cHANTAL cLARET

cHANTAL cLARET

Stream: ‘Pop Pop Bang Bang’:http://goo.gl/wYjCC4

“Imagine Tina Turner fronting Outkast at Bette Midler’s bat mitzvah.”

               

That’s how singer-songwriter Chantal Claret describes her solo debut The One, The Only…, a stunning album that swings with retro rhythmic swagger and songs that feel like revitalized Motown gems. Co-written and co-produced by Chantal, the album is meaty, beaty, big and bouncy, with Chantal putting a modern twist on early '60s femme-pop. "I wanted to make music that sounds like it could've been written in the '60s or '70s, but with a big fat hip-hop-like low end," she says. "Luckily for me, a lot of amazing people came together to help me pull it off--not because they were looking for a payday, but because they believed in the songs and that means everything to me. I hustled my ass off to make this record happen. I'm really proud of it and hope people have as much fun listening to it as I had making it." Chantal enlisted the likes of Rob Kleiner (David Guetta, Cee-Lo), Pigeon John, Lionshare, Mher Filian and mixer Mark “Exit” Goodchild (Erykah Badu, Cee-Lo) to help bring her musical vision to life.

For more visithttp://chantalclaret.com or contactjamie@cannonballpr.com

Trichotomy - Strom *Free Download*

Trichotomy are one of the coolest jazz bands on the planet right now. Their new, brilliant album, Fact Finding Mission, releases on February 4th. In the run up to the release, and the band's forthcoming UK tour, the band have released the storming Strom as a free download.

You should go here to get it: Trichotomy "Strom" Free Download Link

Catch the band on tour at the following dates:

Trichotomy: ‘Fact Finding Mission’ UK Tour 2013

05/02    MILTION KEYNES                                  The Stables                    

www.stables.org
06/02    LONDON                                                   Pizza Express Jazz          

www.pizzaexpresslive.com
07/02    DORKING                                                  Watermill jazz              

 www.watermilljazz.co.uk
08/02    BURY ST EDMUNDS                              The Apex                          

www.theapex.co.uk
09/02    SOUTHAMPTON                                     Turner Sims                  

www.turnersims.co.uk
10/02    CARDIFF                                                   Café Jazz                            www.cafejazzcardiff.com
12/02    CORNWALL                                             St Ives Jazz Club                                 www.stivesjazzclub.com

13/02    NOTTINGHAM                                         Lakeside Arts Centre  

www.lakesidearts.org.uk
14/02    LEEDS                                                        7 Arts                                  

www.sevenleeds.co.uk 
15/02    MANCHESTER                                         Matt n’ Phreds              

www.mattandphreds.com

www.trichotomymusic.com
www.naimjazz.com

The Good The Bad "034"

The Good The Bad were one of my favourite musical discoveries of last year. I was pleasantly surprised earlier on today to receive news from their PR that they have returned with a new album. It doesn't seem five minutes since the last one to be honest, but who am I to quibble. This is one of the "funnest" bands in Europe. No doubt. If you want the evidence of the continued growth and greatness of these instrumental genii, watch the video for new single "034" below.

'034' (The Film) by The Good The Bad from The Good The Bad on Vimeo.

Billy Vincent - Dead Man's Shoes Video showcase

Billy Vincent to showcase their new video for ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ tonight

Billy Vincent release the second single from their debut album ‘She’ on August 20^th through Something Nothing Records.

Highlighted in Paul Moody’s excellent review in Q Magazine as “conjuring up visions of a debauched Mumfords”, ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ embodies the heady mix of influences that makes their debut album ‘She’ such an intriguing delight.

Centered around the fabulously playful lyrics of Billy Barratt - “If I was a preacher, I’d get Jesus to meet ‘cha……” - and an irresistible chorus, Dead Man’s Shoes initially embraces a country flavour, embellished beautifully by the guest appearance of pedal steel legend B J Cole, before heading into territory inhabited byThe Kinks or The Faces.

The video for ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ was directed by Brendan Cleaves and can be seen just above this.

Billy Vincent will be breaking into their festival schedule (placed at No1 in The Evening Standard’s “must see this summer” list), to headline Club NME at London’s Koko on July 27^th to celebrate ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ release.

Billy Vincent are: Billy Barratt & David Vincent – vocals, guitars; Joseph Kinsey – bass, harmonica, vocals; Matt Woodward – fiddle, vocals; Jack Blenkinsop – drums, vocals.

Duke Special - Oh Pioneer

There are things you need to hold in mind when reading my musings on Oh Pioneer, the newest record from Duke Special. One is that, secretly (to this point, although it's not a secret anymore) I wish I was him. Who wouldn't want to have hair like that? Who wouldn't want to write songs as distinctive and devilishly melodic, so poignant and yet so playful? Further, as someone with a history of faith, Duke has inspired me more than most in having the guts to step outside the horrors of the faith-driven music scene and simply be the best songwriter he can be in the same, over-populated pool as everyone else. It's been a long journey, from 65DBA and Spring Harvest CDs, through Booley, Booley House (both brilliant live acts, criminally under appreciated by the soporific British scene, through to Benzine Headset, and then through what seems like a journey as Duke, from the early days with a piano, a turntable, and the monumentally talented Chip Bailey on drums and percussion as singer songwriter class and theatric whimsy collided, to this point where Oh Pioneer places the Duke on the brink of richly deserved household recognition.

