Japanise 432 Hertz

Jah Wobble - Umbra Sumus (1998) {30 Hertz Records 30HZCD5}
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© 1998 30 Hertz Records | 30HZCD5
Experimental / Electronic / Indie Rock / Dub / Synth Pop / Experimental Rock / Worldbeat

The strange, spiritual album that is Umbra Sumus is one of the more interesting items released in 1998. Bassist and composer Jah Wobble creates strangely compelling soundscapes that draw textures from a variety of ethnic traditions without explicitly evoking any one of them. The first cut, "Il Jevedro il Oblanco," sets the pace with a duet for what sounds like a toy music box and fuzz bass, but suddenly becomes a lush electronica-pop track as vocalist Amila Sulejmanovic begins singing in Bosnian. Elsewhere, Natacha Atlas croons in Arabic over a texture not of ouds and doumbeks, but of synthesized percussion, keyboards, and Wobble's own throbbing bass, and it sounds perfectly natural.

Jah Wobble & Evan Parker - Passage To Hades (2001) {30 Hertz Records 30HZCD14}
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© 2001 30 Hertz Records | 30HZCD14
Experimental / Dub / Avant-Garde / Saxophone

Taking as their inspiration the Greek myth of Orpheus, European improv king Evan Parker (tenor and soprano saxophone) and Invaders of the Heart alumni Clive Bell and Jean-Pierre Rasle invest in a series of stark, repetitive bass and drum structures on Passage to Hades. At the music's core is the rhythm axis of Jah Wobble and Mark Sanders. The duo maps out the territory, delivering all that's required and more through minimal means. It's a refreshing change of scenery for Parker, who's normally heard in avant-garde ensembles or blazing solo performances. Here, he's confined to a stark, muscular groove and he responds beautifully. Like the later recordings by John Coltrane (an early influence), the saxophonist unleashes an abundance of dialog on his instruments, though he never quite reaches the torrents of sound one might expect.

The first full-length collection of Air remixes focuses solely on tracks from their sophomore 10,000 Hz Legend album, and only three individual songs at that. Highlights come from the "Don't Be Light" remixes, unsurprising since four of the seven versions are of that one song. It's worked over well by a pair of eccentrics: Neptunes from hip-hop and Mr. Oizo from electronica. The Hacker contributes a solid up-tempo electro version of the same song and newcomer Jack Lahana offers up a new-school funk reworking of "People in the City."

Jah Wobble & The Modern Jazz Ensemble - 7 (2011) {30 Hertz Records ‎30hzcd33}
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© 2011 30 Hertz Records ‎| 30hzcd33
Jazz / Electric Jazz / Fusion / Jazz Funk / Bass

This is right up there with the best of them; Miles, Zawinul, Arthur Blythe, Dave Brubeck et al. But its its own thing at the same time. It grooves hard. It just keeps coming at you. Like Mike Tyson. Boxes clever like Ali. Sean Corby reminds me of a young Donald Bird. George King cool and understated on keys. Marc Layton-Bennet is monster on kit. He just eats it up. Clive Bell studiously working his moves; interweaving and threading his flute melodies; bopping and weaving; jabbing and moving. Chris Cookson on guitar, thinking textural, floating just out of range. Jah Wobble on Bass ; orchestrating the moves….. still a contender. I saw this band in London last November. The BEST I have ever seen . Truly.

B-sides and rarities from the 2001 album 10 000 Hz Legend.

Claudio Arrau - Chopin (1991) {6CD Box Set Philips Classics 432 303-2}
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© 1991 Philips Classics | 432 303-2
Classical / Romantic / Piano

"Arrau's Chopin – now available in a six-CD box (Philips 432 303-2) as part of Philips's Arrau Edition – is as far from moonstruck "sentimentality" as any Chopin ever was. But no performance of the Preludes is more sentimental, in Schiller's sense, than the version Arrau recorded for Philips in 1973. Its premise – that the cycle is a grand tragedy, the darkest thing Chopin wrote – is unmistakable. Even the prefatory C-major Prelude heaves with orgasmic rubatos – more weight, it seems, than the music can possibly bear. And yet, as Arrau packs each small berth with a world of feeling, the weight grips and holds. At times, the sheer density of emotion can seem suffocatingly intense. The Prelude No. 22, a Stygian descent, is surely Hades; the plunging scales of No. 24 rip the thread of life."