Meditative Reflections, And All That Jazz

Starring

44th Move, Jim Noir, Jon Hopkins, Patrick Shiroishi and Piotr Kurek, This Is The Kit

The Front Runners

Emergency : Jim Noir

This gorgeous 23 minute EP captures Jim Noir’s dreamy pop at its best.

These are songs that have been left off of previous releases because of running time constraints. Don’t think for one moment that’s a polite way of saying they weren’t good enough to make the cut. Taken together they represent his most consistently strong body of work yet.

Noir has always produced twee classics, ‘Eenie Meanie’, and ‘My Patch’ to name two early examples. His collaboration with Leonore Wheatley as Co-Pilot was one of 2023’s hidden gems. He’s expanded his sound over time to include a light touch of psychedelia and alternative pop, but now he’s found something special.

On this album Noir has added a healthy splash of soft and chilled Balearic rhythms to his delightful pop and it’s a holiday romance made in Heaven. ‘Out Of Sight’ is one of those lovely songs that brings a relaxed groove to carry you away. So is ‘Page 180’, a tune that will help your aches and pains, stresses and strains to melt away. The seductive indie pop of ‘Fine’ is a delight as is the looped, rolling melody of ‘Chevy to Levvy’.

So why won’t these songs be heard from every radio in the land this Summer? I guess one reason is that’s just not their style. There’s a touch of blissful library music in the mix, as if they’re scared to reach out to grab your attention but are politely waiting to be noticed. This is vivid dream music, the kind you wake from with a smile on your face but, in those early moments, you can’t quite recollect why. It’s also music that you’ll want to play again as soon as it’s over. 

Jim Noir makes the kind of music you’d hope to discover on your birthday.

Taster Track : Fine

The Chasing Pack

Anthem : 44th Move

This is a jazz album that reconciles elements that shouldn’t go together. It’s also a masterclass in effective production.

44th Move are jazz keyboardist Alfa Mist and drummer / producer Richard Spaven. Both are at the top of their game in what they bring to the music.

Much of this album, to a jazz layman, feels like bringing together naturally opposed forces. Imagine finding out that Celtic and Rangers fans had made common ground in the interests of good football. That’s the feel here. 

It’s by no means the first time that hip hop and jazz have been brought together, but they don’t always make for comfortable bedfellows. Here, hip hop brings 21st century relevance, placing the tunes in the here and now. The flute is unexpected too, adding a sense of freedom to ‘Anthem’. It’s central melody line works as well, surviving the gentle white noise of the cymbals. In The Move’s, tempestuous lyrics are buoyed and kept afloat by a gentle rolling sea of music.The keyboard and woodwind of ‘2nd September’ anchor the songs to earth while the drums blow wild overhead.

Richard Spaven’s percussion is special,  jittery and all over the cymbals. The sound of everything else is warm and inviting. The production is excellent. There’s a lot going on in each track but nothing bleeds across to anything else.

This is an album that brings you to uncharted waters and allows you the fun of exploration.

Taster Track : Anthem

Ritual : Jon Hopkins

Jon Hopkins’ latest collection of meditative electronica is one of the  therapeutic and cohesive pieces of work we associate with him.

For some people, the biggest barrier to enjoying his music comes from the weight he attaches to music as a force for meditation and healing. If you’re someone who has no time for what you perceive as so much mumbo jumbo then you won’t give this a chance. Even if you’re receptive to the benefits of such music you may still approach this with a different mindset from the one you bring to the albums you love and enjoy the most.

The thing is, regardless of the barriers or benefits you’re expecting, this is good listenable music. It’s true, Hopkins thinks in albums, not tracks. Although ‘Ritual’ is broken into eight parts, it’s actually one 40 minute piece. You learn to recognise when a transition is on its way, the signs that one tracks starts to smudge into something new..

