranstaltungsort das lang erwartete Live-Debüt einer der beeindruckendsten Partnerschaften in der Welt des progressiven Metals und der Jazz-Fusion beherbergen. Auf der rechten Seite der Bühne stand Derek Sherinian, der seine betörenden Keyboard-Parts mit eleganter Souveränität vortrug und dabei in gefühlvoller Konzentration versunken war. Links auf der Bühne, fast verloren hinter seinem Schlagzeug, saß der renommierte Schlagzeuger Simon Phillips, dessen hypnotisierende, fliegende Drumsticks gelegentlich zwischen Becken und Toms zu sehen waren. Diese tadellose Partnerschaft wurde durch den ausgefeilten Bass von Ric Fierabracci unterstützt, wobei die unerbittliche, verspielte Double-Neck-Gitarre von Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal ein weiteres melodisches Furnier hinzufügte. Vor 500 dankbaren Fans aufgeführt, hätte der Uneingeweihte, der am Veranstaltungsort vorbeikommt, nicht ahnen können, dass dies eine musikalische Live-Vereinigung war, die zwei Jahrzehnte lang in der Entwicklung war. Sherinian hatte seinen Ruf durch Auftritte mit Bands wie Kiss und Alice Cooper sowie durch seine Zeit bei den Progressive-Metal-Giganten Dream Theater gefestigt. Phillips' Liste der Credits war immens und umfasste die Zusammenarbeit mit Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, Joe Satriani und The Who. Das Live-Album ist erhältlich als schwarzes 180g schweres Vinyl inklusive 2-seitigem Einleger sowie als Ltd. CD Digipak mit 26-seitigem Booklet.

Goodbye, Asshole is the first studio album by San Francisco scuzz-wave merchants Fuckwolf—its a rat’s nest of deep grooves, lost ’70s rock riff intentions and art punk damage. These conundrums of time inform Goodbye, Asshole, but they are hardly romanticized in its music. The band, Eric Park (bass, vocals), Simon Phillips (drums) and Tomo Yasuda (guitar) sound blazing and scuzzy, a tight low-fi energy blasted onto tape at renowned Bay Area indie studios summarizing the last twenty years of San Francisco’s wild artistic soul – one that is now hard to find much evidence of in the city itself, but impossible to miss in the band’s sound. Fans of OSEES, Pink Fairies, late ’70s NYC, Emotional Rescue-era Stones, trashy post-punk dub and solvent-huffing rejoice!

Limitierte farbige LP! "Public Storage" baut auf dem Sound von Vus früheren Veröffentlichungen auf und unterstreicht ihre Stärken als Songwriterin mit einem tieferen Sinn für Glanz, Raffinesse und Dringlichkeit. Sie nennt es eine "sehr invasive und intensiv klingende Musik", die erfrischend unkonventionell zu den zeitgenössischen Trends ist; dies ist Musik, auf die man sich einlässt, anstatt sich zurückzulehnen. Co-Produzent Jackson Phillips (Day Wave) half Vu dabei, eine riesige, körnige, facettenreiche Welt zu erschaffen, in die sie sich stimmlich hineinbegeben kann, wobei ihre ausgeprägte Altstimme frei zwischen beschwörenden, tiefgründigen Betrachtungen und gefühlvollen, himmelwärts strebenden Ausbrüchen hin- und herpendelt. Die ersten Klänge, die wir hören, sind bezaubernd: Vereinzelte Klaviertasten gehen in "April Fool" in warme Schläge und Selbstharmonien über, während Vus Protagonistin ihre Umgebung und ihre Fähigkeit zu kommunizieren verleugnet. Das sanfte bernsteinfarbene Glühen geht über in den Titeltrack des Albums, einen dunkleren, düsteren, lauteren Ort. Vu rennt durch "Public Storage" mit einer Reihe von trotzigen Zurückweisungen (Versagen, Familie, Magie) und kathartischen Forderungen. Es ist eine seltene und kraftvolle Zurschaustellung von Verletzlichkeit von einem Texter, der das Abstrakte dem Autobiographischen vorzieht. Aubade", das auf einem Disco-Synthie-Muster und groovenden Bass-Stabs aufbaut, hat den hellen Schwung seines morgendlichen Namensvetters, der geschickt im Widerspruch zu seinem niederschmetternden Thema steht. Der Kontrast setzt sich in "Keeper" fort, einem pulsierenden New-Wave-Song mit träumerischen Synthesizern und einem coolen, knurrenden Erzähler, der diese Kraft erneut herausfordert. "Gutter" kehrt zum grungigen Lowlight zurück, mit muskulösen Gitarrenriffs, die sich über einem Bett aus Rückkopplungen abzeichnen und zusammen mit orchestralen Streichern zu einem brüllenden Finale anschwellen. Die hintere Hälfte von Public Storage bietet einige der markantesten Momente: Das rhythmische, hooklastige "Everybody's Birthday" spricht von der bösen Absurdität der Gegenwart, dem Ende der Zeiten. Die Nacht ist rot, die Stimmung ist blau, und die Scham ihrer Figur ist goldfarben. Vu hebt sich "Maker" für den Schluss auf, einen letzten Versuch im Existenziellen.