It's what he deserves. And he should get it too. Oh Pioneer features some of his best songs to date, including the splendid Punch of a Friend and My Lazy Saviour. This is Duke's most direct, even accessible album to date, but it loses none of the drama, the twists and turns that have characterised his earlier work. I remember early gigs in which he upstaged supposedly more established and proficient acts for whom he was opening in a whirlwind of wonderful songs and energetic performances. This is the album which, at last, sees him fully realise his potential in the studio to go alongside that. These songs showcase all that is great about Duke Special, a wonderful, lilting, lyrical vocal performance  sits atop production which encompasses both space and the kitchen sink in bringing the songs, and the world which Duke and his team have created, fully to life.

This is a great record. You will fall in love with it, and with Duke Special, if you just give yourself the chance. Hear it now.

Foreign Slippers - Farewell to the Old Ghosts

"Welcome to the world of Foreign Slippers, where flocks of scratchy birds fly over enchanted forests full of cloth dogs and mercurial musicians, while a bewitching voice sings lullabies to the icy sky…"


So begins the press release for this brilliant new album, one of the finest singer-songwriter albums 2012 has so far had to offer. If it wasn't so, well, spot on, you could dismiss it as pretentious nonsense, but one listen to this intense, sometimes unsettling, but always wonderful and ultimately uplifting record renders the description perfect.


Foreign Slippers, the brainchild of Gabi Froden are yet another band you need to know about this year. Current touring mates of Duke Special, an artist who ploughs a similar furrow to Froden's ethereal and yet indulgent songs, theirs is an album sure to take up residence in the end of year best of lists of the discerning listener. Not as immediate as some people might like, lacking in pithy, singalong choruses it may be, but Farewell to the Old Ghosts is chock full of invention, creativity and musical nous. I am sold. Completely sold. The world needs more songwriters who aren't afraid to push boundaries, to try things. And not just to try things, but to winningly, spectacularly succeed whilst doing so.


There are a lot of great songs here. I particularly loved the pulse of Under Your Ribs, while the more restrained Two People in You is a thing of beauty which must go down a storm live. This is a consistent album for certain, not one to be easily penetrated on first listen, but one to be lived with, to grow in to. Take the time, you won't regret it. Watch the video for the brilliant title track below, and be sure to buy this record!

Neil Cowley Trio + Mount Molehill Strings, CBSO Centre Birmingham 13.4.12 Live Review

Sitting at my desk, around 10 hours after arriving home from Birmingham, I'm faced with the task of putting last night in to words. It will be a tough ask. Neil Cowley, Evan Jenkins, Rex Horan and Julian Ferraretto's inspired Mount Molehill Strings did things to me last night that very few live acts can manage these days, or in fact ever have. Rather than give a song by song rundown of the night's wonderful and epic proceedings, I want to focus on a few key aspects of the sheer brilliance of Neil Cowley Trio and their approach to the craft of live music.

Earlier in the year, I had the privilege and joy of reviewing the band's new album, The Face of Mount Molehill. Featuring new double bassist Rex Horan, a full on string section, and guitar-toting legend Leo Abrahams, the album was the fullest realisation yet of Cowley's widescreen vision and potential. So strong, in fact, was said album, that I was slightly nervous to see one of my favourite live bands again. How would the songs and sounds translate to the live stage? Would the playful beauty, sheer energy and sometimes visceral attack of the previous live trio be translated to the larger ensemble format? Would they play Clumsy Couple? (A personal favourite). I needn't have worried.

Right from the first strains of opener Lament (once the ever-present Lizard had been placed atop the piano, surveying his estate for the evening), the audience were swept along in a whirlwind journey of emotion. I've never known a band who can provoke such joy in their audience one minute, as with the wonderful closing of How Do We Catch Up, whilst in almost the next breath reducing them to eyes-closed reverie with a slice of melodic beauty like Skies Are Rare. These are songs about spiders who live at the bottom of the garden, men who look like greyhounds, or, more seriously, historical documents at the emotion at the sickness of a newborn daughter, and somehow, without the aid (or should that be hindrance) of lyrics, the desired emotional connection is made time and again.

Second, the musicianship. Oh the musicianship. Every track here had something special. All built on rock-solid foundations of melody, and the kind of chordal structure most writers can only dream of, Jenkins and Horan's flourishes of colour turn each piece in to an opportunity to marvel at the possibilities when a trio are as in sync with one another as these three. The playful glances, winks and smiles between the band members as each song grew and moved, requiring each member to up their game and improvise, within the structures of the original piece, were a joy to behold. These are masters of their instruments, serious musicians, cutting loose and having a little fun, whilst at every step paying homage and respect to their craft and heritage. As someone who writes songs and plays in bands, I am left awed by the free-flowing wonder of how this band connects with each other. The journey it seems they take together, and which they lead the audience on.

