Friday, November 06, 2015

NEW RELEASES: CALIBRO 35 – SPACE; VOILAAA - ON TE L’AVAIT DIT; MATTHEW HALSALL – INTO FOREVER

CALIBRO 35 – SPACE

Wonderful work from Calibro 35 – a funky combo who just seem to get better and better with each new record! These guy started out in territory that was strongly influenced by older Italian soundtrack material – which they could copy with effortless ease – but this time around, they really seem to have found their own voice – kind of a cosmic approach to keyboard funk that's every bit as spacey as the cover! There's still plenty of 70s elements in the mix – and the rhythms have all the heavy grooves you'd love in a cop/crime soundtrack – but the instrumentation is often a lot more complex, and really reaching for new sounds too – using both keyboards and electronics along with acoustic elements on woodwinds and percussion – plus some other cool sounds that we can't figure out at all. Titles include "Across 111th Sun", "74 Days After Landing", "Bandits On Mars","Brain Trap", "Violent Venus", "Universe Of 10 Dimensions", "Serenade For A Satellite", and "A Future We Never Lived".  ~ Dusty Groove

VOILAAA - ON TE L’AVAIT DIT

Beautiful grooves from Bruno "Patchworks" Hovart – a set that mixes his classic-styled club sound with some sweet Afro-funk touches – all to create this wonderful hybrid of sounds that makes for one of his best records in years! The style here is more in the Afro-disco mode of the late 70s – particularly the groove that occurred when African acts would get a chance to record up in Paris, and create this wicked interplay of heavier roots and European grooves – often with results that were extra-funky in the process! Earthy percussion mixes with sweet keyboards, riffing guitar, and plenty of massive basslines – and vocals are by Sir Jean, Pat Kalla, Foule Badiaga, and Renaud Bilombo. Titles include "Niarela", "Spies Are Watching Me", "On Te L'Avait Dit", "Bark", "Le Disco Des Capitales", "Vampires", "Enlevez Moi Ca", and "Jungle Fire".  ~ Dusty Groove

MATTHEW HALSALL – INTO FOREVER

The music of Matthew Halsall really opens up here – still staying in the spiritual jazz style we love from earlier records, but with an even more expansive vision overall! The album brings in some added string players to a core group that includes flute, harp, and koto alongside the usual jazz instrumentation – but the overall feel is still quite intimate – as the group's still under the larger assemblage you might think from the "orchestra" on the cover! Instead, the strings act in this way to expand and shade in colors initiated by the various members of the group – at a level that makes the sound incredibly rich, and which gives the harp, piano, and koto even more focus. Halsall's trumpet lines are as wonderful as always – soulfully breathtaking – and the record also features vocals on a number of tracks, from righteous singers Josephine Oniyama and Bryony Jarman Pinto – both of whom hit a 70s current that takes us back to Jean Carn with Doug Carn on the Black Jazz label, or maybe some of the female vocals on the first few Oneness Of Juju albums. Titles include "Only As A Woman", "As I Walk", "Dawn Horizon", "The Land Of", "Jamais Vu", and "Daan Park".  ~ Dusty Groove





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