Lloyd Miller /The Heliocentrics (OST)

by Lloyd Miller and the Heliocentrics

I picked this up a while ago, and have spent a lot of time with it, just taking it in.  The Heliocentrics, with their last album, introduced me to Mulatu Astatke, and for that I am eternally grateful to them.

With this new project, the group has paired up with Lloyd Miller, another artist I was completely unfamiliar with before listening to the album.  The Stones Throw website refers to Mr. Miller as a "ethnomusicologist, jazz maestro and multi-instrumentalist", and I suppose that's a valid description.

I notice, when listening to this, a number of Eastern influences in the music, which is absolutely lovely.  This is a pretty quiet album, which floats its way around the room.  I find that I zone out a lot while listening to this, although the track "Lloyd's Diatribe" always brings me back, as Miller rants a little about things that he doesn't like about the modern world.

I highly recommend this album if you like ethno-jazz.

Inspiration Information

by Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics

This album features the legendary Ethiopian bandleader Mulatu Astatke, alongside the Heliocentrics, laying down what the sticker on the front of the album calls an "Ethio-jazz hybrid".

Whatever labels you might want to give these fourteen tracks, they are very cool. The African vibe is felt most clearly in the opening piece, "Masenqo", but throughout the album, you can feel the influence of a foreign culture and sensibility.

This is a lively, lovely album, which I feel will get a lot of play from me over the course of the summer. Highly recommended.

Out There

by The Heliocentrics

It's interesting to me, how cyclical my musical tastes can be. I first started listening to hip-hop in middle school, but became bored of it in the early 90s, and made the switch to electronica - the less dancey the better. As I finished university, I had become exhausted with that genre, and found that there was fertile ground in the underground hip-hop scene.

Lately, I have been finding myself going back to funk and jazz with a slightly electronic feel (like some trance music, played with live instruments). This album more or less fits into that genre for me. It's smooth and easy on the ears, being exactly the type of thing that I have come to expect from Egon's Now-Again label.

I bought this in anticipation of the new Heliocentrics album, with Mulatu Astkake, when I discovered that HMV's $6.99 Stones Throw promotion was still on. It was definitely a worth-while purchase.