ROUNDUP reviews
Johnny Surinder Sandhu 7 Samurai!
Osbourne
The Fictionist El Mundo Nuevo
Truth And Rights
Saurango Poets Club
Deluxe Edition
SAURANGO101 PCR045
Heartbeat
HBCD7840
JC C
SH World jazz experimentalist Surinder Sandhu Over the last five years Bavarian beatmeisters 7
knows how to think big. Having garnered Samurai have carved out a name for themselves
Responding to others plundering his hugely
an international reputation with works that with a series of cooking re-edits and remixes.
successful catalogue and with the benefit of a
combine East and West, jazz and classical music, Now their first album El Mundo Nuevo brings
studio upgrade, Clement Dodd ended the 70s
he takes on all-comers with The Fictionist – his together over a dozen of their best productions
by remixing and re-voicing a number of his own
most impressive recording to date. from this period with a heady mix of styles from
hits. In the process he ushered in the dancehall
Latin to Afro disco and dancehall to jazz.
Commissioned to celebrate Liverpool’s
style that would come to dominate reggae.
designation as European City of Culture 2008, Unlike many other remix albums which can
Among those to benefit was Jonny Osbourne
it’s an epic collage made all the more visionary often be boring there is no danger of that here
whose nascent recording career had climaxed
by its collaborators: two choirs, twenty soloists, with so much good material on offer. The
prematurely in the 60s with a move to Canada.
the 75-strong Royal Liverpool Symphony album eases in with a couple of slabs of solid
This CD is all the evidence of how good the
Orchestra and a wealth of stellar musicians Brazilian grooves kicking off with a wicked
concept could be, classic rhythms expanded
on everything from kora (Tunde Jegede) and Jorge Ben remix, followed up by an equally
to 16 track from the original four track tapes,
trombone (Dennis Rollins) to tabla, sarod and catchy reworking of Sol De Verro – listen to the
with live studio overdubs and Johnny’s superb,
sarangi. original to see how they have transformed this
easy vocal style. The lyrics are still conscious
track for the better. It doesn’t take long for the
Armed with the latter Sandhu summons up
and laced with Rasta philosophy and culture on
tempo to take off with an afro-disco monster
the city’s multi-ethnic vibrancy on ten pieces
tracks like Truth And Rights, Nah Skin Up and
called Kikiriboom deftly following the wicked
that amount, really, to a glorious extended
the outstanding Jah Promise. Fleshed out with
reworking of Idea 6’s It Ain’t Necessarily So.
symphony. Ancient Indian instruments create
extra and extended mixes and engaging booklet
The second-half of the album also does not
such modern sounds as funk and free jazz;
notes, this is a five-star-buy-it-now-package.
disappoint with some solid soul, reggae and
throughout, possibilities are explored with a flair
You’ll be “Up Town Top Ranking” all night long.
hip hop productions including a swinging jazz
as deft as it is audacious. An inspiring testament
mix of Andrea Pozza Trio proving that El Mundo
“This is Studio One music at its best” to a giant imagination.
Nuevo was definitely worth the wait.
Echoes
“A must listen! Jazz, Indian Classical UK Pop,
Classical and even more on a single CD that
www.myspace.com/7samuraimusic
French, Frith
unites a nation through the power of his music”
Kaiser, Thompson
Courtney Pine
Crucible
Invisible Means
Love & Money
The Bittersweets
Fled’gling
Fellside
FLED3702
Goodnight,
FECD212
San Francisco
JTR
CP
Compass Records
A long awaited CD re-release for the second
COM44862
There’s plenty of steel in this third outing from
album by an extraordinary quartet, complete
GC
the Sheffield-based quartet comprising Jess
with a bonus live version of the Stones’ Play and Richard Arrowsmith, Gavin Davenport
With Fire. and Helena Reynolds which proves that their
The Bittersweets are a country-rock trio from
A band consisting of such notorious boundary-
template is capable of vibrant expansion whilst
California who relocated to Nashville to cut this
pushers could easily be in danger of over-the-
remaining true to the essentially traditional
album – thus the album’s title. San Francisco
top muso noodling, so it’s to the player’s credit
English flavour that marked out its predecessors,
may once have been a famous music town but
that they rarely over-indulge, instead working
Changeling and Crux.
it’s more psychedelic in flavour than country so
as a ramshackle but supportive unit for each
The Bittersweets must have stood out. This also The creative interplay bonding guitar, fiddles,
other’s material.
explains their shift to Tennessee – their melodic violas, melodeon and border pipes, shows
Beefheart drummer John ‘Drumbo’ French
songs are more likely to attract attention in how impressively focused this band is. Here
delivers an out-of-character power ballad Music City than Silicon Valley.
is beautiful, finely honed music with the
with To The Rain, while Richard Thompson convincing ring of just-rightness about it.
(supposedly brought in for a dose of
Lead by Chris Meyers (guitar, keyboards) and
Exuberant flourishes on Old Mrs Wilson/
commercial appeal) supplies March Of The
Hannah Prater (vocals, guitar) – with drummer
Dorsetshire Hornpipe betray their individual
Cosmetic Surgeons – a bizarre mini-opera,
Steve Bowman keeping things tight – The
roots in dance outfits such as Heckety and
complete with guest mezzo-soprano vocalist
Bittersweets record a particularly melodic and
Jabadaw, this groundwork providing a muscular
Catherine Keen.
affecting music, with songs like Is Anyone
lift to the tune sets.
Safe and When The War Is Over suggesting
Amongst the far out time signatures and Henry
urban alienation shot through with hope. Their Harmonies mesh on the tasteful assembly
Kaiser’s swooping sci-fi solos, traditional anthem
sound is lovely, quite ambient yet dynamic and of mostly traditional songs (True Love, Three
Loch Lomond is played as a straight-ahead
focused. Unlike so much Nashville music today Maidens) essayed here; - effortlessly beguiling,
rocker, proving that when the potential musical
The Bittersweets refuse to compromise; this is fresh-air sweet and providing enough variety to
possibilities are endless, doing something
normal is often the weirdest path to take. Unlike
21st Century country music that will appeal to a prevent any onset of ennui. Crucible have found
the lyrics to that song, this album avoids the
very wide audience. their collective niche and fill it estimably.
high road and the low road, opting instead for “They have the kind of chemistry that country “A definite triumph”
the scenic route.
rock legends are made of”
fRoots
Seattle Post
“One of the more radical beat combos to
blaze between rock and a hard placein the
late-1980s”
Jazzwise
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