Patience is a virtue here and it brings rewards. ‘Part i - altar’ is an extended, rumbling drone, so much so that you’re grateful for the pulse that infuses ‘part ii - palace / illusion’ It helps to bring the music alive and the remaining tracks never suffer a relapse. ‘Part iii - transcend / lament’ is quietly uplifting. Parts iv and v acknowledge the need for something a little darker, while ‘part vi - solar goddess return’ becomes something gently thrilling.

This isn’t ambient music. There’s too much that you want to listen to and remember. It would be good to experience this in a darkened isolation chamber, free from any distractions. Then, it might truly feel like music for the formation of new galaxies in the immediate aftermath of their big bangs.

‘Ritual’ is all you could want from meditative and possibly healing music and it is also a satisfying listen.

Taster Track : part ii - palace / illusion

Greyhound Days : Patrick Shiroishi, Piotr Kurek

This is a serious and intense jazz collaboration that is, nonetheless, soothing and tuneful.

If I’ve learned one thing about jazz, the jazz of its most dedicated practitioners, it’s about how it makes you feel. It’s about the sound of individual notes that’s independent of individual tunes and rhythms. There are moments on this album when you feel notes have been coaxed from the deep soul of music. There are no real tunes here, yet each piece is immensely tuneful. The sound is rich, slow and velvety.

Shiroishi is of American / Japanese descent. He’s drawn on both sides of his heritage in the sound of his saxophone, and this album is a showcase for his skill. Piotr Kurek is Polish. There’s an innate sympathy between the two, that feels like less a collaboration and more a meeting of minds.’Breath, Held’ develops into a conversation between the two, a conversation held in whispers while they remain wrapped in their private world.

There’s no denying that listening to this is an intense and unsmiling experience. It’s like receiving a barely understood, yet undeniably significant sacrament. It has that watchful feel like seeing animals sleep while you remain the only living thing awake. The sax quavers and the backing notes tremble. The ambient sounds keep you on guard.

Shiroishi and Kurek have, quietly, established their own musical universe. It's a privilege to have glimpsed it.

Taster Track : Shadows

Careful of Your Keepers : This Is The Kit

This Is The Kit’s album from 2023 is initially challenging, but well worth sticking with as its strengths are revealed to be quite engrossing.

It’s easy to bracket Kate Stables in an alternative folk grouping but it’s no more relevant than it is when you do the same to Talk Talk. The truth is that she has a unique voice that refuses to be confined by one genre.

Stables gives voice to her inner thoughts. Lyrics are more prominent than melody in a stream of consciousness fashion. Listening to this is how I’d imagine it would feel to be engaged in conversation with Shakespeare’’s fool. What feels rambling and full of non sequiturs actually conveys something with considerable depth. Slowly I formed a picture of her as a mystic woman of the woods, someone to approach cautiously for advice and remedies to address life’s unfathomable problems.

That’s the picture in my mind but it doesn’t match the timbre of her vocals. They’re warm and serious. The music feels free styling in places, experimental too. It has a folk feel, some jazz inflections and more than ever, it captures the sound of a restless, anxious mind.

One thing that’s clear - you need to hear an album’s worth of songs to understand This Is The Kit. One song on a playlist won’t be enough. In each song she allows a glimpse of her world but she doesn’t invite you to share it. Give these songs time though. A structure and plan will emerge and you can tune into their wavelength. Talk Talk require a similar approach from the listener, and if the idea of a less subdued and ambient Talk Talk appeals, you’ll find it here.

In recent weeks I’ve gushed about the joys of pure pop. This is a reminder of the pleasures that can be taken from music that stands out and has depth and substance.

Taster Track : More Change

As ever this week's Taster Track playlists can be accessed at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/42qDXrw3nLMlCSg45kCnRy?si=4499207642034207 or via the Spotify link on the Home Page.

The link to the Youtube playlist is https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV-OogHy7EjHZr5_M3m0Zn5LEu_F3fMm&si=OhQF-ZPaBjUn4VMT