those Alabama Shakes : Gig Review

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Alabama Shakes live @ Boston Arms 23/02

With Brittany Howards voice turning alot of heads, Alt-Country/Rock/Soul group Alabama Shakes took to a 3 night sold out stint at London's Boston Arms, the same venue that White Stripes cut their wares in the UK the first time round. I was lucky enough to be there to check them out (and report back to y'all!).

Newly signed to Rough Trade this 5 piece very much meet at the crossroads of country, rock and soul, and have already had exposure from a couple of TV syncs and the release of a 12" EP.  This and various pieces in the national press, have made this college start up from Athens Alabama the hottest property of the moment.

With her corkscrew hair and commanding song, singer Howard is the centre of attention with heavily bearded bass player Zac Cockrell and second lead guitarist Heath Fogg playing around her, eyes closed, as if dreaming about their native hometown. The music spills out in this texan styled venue to the expectant crowd. On the drums Steve Johnson adds extra frills in here and there, breaking up the beat where it was necessary and rolling to retain the groups jumpy groove.

In the quieter moments Britanny Howards voice moves from that of a street preacher in full flow to the quavering, fragile and world weary. Her ability to control her oration in this way is what sets her apart- that and her excellent guitar playing skills were mesmerising.

Half way through the gig I smell playdough, then i look down and remember that I was holding a fistful of tic-tacs given to me by my friend Pete and the sweat on my palms had reacted with it. That was really the only distraction to this compelling gig, alas I digress :)..

The hammond organ (one of my favourite instruments ever), sounds as powerful as if it was stolen from a James brown gig circa 1963 and not returned. By the hour mark, almost everyone was in the mood for a bit of a jive and dance around. Their first record Hold On gets the biggest reaction through association, and the band construct songs from quiet murmurs to the full rock out on every other track. Before the encore a cheeky T-Rex cover then a final flourish: two rock & roll tracks just to send the message home, that this band are rock, roll, soul, funk and country, rolled into one heck of a tight outfit.

Alabama Shakes debut LP is released on April 9th::

Playlist: Welcome to Jazz Club Volume 2

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New York, New York

Right in time for Valentines! 18 months of hard toil and finally a hopefully half decent playlist to show for it.

Picking up where the first volume left off, this has a little bit of hiphop edge at the end for good measure, but continues the good work for the first outing, opening with Robert Glasper which soon walks to Syreeta's gentle classic Black Maybe, a record recently featured on the excellent MoWest compilation. Alice Coltrane, Gil Scott-Heron, Dave Pike Set and Marlena Shaw all effortlessly work their wares amongst heaps more of my favourites.

The artwork is quality too, crossing the Hudson, from my friend from Church (and the coolest!) Stephanie Imbeau.

Click HERE to listen, subscribe and pass on!

Simon

Tracklisting:

Robert Glasper – Rise And Shine
Syreeta – Black Maybe
Masequa Myers – Black Land of the Nile
Christian Prommer's Drumlesson – Strings Of Life
Alice Coltrane – Oh Allah
Emanative – Turn Your Lights On - Feat. Ahu
Georgia Anne Muldrow – The Black Mother
Gil Scott-Heron – Offering
Young-Holt Unlimited – Queen Of The Nile
  – I'm A Fool To Want You
Ambrose Akinmusire – Dreams Of The Manbahsniese
Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Sweet Tears
Marvin Gaye – Calypso Blues
Dave Pike Set – Noisy Silence - Gentle Noise
Gil Scott-Heron – Western Sunrise
Mundell Lowe – Johnny Staccato's Theme
Marlena Shaw – Ahmad's Blues
Guru's Jazzmatazz – Down The Backstreets
Digable Planets – Jettin'

Early New York Subway Graffiti 1973-1975

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Whilst in Bristol over Christmas I popped into Rise, an independent record shop near Park Street in the hope of spending a bit of Christmas money and unearthing a few gems.

Through their tweet feed i'd read of a book recently published by photographer Keith Baugh, documenting in photo's graffiti on trains from the Harlem, South Bronx, Times Square and Coney Island in New York. I was working in London when he did a signing at the Bristol store, but I managed to pick up a copy before I headed back and it proved to be a completely compelling read.

As well as having many photo's of trains covered in tags, graffito and designs, Baugh also includes some other shots at the time and a few pictures of those involved at the time as they are now. The book comes with extensive sleevenotes on the background to his work and those involved at the time. A very colourful book, useful for both coffee table and to see some of the early pioneers at work, would highly recommend getting hold of a copy!

The book has lots of colourful tags

As well as interesting designs spanning entire carriages

 

Author and photographer- Keith Baugh

2011- end of year review

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As the year draws to a close i've been pondering my fave(ourite) albums of the year and books too. It was a great year for some excellent music and thankfully far too much to list here. Music is such a great blessing!

So below are my favourites, but what are yours?! Be great to know what music has inspired you or that you would put in your end of year lists!