The Cold Stares will release their new album "Heavy Shoes" on August 13, 2021 via Mascot Records.
"Heavy Shoes" will be available on CD Digipack w/ 12 page booklet and 180 Grams Shiny Gold Vinyl w/ printed insert.
The great state of Kentucky is world renowned for many things. Bluegrass music? Of course. The smoothest, best-tasting Bourbon created by the hands of man? It doesn’t get any better. One thing that folks don’t always associate with Kentucky however is visceral, in-your-face rock and roll. The Cold Stares are determined to change that perception.
Chris Tapp and Brian Mullins have known one another for a long, long time. They grew up in Western Kentucky, just a stone’s throw from the border or Indiana, and attended different High School mere minutes down the road from one another. They originally started playing together in their early twenties before going their separate ways only to reunite in another outfit a decade down the line. “We were playing together in 2009 in another band that was doing really well,” Tapp said. “It didn’t work out, so we both kind of exited that band and contemplated retirement.” It didn’t take long before they were thankfully disabused of that notion.
That band is an intense amalgam of Led Zeppelin meets Free, Soundgarden meets Black Crowes; rock and roll wizardry where the riffs are hard, the vocals are searing, and the low end is capital “H,” heavy. Most of the album was recorded in a single day at Sam Phillips fabled recording studio in Memphis. “That’s our second record there, so there was a lot of familiarity going back in,” Mullins said. “The thing about that studio is that it’s old, and vibey. Sometimes you gotta bang on the gear a little bit to make it work. It’s kinda like the Millennium Falcon. It’s badass, but you just gotta get it running right.”

‘Heavy Shoes’ is Cold Stares’ best record yet, and they know it. It took a lot of blood, sweat, tears and doubt before Chris Tapp and Brian Mullins reached this moment, but it’s all the sweeter knowing they did it their way. “We’ve been through some tough times, and I’d say our band is a pretty good representation for blue collar people in general. People that work hard. We’re just a blue-collar American rock and roll band.”

This LP is extracted from the CD “Cello” box set which received rave
reviews. Awarded the first prize at the Conservatoire de Paris by
unanimous decision of the jury when he was only 13, Andre Navarra was
barely 20 years old when his soloist career began, taking him across Europe
as he performed with the finest orchestras to play all the concertos
of the repertoire.
Navarra took first prize at the Vienna International Competition in 1937. But
the war put a temporary obstacle in the way of his ascension. Unlike some of
his fellow musicians, he refused to collaborate with the occupiers and he took
refuge behind his music stand, playing as an ordinary member of the Paris Opera orchestra. From 1945 onwards, he could again be heard in the capitals of
Europe, conducted by the likes of Munch, Paray and Barbirolli, and later Mehta,
Ristenpart and Ancerl.
A parallel career opened up for him: teaching. He taught in Paris, Sienna, SaintJean-de-Luz, Nice, London, Vienna, Sion and Detmold. His mastery of the bow
was unique: he borrowed the technique used by violinists. It revolutionized
the method of cello playing, bringing roundedness, sensitivity and strength. He
pursued his two callings with equal intensity, one career enriching the other, as
this collection shows so clearly.
He approached every repertory with the same passion: contemporaries such
as Jolivet and Schmitt; classics such as Bach, Boccherini and Haydn; romantics
such as Dvorak, Brahms, Schumann, Bruch and Bloch; and early 20th century
composers such as Prokofiev, Kodaly and Martin.
Navarra died under the Tuscan sun that was so dear to him, his legacy a school
of cello playing that is unique in the world and whose technique and phrasing can still be recognized in the playing of those who use it, from Heinrich
Schiff, Frederic Lodeon, Philippe Muller, Roland Pidoux, Marcel Bardon, Rene
Benedetti, Anne Gastinel, Valentin Erben, Dominique de Williencourt, Marcio
Carneiro, Yvan Chiffoleau and Christophe Coin to Gautier Capu on, Yan Levionnois, Xavier Phillips, Taeguk Mun, Victor Julien-Laferriere and Bruno Philippe.
His perpetual, intense energy notwithstanding, Navarra leaves us with the image of a warm-hearted, unassuming man, who could, after a day alone with his
cello, invite his students on the spur of the moment to fun-filled spaghetti parties. Pablo Casals, who admired Navarra’s free spirit, said to him at a competition in Mexico City, “Ah, there you are, Andre. The man who never comes when
I invite him. I thought you were afraid of me. But no, the cello is your only love.”

Originally released onPrivilege, a sub-label of Polydor, this soundtrack by free jazz saxophonist Marion Brown is almost impossible to find in its original pressing. Nowmore than fifty years later it is finally reissued, to the delight of free jazz enthusiasts and film music collectors.

By 1967, Brown, then aged 36, already had a very successful career in the United States, appearing on John Coltrane’s ‘Ascension’, Archie Shepp’s ‘Fire Music’, performing with Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders and recorded several records under his name for renowned avant-gade jazz label ESP Disk.

