MUSIC | Records
JAZZ & WORLD JAZZ TOM BANCROFT: TRIO RED Lucid Dreamers (Interrupto) ●●●●●
With this second album, Tom Bancroft: Trio Red has really hit its stride. The Scottish drummer has developed a great rapport with pianist Tom Cawley and bassist Per Zanussi, successfully integrating diverse musical elements into a distinctive sound. ‘Saturday Afternoon (With Sophie)’ is a delight, with its breezy air and infectious calypso bounce, while the tripartite title track deftly moves from delicate balladry to abstract rumination via a thunderous free improvisation. JAZZ PETER BRÖTZMANN & HEATHER LEIGH Ears Are Filled with Wonder (Not Two / Trost) ●●●●●
European free-jazz titan Peter Brötzmann and Glasgow-based pedal steel maverick Heather Leigh have become a formidable duo since their debut at Tectonics 2015. Ears Are Filled with Wonder is a different beast to that super-heavy first date, with Leigh's woozily psychedelic guitar bringing out Brötzmann's lyrical loverman side. It's still an intense listen but the quieter passages will leave you breathless with their twilit beauty.
JAZZ FIRE! ORCHESTRA Ritual (Rune Grammofon) ●●●●●
Fire! Orchestra's 2014 album Enter was a not- entirely-successful attempt to channel the free-form excitement of their debut into a jazz-rock suite. Ritual is blessedly free from Simon Ohlsson's hammy vocals, but it doesn't quite resolve its predecessor's structural issues. The brooding psych-rock riffs that serve the core Fire! trio so well don't get the space to breathe in a big-band setting, while the rock-opera elements sound rather clunky next to the free improvisations. With major talent in the front line, Fire! Orchestra can summon a wailin' pound of sound, but Ritual is less than the sum of its parts. WORLD FUMAÇA PRETA Impuros Fanáticos 1973–79 (Soundway) ●●●●●
Fumaça Preta's 2014 debut was a riot of demented psychedelic rock and Afro-Brazilian rhythms, with acid house and free jazz thrown in for good measure. There's more method to mastermind Alex Figueira's madness on Impuros Fanáticos, with songs honed to reflect the band's live shows. ‘Baldonero’ invents Caribbean doom metal, its grooves topped with Cookie Monster growls, while on ‘La Trampa’ the Lebanese surf-rock of Omar Khorshid is hotwired to organ-led garage fuzz.
WORLD KONONO NO 1 MEETS BATIDA Congotronics 6 (Crammed Discs) ●●●●●
Lisbon is home to some of the world's most exciting electronic music, with artists such as DJ Marfox creating mutations of house, techno and West African dance genres like kuduro. It makes sense then that Kinshasa's mighty Konono No 1 should pay a visit to the Portuguese capital to bring some of that energy to their own music. Batida, aka producer Pedro Conquenão, underlines Konono's amplified likembe thumb pianos, hand drums and chants with contemporary club sounds, orienting their ecstatic trance music towards the dancefloor. Joyous.
WORLD ELZA SOARES The Woman at the End of the World (Mais Um Discos) ●●●●●
This album teams singer Elza Soares with musicians from the São Paulo avant-garde for a stunning collection of experimental samba sujo (‘dirty samba’). Brazilian grooves meet art-rock, electronics and jazz horns on a powerful set of songs about racism, domestic abuse, drug addiction and environmental degradation. Soares' deep, raspy voice is by turns fierce, righteous, sarcastic and sensual. Highlights include the hard rolling neo-Afrobeat of ‘Firmeza’ and the elegant chamber pop lament of ‘Solto’. (All reviews by Stewart Smith) 86 THE LIST 7 Apr–2 Jun 2016
EXPOSURE
P H O T O
: J O H N D U N C A N
131 NORTHSIDE
This enigmatic hip-hop group from Edinburgh embellish their high-energy performances with psychedelic visual displays. We caught up with them following the release of their debut EP to talk auto-tune, rapping in the capital and next steps
On their music Our music is a tribute to our own personal lives and to the future; it’s mostly driven by emotion and the subconscious mind. We’ve created a sound that resonates with the internet age, blending a mixture of new age genres and street culture.
On using live auto-tuned vocals in their shows Just as you would never see Jimi Hendrix on stage without a guitar, you won’t see us performing without our instruments of choice. Our live performances are just as important to us as every single song we release. On their name 131 is just the area code for Edinburgh without the zero, but on a deeper level it sums up everything we stand for: it’s our city and our country. We want the globe to know that Scotland is a melting pot for young forward-thinking creatives who are breaking boundaries.
On making rap music in Edinburgh We don't make ‘rap’ music; we just make what comes naturally to us without the boundaries of sticking to genres. In terms of being working artists in Edinburgh, it has been very hard. There’s a lack of platforms and almost no support or opportunities for us to create and express ourselves in the way we want to. This has given us the self-belief and determination to build our own platform.
On the future We have our first headline show at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh (Sun 17 Apr), in conjunction with Glasgow collective Too NICE and with support from No Rent. We want to build new ventures with like- minded creatives, whether that is music, fashion, design or cinema. (As told to Sam Bradley) ■ 131 Northside's self-released debut EP, Digital Memories, is out now.