Kamaal Williams – New Heights / Snitches Brew

On January 25, 2019January 31, 2019 By 429harrowroadIn Single reviews1 Comment

Last years’s debut Kamaal Williams album, The Return, showcased the jazz wizardry of keyboardist Henry Wu, recently of dissolved group Yussef Kamaal. That LP operated on the funkiest fringes of the new jazz renaissance, and this new 12-inch takes that approach two steps further.

The A-side cut ‘New Heights (Visions Of Aisha Malik)’, co-produced by Darkhouse Family, is a serene, laidback deep cut dominated by wandering piano clusters and a robust rhythm section, through which unexpected sounds are threaded – little percussion gestures, meditative synth strings – but never in a way that takes a focus away from the core trio sound. It at once sounds faithful to classic jazz but in a manner that nods firmly in the direction of hip-hop.

On the flip, the cheekily-named ‘Snitches Brew’ with guitarist Mansur Brown is a dexterous headlong rush into a psychedelic wilderness, echoing the Miles Davis experiments that yielded the track its title. ‘Snitches Brew’ is dominated by an unfaltering electronic bassline and restless, shuffling drum pattern from Dexter Hercules over which Brown’s liquefied guitar patterns wheel freely. As a counterpoint to the relative calm of ‘New Heights’, it couldn’t be more different – but that’s what makes Wu’s Kamaal Williams so refreshing.

New Heights / Snitches Brew is released today by Black Focus Records

Words: Mat Smith
(c) 2019 Further.

Kaada – ZombieLars (Soundtrack)

On January 23, 2019January 22, 2019 By 429harrowroadIn Album reviews1 Comment

John Erik Kaada’s Closing Statements was one of last year’s standout albums, straddling as it did the worlds of electronic music and modern classical composition with a moving suite of pieces dealing with final farewells. A versatile composer for his own solo releases as well as film and TV, Norway’s Kaada is also a frequent collaborator with Faith No More guitarist and Ipecac label head Mike Patton, making him a highly adaptable and fluid musician with a penchant for unexpected eclecticism.

This new release contains some of Kaada’s work for the TV series ZombieLars, a coming-of-age teen story filtered through the voguish lens of vampires, werewolves and zombies. The collection showcases Kaada’s precise rendering of mood and texture via styles that feel inextricably linked to an 1980s soundtrack recipe. ‘Algebra and ‘Annerledes’s synth sprinkles and dominant beats sound like they may have consciously mainlined the score from Escape From New York, while the stentorian ‘Beeserk’ has a stop-start quality akin to a classically-infused flavour of dubstep. The urgent, moody ‘Detroit’ stands out for its unswervingly hypnotic layers of bass and haunting melodies, while ‘Brain’ captures some of the maudlin quality that dominated Closing Statements with stirring strings and gentle arpeggios.

ZombieLars is released by Mirakel Recordings on January 25 2019.

Words: Mat Smith
(c) 2019 Further.

I started a new music blog. It’s called Further.

On January 22, 2019January 22, 2019 By 429harrowroadIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I started a new music blog. It’s called Further.

It’s a place for reviews and features of things that just don’t fit into my Mute Records blog (Documentary Evidence), or things that I really like that I’m not covering for someone else. That’s about as much as there is to say about it.

– Mat

Mat Smith is a music writer for Electronic Sound and Documentary Evidence. Occasional contributor to Clash, This Is Not Retro and Cold War Night Life. Press release writer for VeryRecords. Father, husband, vegan.