Dionne Brand Ossuaries

By the time the Brand New Heavies released Shelter in 1997, urban R&B was shifting toward the more organic grooves that they helped pioneer in the early '90s. Although the Heavies were into acid jazz as well, they smoothed over many of the experimental elements of their music in the mid-'90s, leaving behind a seductive, earthy, and jazzy variation of urban soul. That provided the foundation for Shelter, their first album featuring Siedah Garrett as lead singer. Garrett's smooth voice helps push the band toward more conventional territory, yet their songwriting is stronger than most of the contemporaries, and their sound is funkier and more convincing. While there are no standout singles on Shelter, it's a uniformly engaging listen, illustrating that the Brand New Heavies are one of the great underrated urban R&B bands of the '90s.

Lest the momentum of Moroccan Roll and its relative chart success go to waste, Brand X released a stopgap solution with Livestock, featuring three recent live tracks and two stockpiled studio tracks that actually predate the Moroccan Roll sessions by two months…

A collection including nine of the ten tracks from the Brand New Heavies' self-titled debut album, plus three tracks recorded live in Tokyo, In Tha Beginning… is a fresh look at the acid jazz group's first recordings. Entrenched in England's rare-groove scene at the time, the Brand New Heavies were a tight unit that fused dexterous instrumental jazz-funk with just a touch of P-Funk bounce for club audiences. The results, on "Dream Come True," "People Get Ready," and the instrumental highlight "BNH," are great examples of acid jazz.

Recorded before the release of the Brand X debut Unorthodox Behavior, these 1975-1976 recordings represent the earliest known preservations of the group's beginnings. These are quality recordings that include previously unavailable material. The shining talent and genius of this, the most important of Brit jazz-fusion groups, comes through brightly. Brand X has long been a "musicians' band" where the fretwork of John Goodsall, percussion of Phil Collins, keyboard techniques of Robert Lumley, and bass of Percy Jones inspire others to greater attainment. Still, no music degree is required to appreciate this invigorating, unforgettable music that still sounds remarkably fresh and forward thinking. Over 50 minutes of stunning exploration is contained in the original quintet's six never-before-heard songs. Even after 20 years, Brand X remains in its incipient form the final word in guitar-based progress jazz-rock.