Forum Klix.ba

Code: Select all

Incognito's third album nods to the influences that ground their jazz-funk-and-soul jams. The 11-member band adds a Latin feel to a snazzy cover of Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," while "Magnetic Ocean" has a Weather Report-in-ballad-mode vibe. "Change" combines Maysa Leak's Chaka Khan-like power with sweeping Soul II Soul-ish strings, and "Need to Know" gives props to Roy Ayers (check the clavinet) and Rick James (horn section). The band is at its best showcasing Leak or featuring soloists, as on "Colibri" and the Mandrill-ish "Closer to the Feeling." Still, some attempts fall flat, like the syrupy "L'Arc en Ciel de Miles" that's more Chuck Mangione than Prince of Darkness. This one's for smooth-jazz aficionados; Brit-funk fans should check the band's later fare.

Code: Select all

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore are a German four-piece who have miraculously mutated from the hardcore noise of their original incarnation into a mesmerising suicide jazz' combo. Sunset Mission is a record enamoured of the twilight world of the city. It sounds like a collection of all the dark places in a David Lynch movie. The drums are slowed to a sleeping heartbeat, the piano is played with funereal solemnity. A slurred saxophone utters drunken phrases of regret. Strings ebb and sway in a sonorous baritone like laboured breathing. There's no change of pace. Like a trance, the music just takes hold affecting both metabolism and consciousness. It feels as if you're slowly drowning on pharmaceuticals. Sunset Mission is a pleasurable dulling of the pained psyche to the point of oblivion

Code: Select all

"Is you Is (or is you ain't my baby)" is a so-called Jazz standard. Let's say a nice little piece of art from times, when people used to dance to jazzmusic ... back then in the Fourties. Today nobody knows the hyperactive boy called Jazz from the streets of New Orleans anymore. People just recognize him as an honest and motionless nerd. But that's not fair, because in his heart he is still a wild one. All he needs is a little kick in his butt and the calling: "Shake It, Baby". He just can't avoid to discard his intellectual ballast, when Jazz listens to those words sang by Lisa Bassenge, as she did on the new Micatone CD. During the 12 Songs on "Is You Is" he transforms into a specialist for days with black holes, a moodlifter, and a Top-Ten aspirant for all the heart and brain charts made by all people with the necessary taste of music. To cut it short: He turns into a coeval.

It is a rare gift of Micatone, to combine the best of both worlds in a coherent way. It is just intellectual Pop Music. Songs that people should sing loud, without being ashamed. Songs with real instruments. Real instruments, which are self-confident enough to get a little assistance by calculating machines. But eventually we are talking about a band in the classical meaning. And it is nonrelevant for them, to live and work autonomous in the environment of the "Jazzanova" Crew. Always with an eye on the German Jazz DJ Scene.
But Micatone should not only belong to the cases of DJ selectors, they should belong to all of us....

Code: Select all

AMERICAN BEAUTY was an instant classic when it was first released November of 1970. It is among the most satisfying and enduring of the Grateful Dead's studio recordings, expanding as it does on the engaging mix of country, blues, and folk materials they first coined earlier in the year with WORKINGMAN'S DEAD. 
Remastered here in the top notch, digital surround sound of DVD-Audio, the album is chock full of new elements, including a version of "Sugar Magnolia" which is mixed so that Jerry Garcia's pedal steel guitar can be heard as the lead instrument. Classic Dead tunes like "Truckin," "Box of Rain," and "Ripple" have never sounded better.

Code: Select all

You're either a believer or you're not when it comes to this hugely popular live band. Well, the lines get blurred here, just as they did a quarter century ago on the Grateful Dead's American Beauty. As he did with the Dave Matthews Band, producer Steve Lillywhite puts a crisp stamp on 13 likable, easy-going songs and instrumentals.

Phish: Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon, Page McConnell. Recorded at Bearsville Studios, Bearsville, New York between February and June 1996. The songs on Phish's 7th album range from gentle acoustic ballads like "Waste," which resembles early Pink Floyd's quieter moments, to the anthemic rush of the opening "Free," to the funky, organ-based instrumental "Cars Trucks Buses." This is thinking-man's classic rock, with a generous and broad concept of what classic rock might be. The stamp of the Phish is laid upon all the tracks by the deft musicianship of guitarist Trey Anastasio and keyboardist Page McConnell. While the band boasts an impressive amount of collective chops, it never veers into crass showmanship or self-indulgent solos. Even the most upbeat tunes possess a light touch and appealing subtlety that let Phish's compositional and instrumental prowess shine in a natural, unpretentious way. Happily unhip, the band exists entirely outside the alterna-pop mill that defines much of the contemporary pop scene. It's likely that Phish's stubborn individuality is the very quality that has endeared the band to a vast, devoted fan base. On BILLY BREATHES, Phish gives those fans another reason to keep the faith

Code: Select all

Maynard James Keenan is known for venting his personal angst through the abstract metal of his former band Tool and the poisoned art rock of his current outfit A Perfect Circle. On the group's third full-length release, however, the songwriter drops the high drama and gets blunt: War is bad. Politicians are evil. The world is doomed. To support his case he delivers a handful of politically charged originals and unusual Eastern-influenced covers of crusty anti-war anthems like John Lennon's "Imagine" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On." You could never accuse Keenan of being predictable.
--
Motivated by the current political climate in their American homeland, Maynard James Keenan and his hard rocking supergroup have created a third album that sends out a strong statement for political activism. With two new tracks and a collection of cover versions of protest songs, ‘eMOTIVe’ feels like the strongest album the band have produced yet. Intelligent, worthy and musically magnificent ‘eMOTIVe’ is one of the most important albums to arrive in 2004.