Category: Album Reviews

June 3, 2015 / Album Reviews - Archive

1966 (Sarang Bang) What a rare treasure! Few would dispute that Bernie McGann was the most distinctive jazz musician Australia has produced, and this provides a chance to hear how fully-formed that singularity was back in 1966. Although his two tracks on the 1967 Jazz Australia album might have already…

May 23, 2015 / Album Reviews - Archive

90 ͦ Degrees of Shade (Soul Jazz) Islands foster not only unique fauna, but distinctive musical forms. This double-album compilation, subtitled Hot Jump-Up Island Sounds From the Caribbean, covers the vibrant output of Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and more – all sharing the collision of European,…

May 16, 2015 / Album Reviews - Archive

The Shining Sea (Audioguy) A guitar and a voice may sound as unremarkable a combination as supermarket cheese and yesterday’s bread, but not the way Ben Monder and Sunny Kim do it. The American guitarist and Korean singer have taken the format’s innate intimacy, intertwined it with the deep mutual…