Roseaux

by Roseaux

Roseaux is one of the better albums I've bought in the last year.  It's a collection of ten songs performed by a group of French musicians, working under the tutelage and vision of producer Emile Omar.  The other musicians are cellist Clément Petit and Alex Finkin, a multi-instrumentalist.  They are joined on vocals by Aloe Blacc, who sings a number of covers that are both familiar and rendered anew.  Other various musicians show up as needed.

Musically, this is a sparse but very pretty album, recreating songs by artists as varied as The Police, Pearl Jam, Patti Labelle, and the Brazilian band Nazaré Peirera.  This album is interesting because all of these songs, from so many different traditions, end up sounding like they come from the same era and place.

Apparently these songs were recorded before the ones on Blacc's excellent Good Things album, and its interesting to here him sound so much quieter, and almost morose on some tracks.  This is a bluesy, soulful exploration.

This is a great album to sit back and relax to.  I don't think the cd has been released in North America yet (I ordered mine from France), but this is worth picking up in whatever format you can find.

Solidarity

by The Souljazz Orchestra

The Souljazz Orchestra's last album, Rising Sun, was a beautiful exploration of the two schools of music that make up the group's name, with a decidedly Ethiopian influence to it.  That album was firmly instrumental, and a move away from the more Fela Kuti-inspired afrobeat of their earlier work.

Now, with Solidarity, their new album, the band has evolved once again, while staying close to their roots.  They've constructed ten wonderful tracks which range from afrobeat to Caribbean and Brazilian inspired songs.  They've also invited a number of guests to join them, encompassing a number of different traditions.

Included on this album are artists from (or with parents from) Sénégal, Brazil, Jamaica, as well as Canadians steeped in North American jazz, soul, and Quebecois music.  In many ways, this band from Ottawa has put together a multi-lingual album which reflects the diversity and beauty of Canadian society.  It's all about Solidarity.

This is a fun album to listen to.  The band has a number of crowd-pleasing tracks, full of high energy, but also some that are more introspective and beautiful.  It's good stuff.

Look Around the Corner

by Quantic & Alice Russell with the Combo Bárbaro

It's taken me a long time to figure out where I stand on this album, which brings together the prolific Will Holland, best known as Quantic, with UK vocalist Alice Russell.

When I first heard this album, I wasn't happy with it at all.  I thought it was exceedingly dull, with only moments that shone through.  The more I listened to it though, the more my opinion changed.  I feel like this is an album that couldn't decide what it wanted to be, and it goes through a number of different shifts as it moves from the first track to the last.

The first four songs are just dull.  Russell takes Quantic's music, and makes out of it standard, ephemeral pop confections that do nothing for me.  With the fifth song, 'I'll Keep My Light in My Window', more promise starts to appear, but it is when that song ends and is followed by 'Una Tarde En Mariquita', an instrumental track, that I began to take notice.

I'm sure Russell has her fans, but the truth is, I bought this album for Quantic and the Combo Bábaro.  Their last album together was brilliant, and I wanted to see what they would do in a more pop-friendly setting.  As the disc proceeds past that sixth track, I feel that they are more and more in charge of things, and Russell is working to their ends.  'Su Suzy' is the high-point of this album, but from that track on, things are pretty good.

Owed to Mama Rickie and Seeds

by Georgia Anne Muldrow

Georgia Anne Muldrow has got to be the most prolific artist working in the soul/hip-hop/r&b field.  She's recently dropped two albums which go a long way to showcase her talent and unique vision.

Owed To Mama Rickie is a thirteen-track tribute to her mother, who is herself quite accomplished in the world of the arts.  This album, which is completely produced by Muldrow, contains a mixture of soulful songs and Muldrow's incredible beats.

The usual Muldrow themes are present throughout - the songs about God ('Mother, Father, God', 'Whollyspirit'), positivity ('Dr. Feelgood'), and philosophy ('Zulu (The Mind)').  There is a touching tribute to her partner Dudley Perkins ('Love Letter'), and a few playful tracks ('The Jump Rope Song' and 'Moonsong Lullabye').  There's even a dubstep interlude.

My favourite track on this album is 'More & More', which features guest vocals from Bilal, and is remixed as a bonus track.  In all, this is an album that shows Muldrow's range musically and in terms of her beliefs.

Seeds, which came out just after Owed, is a much dirtier, spacier offering, being completely produced by Madlib.  These are two artists who are perfect to work with one another, as they seem to challenge one another musically.

This album covers the same themes and ideas as the first, but is perhaps a little weirder, with songs like 'Kali Yuga' that simply repeat that god's name over and over, or 'The Birth of Petey Wheatstraw', which addresses the concept of 'original man'.  Muldrow's indefatigable positivism imbues every track on this album, like the lovely 'Best Love', which reassures listeners that 'we can make it better if we try.'

Dudley Perkins shows up to rap over one track ('The Few'), which always feels right.  This is one of the best, most consistent things that Madlib has done in a couple of years; he feels much more focused here than he did on his Medicine Show outings.  Both of these are essential albums.

