Swimming

Lalo Schifrin - Dirty Harry (1971) {Aleph Records 030 rel 2004)
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© 1971, 2004 Aleph Records 030
Jazz / Stage & Screen / Jazz Funk / Fusion

Flush with popular successes that spanned film (the Oscar nominated score for Cool Hand Luke Bullitt ) and TV (the Grammy-winning Mission: Impossible, Mannix) Argentine-born composer Lalo Schifrin infused director Don Siegel's original, epochal Dirty Harry with one of the 70's most riveting, consistently original jazz-fusion scores. It was also one that, until now, was only available in mono-mixed snippets on obscure compilations; this release marks the full-score's first, three-decade-overdue release (remixed in stereo for the first time and including alternate takes).

Songwriter and pianist Anne Clark has been a cult figure since the early '80s and has amassed a rather sizable catalog despite her small but rabid following. She writes nearly-Gothic love songs full of obsession and pathos, and pretty orchestral settings with clever instrumental figures and stinging piano runs and minor-key epiphanies. She's a consummate artist, playing to her strengths while trying to subtly, but surely, extend her reach, and always following her own muse, even when it takes her into dissonant territory. Most of her albums are out of print even on CD, and sell for collector's prices when they can be found. This is too bad, because Clark has assembled a solid, if quirky, and passionately honest body of work. This best-of issued by Beehive is truly that. It features 24 tracks and clocks in at over 75 minutes. Many of these are Clark's most lovely songs, such as "The Sitting Room," "All Night Party" (with Vini Reilly of Durutti Column), the "12" remix" of "Our Darkness," and "The Last Emotion," as well as instrumental themes such as "Swimming" and "An Ordinary Life".

Building on the sound paintings and battle-cries of her first two albums, Anna Calvi unleashes high drama and feverish passion in the act of liberation.

Cafe Del Marr Jazz maintains the reputation the Cafe Del Mar series has as a leader in chilled out, late evening, cocktails at sunset-type music. Here we have a jazzy twist on the theme. The vibe stays generally mellow but still throws in plenty of beat and percussion along with some gentle funk here and there, an occasional 50's feel, Enigma-type whisperings and quirky voiceovers - in other words plenty of variation and mood without straying too far from the dreamy feel-good laidback vibe Cafe del Mar is known.
There are lots of moods represented here. Kraak & Smaak's Danse Macabre is a kind of Mobyesque take on jazz with repeated slightly disembodied vocals appearing amongst the instrumentation…

Celebrating 40 years since her first release, Full Moon – the Complete Collection is a strictly limited edition and brings together all of Judie's releases since that time for the very first time along with an exclusive 24th CD that contains outtakes, alternative versions and live tracks.

Steve Jansen - Slope (2014) {3CD Set Burning Shed Digisleeve Edition bshed 1305} (ft. David Sylvian)
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© 2013-2014 Burning Shed / Steve Jansen | bshed 1305
Experimental / Experimental Electronic / Avant-Garde / Ambient / Alternative

Released to highly positive reviews in 2007, Slope was the debut album from Steve Jansen (Japan / Rain Tree Crow). Exhibiting a bold combination of inventive rhythms, intricate programming and emotive vocal performances, the album features guest contributions from an impressive line-up including David Sylvian, Tim Elsenburg (Sweet Billy Pilgrim), Joan Wasser (Joan As Policewoman), Thomas Feiner, Anja Garbarek, Nina Kinert, and Theo Travis. As Jansen explains, "With Slope, I approached composition attempting to avoid chord and song structures and the usual familiar building blocks. Instead, in an attempt to deviate from my own trappings as a musician, I wanted to piece together unrelated sounds, music samples, rhythms and 'events'."