Artist: Sumari
Title: Sumari
Label: Unseen Rain Records
Genre: nu jazz/improvised music
Review by Dawoud Kringle
“The Sumari, therefore, appear in, or intrude into, the three dimensional system from other dimensions.” – Seth
CD Reviews by By Dawoud Kringle
Guitarist Gary Lucas (a.k.a. “The Thinking Man’s Guitar Hero” and a dozen other plaudits I could copy from his massive biography) has been prolific of late in his recording output. As I write these words, I have three CDs he recorded in front of me. So, I will combine them into one review.
Artist: Wild Rampus
Title: Musical Blaze Up
Label: Bitches Brew Bitch
Genre: mix of electronica, dub and country
Wild Rampus’ Musical Blaze Up is a collaboration between Lucas and Colleen Murphy (a.k.a. DJ Cosmo: radio broadcaster, club DJ, music producer, remixer, record label owner and founder of Classic Album Sundays). The CD’s first track starts like a pop country song, and then becomes grungier and more abstract. But the abstract element is more implied than actually manifest. The country rock beat never goes away, always driving the song. As the CD progresses, the music explores Lucas’ various textures and musical prowess as filtered through Murphy’s remixes and DJ interpretations. Styles and genres are mixed randomly, yet with surgical care. At times Lucas masterfully guides the music through a variety of musical ideas and moods, with the beats and samples playing a more subordinate role. Other times, Murphy’s ideas take precedent. It’s interesting how the dissimilar worlds of musician and DJ can find such a multifaceted middle ground. Lucas and Murphy forged new territory in that as yet largely unexplored world.
Artist: Lukas Ligeti and Thollem McDonas
Title: Imaginary Images
Label: Leo Records
Genre: improv/free style/nu music
Review by Dawoud Kringle
The most natural thing in the world is a meeting between two improvising musicians. On Imaginary Images drummer/percussionist Lukas Ligeti and pianist Thollem McDonas have given us an assemblage of deftly crafted improvisations.
Artist: Manu Koch & Filtron M
Title: Mandatory Underground
Label: True Groove Rec
Genre: jazz/fusion
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Manu Koch has released an EP CD with his project Filtron M; music platform which attempts to act as as a filter in the age of musical and cultural multiplicity. It is mainly a live act consisting of various units such as Astoria Roots and Unique Afrique that showcase Manu’s compositions and the community of international musicians he’s been associated with.
The two projects that meet under the guise of Filtron M are Unique Afrique: Patrick Andy (bass), Harvey Wirht (drums), Brahim Fribgane (oud, percussion); and Astoria Roots: Panagiotis Andreou (bass, voice), Mauricio Zottarelli (drums), and Sebastian Nickoll (congas). Manu Koch plays piano and keyboards, and composes for both projects.
Artist: Cassis & Boxerin
Title: Flypaperthin – A Symphonic Suite for Chamber Ensemble
Label: self released
Genre: singer-song writer/soundtrack/alternative rock
CD Review by Dawoud Kringle
The “classical” model of the chamber ensemble of Europe’s antiquity has clearly branched off into directions that Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi could never have anticipated. Cassis & