Newcomer Alice Smith chose a cartoon portrait of herself for the cover of her debut album, but "For Lovers, Dreamers Me" reveals a multidimensional singer-songwriter who is about as authentic as they come. There s a retro, 70s soul vibe to Smith s sound, but she s not just another neosoul neophyte: actually, she s not just a soul singer, period. There s a bit of rock and smooth funk infused into these smart grooves, and the snarly vocals she delivers when her vocals are at full tilt can recall Janis Joplin most notably on the excellent commentary on our world, "Fake is the New Real.
" He s clearly a product of the 1980s, offering glimpses of British New Wave bands like the Cure and Depeche Mode in songs like "Indelible." The first single, "Bound By Love," is getting radio airplay and has been featured on an episode of ABC s "Grey s Anatomy." Not the CD s strongest track, at first listen, he sounds simply like a strong and sensitive singer-songwriter guy, but Fisher s debut provides much more than that.
Every single song is grand. It is called Scandi pop, a Scandinavian blend of beats with roots in ABBA and recently supercharged by the likes of Denmark s Junior Senior. In Sweden, electro-pop brother-sister duo The Knife has taken this genre and carved it into something much darker, but still satisfyingly sweet.
The beats are there, loopy and ambient. The austereness is there: a sort of haunting coldness awash in emotion. Following on the heels of the brilliantly catchy sophomore release "Deep Cuts," this year s "Silent Shout" is a smoothly produced gem of 11 winter-infused tunes worthy of many listens.
One part techno, one part experimental pop and two parts reggae-infused dub, the album showcases singer Karin Dreijer Andersson s precociously girlish voice and her brother Olof Dreijer s complimentary computer-manipulated vocals, deepened into a growl. "Like A Pen" starts off with raindrop-sounding bloops and bleeps that transition into a synth line bursting into Andersson s dreamy callout. "Sharpen my body like a pen/ Come on I need to show it," she intones.
"Marble Home" layers electronic drum beats and bass tones over the sound of a schizophrenic tap-dance routine, with Dreijer and Andersson swapping lyrics. The pair, known to avoid live performances and dress up in costume in photos, explore that sense of mystery on most of the songs. "The others say we re hiding/ It s as forward as can be/ Some things I do for money/ Some things I do for free," they chime in unison.
Mystery aside, The Knife has gained fans in the United States with such sharply cut tunes. Here s to more of The Knife, and more Scandi pop. Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko is one of the elder statesmen on the European contemporary jazz scene, but only in the last few years has he gained more recognition among American jazz audiences thanks to his last three CDs on the ECM label with an all-Polish combo of young musicians he discovered as teenagers and mentored over the past decade.
As a trumpeter, Stanko s nuanced, subtle and often introspective playing draws inspiration from the "less is more," laid-back cool jazz stylings of Miles Davis and Chet Baker, and as a composer and improviser, the 64-year-old Pole was one of the first Europeans to take after the free jazz of Ornette Coleman. From his own Polish heritage, Stanko has distilled that melancholy, brooding soulful Slavic romanticism as evidenced by such compositions on his new CD as the lovely free-flowing ballads "Song for Ania" and "Sweet Thing." On "Lontano," a musical term meaning "from a distance," the nearly 40-minute title piece, split into three parts, is a collective free-form improvisation that manages to be melodic and lyrical much like the solo piano excursions of ECM labelmate Keith Jarrett.
This piece also showcases the sensitive and empathetic support provided Stanko by his young bandmates pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz who deftly keep up with the shifting rhythms, tempos and dynamics. Stanko also reflects on his own roots on the most pulsating tune on the album, "Kattorna," written by his mentor, pianist Krzysztof Komeda, who was best known for his scores for "Rosemary s Baby" and other Roman Polanski films, with whom the trumpeter played in the 1960s. Stanko is definitely one European jazz musician to whom attention must be paid.
"Husky" opens with what sounds like an airplane revving its propeller engines, followed by car horns. In other words: Prepare for a wild ride. Skerik s Syncopated Taint Septet is a Seattle-based, horn-driven jazz group that draws from such disparate influences as Monk, Kirk and Basie, hip-hop and funk, and Blood, Sweat Tears.
While SST7 cut "Husky" in one day, the album best reveals its charms with repeated listenings, thanks to group s sweet ensemble arrangements and considerable collective composing skills. There are bleeps, blips and squawks, but also memorable melodies and swinging grooves. The absence of a bassist is part of the band s unique sound, with organ and baritone sax instead providing a phat bottom.
SST7 includes five horn players, and collectively they produce a righteous roar. The genre-busting approach is thoroughly modern, but the band s name is a bit of a throwback. The phrase "syncopated taint" was supposedly used by the nation s first drug czar to describe the moral decay caused in the 1930s and 40s by marijuana and jazz.
Perhaps "Husky" should come with a warning label: "This music can be addictive." Midway through the latest album from Tres Chicas, on the song "Sway," they do exactly that. Singers Lynn Blakey, Caitlin Cary and Tonya Lamm take the word in the title and caress it for 12 beats, dancing with the image in lovely three-part harmony as the melody rises and falls.
The vocal blend gives a distinctive stamp to "Bloom, Red The Ordinary Girl," the second release by Tres Chicas. But the album is more than a mere showcase for singing by Cary (an original member of Whiskeytown), Lamm (a founding member of Hazeldine) and Blakey (the frontwoman for Glory Fountain, formerly with Let s Active). Cary and Blakey also display considerable songwriting talent on material that focuses on love and heartbreak.
With keyboardist Geraint Watkins and acoustic bassist Matt Radford helping to provide a firm foundation, the uptempo tunes swing as well as sway, while the ballads are lovely. "Bloom" was recorded in London, but Tres Chicas roots are in North Carolina. In the 70s, this music would have been described as country rock.
The more recent label would be Americana or simply call it one of the year s standout discs. A throwback to the glory days of the big, sweeping anthem, the self-titled debut from Aberdeen, Scotland s six-piece Driveblind is just the cure for those in need of a good old fashioned jolt of mainstream rock. With a finely tuned sound that s matured over years of relentless touring, Driveblind s bluesy psychedelic rock is drenched with deliciously catchy hooks and soaring vocals.
They re not breaking any major new ground here, but they inject the classic rock of bands like The Who and The Band with a freshness and enthusiasm thats contagious. With rollicking, fist-pumping rockers ("Silhouette," "Raised at Midnight," "Tell Me," "All I Want"), or sweeping, mid-tempo ballads ("Light Sleeper," "Clearer Now," "Autumn Red"), Driveblind will give rock fans both young and old ample proof that the heart of mature, well-crafted rock still beats with fury.
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