Adrian O'sullivan

"Belewprints" is billed as "The Acoustic Adrian Belew, Volume Two", but its a bit different than the first one. The first record featured pieces with Belew playing acoustic guitar and vocals only, this record features more arranged pieces, with the constraint that all the instruments had to be acoustic (with one exception)…

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the first recordings of church music by Ian King composed for, and performed by, Gloucester Cathedral Choir. Led by the Cathedral’s Director of Music, Adrian Partington, with Nia Llewelyn Jones, conductor of the Girls’ Choristers, and Assistant Director of Music Jonathan Hope as organist, the choir presents first recordings of 11 works composed between 2012 and 2020 by Ian King.

Brian Jackson JID008 is the first full album released by the great man in 20 years and it's a testament to his multifaceted talents that while there are moments throughout that hint at his game-changing history and track record, for the most part it reveals a musician whose considerable lessons learned from the past only serve to keep his eyes firmly fixed on the future. It's a masterclass in unbridled and open-minded creativity, no different from what Brian did half a century ago. The ease and comfort with which his ideas integrate with those of musicians a generation younger than him bears this out. To listen to this album is to hear a hot up-and-coming musician who also happens to be a major jazz-funk legend.

Rudy Adrian keeps on surprising the listener with his excellent blend of retro-electronic music and ambient soundscapes. In the USA, people now also had the opportunity of seeing this special musician live because he toured there in 2002. The result, "Concerts in the USA", contains perhaps the best music the New Zealander has produced until this moment.
The CD opens with "Japanese Garden" with beautiful atmospheres, which accompany Rudy’s dark voice and a big, Vangelis-like, solo. Then the sequences enter the music in "The Donner Pass Rail Corridor". They become heavier and heavier as the piece further progresses and Adrian gets the chance to put in even more solos…

Doug's newest project, his entry in the Jazz Is Dead album series helmed by Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, takes his unique and timeless art and places it within the context of a musical culture that has always taken cues from his 70s classics. There's no mistaking the musical mind that created legendary albums like Infant Eyes and Adam's Apple, but the encounter of that with the distinctive jazz-hip hop-funk-noir that is the Younge/Muhammad/JID trademark creates something worthy of comparison to Carn's past work but which could only have been made right now. One can detect nods to musical motifs by Carn's jazz peers that have served as frequent sample fodder, but his compositional and improvisational integrity remain indisputable throughout.

Unless you’re in deep the music way, the name Adrian Belew might not ring a bell. Truth of the matter is that Adrian Belew was the secret weapon to the biggest names in music for the better part of nearly 5 decades; Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, and Trent Reznor are just a handful of artists Mr. Belew lent his skills to on some of the biggest albums of the last 50 years. And that’s not even the most amazing thing about this man. He was the singer/guitarist for the 80s return of King Crimson as well as having a prolific solo career, spending time equally in the experimental and power pop side of things. At 70-years old Adrian Belew shows no signs of stopping. His new album Elevator is a beautiful and clanging ode to his work as both a mad scientist behind the six string, as well as his ability to write gorgeous pop songs in the vein of Lennon/McCartney.

Adrian Belew used his third release to blatantly demonstrate his love and talent for avant-garde guitar work, but many of the tracks on Desire Caught By the Tail take his passion for boisterous distortion, warped notes, thick sound, and highly experimental playing methods into absurdity…