Faithful Man

by Lee Fields

Lee Fields first caught my ear on some songs included on Truth & Soul's Falling Off the Reel compilations, and I enjoyed his singing.  Fields fits squarely with artists like Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, who are enjoying the resurgence of interest in soul music.

On Faithful Man, Fields gives us nine songs (and one interlude) that address the usual issues of soul music - titles like 'Faithful Man', 'I Still Got It', 'Who Do You Love', and 'It's All Over (But The Crying)' are timeless in their approach and presentation, unlike the music of an artist like Mayer Hawthorne.

Fields is joined by Leon Michels, of the El Michels Affair, on production and a variety of instruments.  Fields is backed by some great musicians, and there is a wonderful brass section on many of these tracks.  Nothing on this album is particularly groundbreaking or innovative, but it is very comfortable, and worth listening to repeatedly.

Original Raw Soul III

You can always count on Now-Again Records to bring together a quality album.  This is a seventeen-track compilation of mostly previously released music from different groups that were led by Jay and Max Whitefield, who today usually record under the name The Whitefield Brothers.

From Now-Again's site:

Original Raw Soul III looks back at recordings dating back over twenty years but never once sounds dated or dull. There’s the garage funk of the early Poets incarnation the Bus People Express; the deep jazz of vocalist Bajka gigging with a Max Whitefield ensemble; the pan-African psych-jazz of the Whitefield Brothers. And that’s just three of the ensembles contained within. Original Raw Soul III’s sixteen tracks that span the gamut of forty years of musical innovation, recorded over the past twenty years, and presented anew today.

I find this album very enjoyable, especially any of the tracks that feature Bajka's deep, lovely voice.  If you are a fan of funk, soul, or afro-rhythms, I recommend this disc fully. I mean, who can hate on an album featuring a band called Mercy Sluts?

Soul Time!

by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Sharon Jones's new album with the estimable Dap-Kings, Soul Time!, is her strongest to date.  On her previous albums, I've enjoyed her rich voice and the ability of the band, but things seem to click on this album in ways they haven't before.

Jones is making good use of her age and experience in life, allowing her perspective to come through clearly on tracks like 'Genuine' (which has two parts), or on 'Longer or Stronger'.  It's rare to find musical artists who a) admit to their age, and b) see the strengths inherent in that age.

Jones shows a little more social conscience on tracks like 'What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes?' and 'Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects', but really, this album is all about the soul and funk.  The band comes hard on every track, and together, we're given an album steeped in the past but very much a product of the present day.  Recommended.

True Soul Vol. 1 & 2

Deep Sounds From the Left of Stax

Now-Again records has to be my favourite boutique label.  With the True Soul collection (I'll discuss both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 here), label founder Egon has put together an amazing accounting of the work that came out of True Soul Records, an independent label which specialized in soul and funk during the 60s and 70s in Arkansas.

There is an impressive array of talent on these two CDs - much of which was never released before this came out.  There is work by York Wilborn's Psychedelic Six, The Conspiracy, The Leaders, Larry Davis, The Right Track, John Craig, Le'Chance, Albert Smith, Classic Funk, and more.  The best tracks on the compilations belong to Thomas East, who is incredible.

Each of these discs come in a hardcover book, with extensive liner notes.  In them, Egon talks about traveling to Little Rock while in college to meet Lee Anthony, the founder of the True Soul label.  He describes the impressive amount of work it took to get permission to issue this release, and he writes in a loving and respectful way of Anthony's accomplishments.  In many ways, I found this essay (included in both discs) to be the best part of the entire package.

As an added bonus, each album comes with a DVD that shows some TV appearances of the True Soul roster back in the day, with horrible TV production and all.  It's pretty charming and funky.  This is an amazing project.

No Time For Dreaming

by Charles Bradley

This album was another recommendation from my favourite music store, where once again I was happy to defer to someone with superior musical tastes.

No Time For Dreaming contains twelve tracks with vocals by Bradley (on most of them) and music by the Menahan Street Band .  Bradley looks to me a lot like Yaphet Kotto, had Kotto had a tougher life, and his lyrics on songs like "Why Is It So Hard?" echo that sentiment.

Many of the songs here, such as the title song, and 'The World (Is Going Up in Flames)' confirm the notion that life is difficult, but very much worth living.  Bradley's voice is soulful and rich, and this whole album sounds like it could have come from another era.

Madlib Medicine Show No. 10 - Black Soul

Mixed by Madlib

With this latest contribution to the Madlib Medicine Show, we get an exploration of mid-70's soul music, which is really more like pre-disco disco.

I'm not a huge fan of disco; in fact, I don't really like it at all, but Madlib can put together a good mix of just about anything, and this eighty minute survey of the era moves along at such a quick pace that it stays enjoyable throughout.

As with all of the even numbered, DJ mix installments of the Medicine Show, there is a lack of explanation as to what the listener is hearing, so tracking down any of the source material is just about impossible, but it's nice to view this whole thing as a complete piece of music.  I'm looking forward to the last few installments in this series.