That year, he however decided to move to Europe where he met with German saxophonist and vibraphonist Gunter Hamphel. Accompanied by Steve Mc-Call (drums and percussions), Barre Phillips (double bass), Alain Corneau (Cowbells) and Ambrose Jackson (trumpet), they recorded in 1969 in the legendary Parisian studio Davout, the soundtrack of the movie by Marcel Camus entitled

“Le temps fou”.

This film, which starred Nino Ferrer, was released in 1970 under the title “Un été sauvage” and unfortunately it did not make history in cinema. Fallen into oblivion, only his two original soundtracks (there is also a 7’’ with titles composed by Richard de Bordeaux and Daniel Beretta) are spreading the word.

Clive Phillips, Dominic Goodman, Peter Blundell are Mosquitoes, a somewhat inscrutable London-based outfit in operation for something close to seven years now, and have released music across a host of celebrated and broad-minded underground labels. Give or take the occasional interview in the less-straight parts of the music press, this is as much formal biography as their music has thus far allowed, for there's something essentially unknowable at the centre of what makes Mosquitoes what they are. So murky is their early history in fact, the first two self-released Mosquitoes records seemed to disappear from sight before really becoming visible. As more records have emerged, those first communications accumulate new meanings, acting as vital documents in tracking the evolution of a band who stand at the vanguard of contemporary British music.

The second of these records, recorded to tape in summer 2016 and first released as a single-sided 12" under the name MOS-002, is arguably the first true iteration of Mosquitoes. Now fittingly renamed Mosquitoes for its reissue as a dubplate-style 10" on World of Echo on 5th March, these five cryptically titled, shape-shifting tracks, see the trio embrace a near-genre-less fluidity, and in doing so express a unique combination of both freedom and intent. By design or instinct, Mosquitoes stand at their own inverted rock nexus, presenting a music that's turned inside out, and in doing so, music that twists the listener the same way.

In that sense, Mosquitoes plug into a long lineage of DIY savant iconoclasts, those outliers who would deny orthodoxy in order to excavate new languages and ideas - The Dead C, This Heat, the anti-formalism of No Wave, David Toop's General Strike. As such, Mosquitoes rely on a musical pluralism in order to take it apart - you must know how something is made before you reassemble it anew. Labelling this an EP may possibly underplay the breadth and ambition of what's on show. Later records would arguably be more cohesive, but what stands as particularly startling with this early work is their fearless and all-encompassing dive into the avant garde. Consider the anti-rockism of the scorched earth 90s re-imagined through a distinctly avant filter of free jazz and dub aesthetics. And it's the latter which perhaps shapes Mosquitoes most, dub the perfect vehicle for the articulation of such wilful anti-formalism. Make no mistake, this is music that's unafraid to be tough, to demand something of the listener and to not ask permission. And to bear witness to a rejection of formalism so aggressively pursued is to be reconciled.

This is Jack Wilson's debut album as a bandleader, originally released in 1963 for Atlantic label, featuring a young Roy Ayers on vibraphone, bassist Al McKibbons and drummer Nick Martinis. Jack Wilson was a fine and often underrated pianist and composer who played with many great names such as Gene Ammons, Jacki Mclean, Esther Phillips, Lou Rawls, Johnny Griffin, Ertha Kitt, Lambert Hendricks & Ross, Antonio Carlos Jobim... This is a lively studio session opening up with a beautiful rendition of Jobim's classic "Corcovado" and followed by WIlson's five originals. A great debut album full of warm, sophisticated and yet highly dynamic Jazz vibes.

Three 1982 disco classics from boogie trio Plush formed under the guidance of Angela Winbush, René Moore and Bobby Watson get the official, remastered reissue treatment from the original tapes.

Opening up the EP, an Angela & Rene original 'Free & Easy' is taken on by the Plush troupe, with the legendary Tee Scott providing a trademark extended mix. It kicks off with cosmic synths that dissipate into heavy funk, electric bass riffs, whilst scorching top lines and choice guitar licks trade off over the top. Scott's magic is clear to see in the composition of this extended mix. A man who clearly knew how to work a dancefloor, his use of breakdowns especially, extending the anticipation and power the track commands on its dancers. From the bass breaks that weave in modulated synths, to those that utilise the glorious sustained piano chords, cutting to just vocals and percussion before everything is added back in for ultimate dancefloor elation.

First up on the B side, 'We Got The Love', a more soulful, slowed down tip where staccato guitar plucks and chunky slap bass marries with warm Rhodes chords, and lush vocal harmonies blend with the power of Siedah Garrett commanding the lead vocals. A passion ingrained in their voices that cannot be taught, hanging in the air, as they hang onto their phrases.

Lastly, 'Livin For Your Love' a boogie-based serenade written by Herman Chainey and Tony L. Phillips, intertwines Phillips' deep dulcet tones with Plush's backing. Add in a dose of pure '80s bass synth, twanging funk flashes and juicy bass guitar ripples and you've got a recipe sure to woo any wandering hearts out there.