The inspiration for this album came about from Ruby Hughes’ first collaboration with the Manchester Collective in the spring of 2020. During the first Covid lockdown, they built the programme of this recital for the purpose of touring the UK and uplifting their audiences at a time when we were all being confronted by challenging notions of mortality and isolation. As artists, they asked themselves what music might attend to the prevailing concerns of this time. Their answers came in the form of this offering. The title of this album, End of My Days, comes from Errollyn Wallen’s song; a resounding celebration of life that embraces death without regret or sadness but with great verve and acceptance. The other songs, each in its own way, evoke silence and separation, but also love and hope and even the reassurance that we will return whence we came and light shall lift us into eternity. The concluding song, Deborah Pritchard’s Peace, is a message of hope, willingly received as the world emerged out of lockdown in 2021. Luminous tranquillity moves us into the light, towards eternity.
Everybody know that novelty bands have a hard time growing up, but the Presidents of the United States of America made a large leap toward that during their re-formation of 2000, with Freaked Out and Small demonstrating a decrease in their stylized silliness mellowed into something more genuine. It wasn't that the band rocked less, but their humor seemed less forced, a development that continued on 2004's Love Everybody. Evolution continues to be the name of the game on their 2008 follow-up These Are the Good Times People, as the group replaces departing guitarist (and founding member) Dave Dederer with Andrew McKeag, while they bring Seattle underground mainstay Kurt Bloch in as producer, all elements that help make These Are the Good Times People perhaps their most eclectic album to date.
Since they started in the early 1970’s, ECM has been giving the world one excellent jazz piano disc after another–significant names include Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, and Paul Bley, more recently Anat Fort, Bo Stenson, and now Julia Hulsmann. Leading a trio on her ECM debut, THE END OF SUMMER, Hulsman displays a graceful, muted, and melancholy air. In the manner of Stenson and Bley, Hulsmann expresses maximum emotion and mood using the fewest (but well-placed) notes. Unlike the aforementioned gentlemen however, Hulsmann favors almost folk-like, affable, and concise melodies. Her bassist and drummer seem subdued at times, but they’re constantly lending the tunes a sense of forward motion.
The Nearest Faraway Place Vol. 1 (2008). Voices from unknown lands, the call of endless space and the pulse of our time are interlaced in the music of Gert Emmens. It is cosmic and at the same time it is very earthy. And his music is a very powerful. It infects the listener with its vivid energy. This album brings feelings of freshness and simultaneously recalls the best samples of classical electronic music. It has a strong melodical basis around which the composer draws up his improvisations. One hour and eleven minutes run very insensibly with the colorful music of Gert Emmens. His album "Nearest Faraway Place Volume 1" is undoubtedly not just an addition to the artist’s rich discography but also to the collection of any ambient/electronic music lover. It is a creative perception of our contradictory and rapidly changing world…
Flica is an electro-acoustic outfit produced by Euseng Seto from the evolving music scene of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Born in 1982, he begun his exquisite journey in conceptualizing and producing delicate home-brew music since 2005 with his first electronica duo project muxu with member Huat Liang. Having realized the need to explore further and experiment with his own music style, Euseng Seto started Flica in early 2007, solely crafting and producing music on his own. As a result, the subtle sounds that Flica creates are exceptionally melodic and uncomplicated, which perfectly mirroring his perceptions towards daily personal feelings on life and nature…
A CD accompaniment to the Eagle Rock live DVD release of ZZ Top's November 1, 2007 set at the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, TX, Live from Texas is one for the fans - a latter-day live record that's by no means embarrassing but not very captivating, either. The set list is hits-heavy, containing every one of the MTV hits from Eliminator and all the classic rock radio staples, all taken just a little bit slower than they were on record. That combined with the crystal clear production makes the band seem just a little bit sluggish at times, but they can still churn out a boogie - "Sharp Dressed Man" in particular cooks - and Billy Gibbons' guitar still snarls as much as his voice growls, which is enough to make this worth a listen for longtime fans.