It's hard to pick out favourite moments, although the trio of Meyer, Fable and The Face of Mount Molehill which closed the main set, were special. Fable, especially, showcased the sheer depth and breadth of the rhythm section's' power as the ever-changing time signatures came and went with nary an upward glance, before descending into an almost Metalica-like, upright bass-led cacophony to close. Wonderful. Encoring with Clumsy Couple and She Eats Flies, two older tracks, which stood up wonderfully alongside the newer material, was a fine way to finish a wonderful evening. And as the last strains of She Eats Flies rang out, I was left to reflect that I would quite happily do it all again tomorrow, surely the best advert I can give to a band I would say are the best live band I've ever seen.

Find out more about this wonderful band here. Please do check out their new album, The Face of Mount Molehill. In fact, buy a copy of everything they've ever put out if you can. A truly wonderful band.

See the brilliant video for Fable here:

14 April, SOUTHAMPTON, Turner Sims
15 April, CORK, Triskel Christchurch
26 April, BRISTOL, St Georges
28 April, POLAND, Jazz Club Hipnoza
10 May, PARIS, New Morning
11 May, BRUSSELS, AB Club
12 May, AMSTERDAM, MC Theater
16 June, NORWAY, Midtsommer Jazz Fest
29 June, GLASGOW, Jazz Festival
01 July, MOSTLY JAZZ FEST, Birmingham
06 July, MONTREAL JAZZ FEST, Can

The Good The Bad "023"

The Good The Bad are one of the most exciting bands I've come across in the last few months. Their newest release, "From 018-033" follows debut album "From 001-017." You can see where they're going with the song titles can't you. If all they had going for them were quirky approaches to the naming of songs, things would be all the more mundane, but The Good The Bad offer plenty more than that. An intriguing, heady mix of raucous, riotous rock and roll, their classic takes on vintage tones and rhythms are given added potency by the fact the the songs are instrumental, a neat trick, which draws attention to their songwriting prowess all the more clearly. "From 018-033" is a different album that is very much worth your time.

Check out the video for "023" here:


'023' by The Good The Bad from The Good The Bad on Vimeo.


Buy the album here: The Good The Bad Online Store

Neil Cowley Trio "The Face of Mount Molehill"

Neil Cowley Trio

The Face of Mount Molehill

Naim Jazz

January 23^rd 2012

In these times of throwaway pop strumpets and vacuous candy-coated marketing strategies dressed up as entertainment, it might come as a surprise to find that the restoration of my faith in modern British music would come from an instrumental jazz power trio. Ok, well perhaps it doesn't, but still, hear this: Neil Cowley and his Trio are the best band you've never heard of. Their new record, “The Face of Mount Molehill” is already my favourite for best album of 2012, before the year's even started and, to top it all off, you'll have the best time you've ever had at a show sitting down if you go and watch them on their forthcoming Spring tour.

Enticed yet? You should be. This is Neil Cowley Trio's fourth album, following the progressively more excellent “Displaced”, “Loud.. Louder... Stop!” and “Radio Silence”. Once described as providing “jazz for Radiohead fans” by Mojo, here the band have expanded their sonic palette beyond the trio of Cowley's piano, the effervescent double bass of Richard Sadler, and Evan Jenkins' shape-shifting drums, to include strings which shimmer and pulse throughout the record, alongside flourishes of guitar effects and soundscapes, to produce an exhilirating whole.

Without doubt this is their bsst work, drawing on all the (many) strengths of their previous output, and taking each of them to their logical extreme. It's a joyous romp through three quarters of an hour of technical brilliance, allied to a playful creativity, sense of adventure and simple, sheer joy, which is so sadly lacking as 2011 draws to a close.

One of Cowley's triumphs is the way in which, melodically and harmonically, the songs are so daring, and yet, at all times, maintain an accessability which will have you moving multiple body parts just to keep up with the competing polyrhythms, twists and turns. Neil Cowley Trio may be the only bombastic jazz trio whose songs you'll hum in the shower. Shower jazz. Perhaps a new genre is born.

Usually, reviews are peppered with comments on particlar songs, outlining which are the best three or four perhaps, giving the impression that the other songs don't really offer much. In our suck it and see culture, arrowing in on the key moments of a record seems like the desired approach. To do so with “The Face of Mount Molehill” would be to miss out. This is a suite of songs to be consumend whole, a proper album in the true sense of the word. Right from the openeing, restrained washes of “Lament” through to the epic closing moments of 'La Porte' and 'Sirens Last Look Back' this is a record to listen to in one sitting, to sit back and marvel at. Justice would only be served if Neil Cowley Trio's Spring tour is a sold out portent of greater glories to come.

You owe it to yourself to pick this up on January 23^rd.

With thanks to Simon Drake at Naim and Kev Marston at Canonball PR