MUSIC
Top albums of 2011 (in no order)

 






















Oddisee- Rock Creek Park
Inspired entirely by nature and Gods creation! The hiphop producer fell in love with Rock Creek park in Washington and dedicated an album to it, soundtracking the different areas within the nature reserve. Funky and filled with vinyl crackle in all the right places this instrumental ode has stayed on the stereo and been revisited often.

Charles Bradley- No Time For Dreaming
With a voice that sounds world weary and weathered it'd be fair to say Bradley hasn't lived the easy life. With his voice drawing close to the great James Brown at times, this is an excellent stateside debut. Backed by the impressive Menahan Street band this includes the song 'why is it so hard to make it in America', modern funk at it's best.

Dangermouse- Rome
Featuring an all star cast including Jack White and Norah Jones, this album is something akin to a modern Ennio Morricone soundtrack, but without the film.

Tigran Hamasyan- A Fable
Delicate in places this undulates excites and saddens in equal measures as the 24 year old piano virtuoso took folk songs from his native Armenia and spins them to an american style. Without doubt my favourite jazz album of the year.

Gardens & Villa- S/T
Mixing slow, cosmic boogie with 80's influences such as Talking Heads this is a perfect post 9pm album to segue Autumn nights into Winter.

Real Estate- Days
Melancholic but dreamy and melodious the New Jersey acts second album is indie rock brilliant..

Samiyam- Sam Bakers Album
Funny thing is i used to know someone called Sam Baker at school, but this is a different Sam Baker. On FlyLo's Brainfeeder imprint this is geared towards after-hours listening, or post-club (if you 'club'), soft, vibey keys blur with looped vocals, film samples and various beats, flittering between hip-hop, broken beat and dubstep!

The Kramford Look- 1970
Flying so far below the radar it could easily have been missed or overlooked, but the Manchester duo have literally hopped into a time machine, gone back to 1970-80, watched a heap of blaxploitation and action films and then put pen to stansa. Thanks to Gaz in the office for putting me onto this one!

Raphael Saadiq- Stone Rollin'
All prepped and ready to dislike this but Saadiq who crazily is nearly 50 now, has come up with the goods as he looks towards prairey house folk, chunk funk and the odd slice of honeyed R&B. The cover art reminds me of Cassius' 1999 too.

Glen Campbell- Ghost On The Canvas
Sadly due to his terminal illness, this is the country star's final album but fittingly it's heartfelt with a touch of nostalgia and thankfulness and is as catchy in places as some of his hits.

Best of the rest:
Venice Dawn- Something About April
Dawes- Nothing Is Wrong
Austra- Beat And The Pulse
Dennis Coffey- D.E.T
Seapony- Go With Me
Beastie Boys- Hot Sauce Committee Volume II
Common- The Dreamer, The Believer (rel: 19th Dec)

Listen to all of these albums here: BristolFunk- Approved Albums of 2011

BOOKS
I managed to read about 6 books this year, most of which are included below, in 2012 i'm going to try and read some more music biographies too..


A. Dom Joly- The Dark Tourist
Disturbing but hilarious Joly journals his visits to some of the least likely tourist destinations including Iran, North Korea and Chernobyl

B. Canon Andrew White, The Vicar of Baghdad- Faith Under Fire
C. Michael Baughen- One Big Question (why does a God of love allow suffering)
D. Chris Evans Autobiography part 2
E. Malcolm Duncan- Kingdom Come, The Local Church as a Catalyst for Social Change


Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a blessed and peaceful Christmas and a prosperous 2012

Playlist: Every Sample from Showbiz & AG's Runaway Slave album

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Listening to Show & AG's seminal hiphop debut Runaway Slave on the way into work last week, I noticed lots of crate digging samples that the likes of DJ Shadow and Kanye would have been pretty chuffed with,

So here's a little playlist, including every available, original, sample from their 1992 opus!

Playlist:::
Showbiz & AG - Samples from Runaway Slave

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A Fable

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Armenian born piano virtuoso Tigran Hamasyan releases his first album via the Verve imprint and impresses with the perfect winter album.

Having heard of this album and Tigran's American upbringing via Giles Petersons producer @cushtilla , I set about discovering more and was instantly hooked by the dramatic bounce of 'What The Waves Brought' and the pensive tinkering of 'Legend of The Moon', both just from watching on youtube.

Amongst several other moments of genius on the album are the scatty title track and 'The Spinners' where melancholy meets hope, originally an arrangement of the philosopher George Ivanovich.

When he plays live, hunched double over the keys, it's with such intensely that at times he mutters to himself like he's absorbed in another world. You can even hear his jitter on this concept album, where folk songs from his native Armenia are reworked to American jazz.

With jazz great Herbie Hancock calling him 'amazing', i'd definitely recommend checking this album out over Christmas :)

**** 4/5

Beats, Rhymes & Life

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When browsing shook.fm I was sad to see i'd missed the London screening of this Tribe Called Quest documentary.

Midnight Marauders is my favourite Tribe record and this looks to provide a great insight into an act that defined a classic era of hip hop. Here's the trailer added a playlist i set up :)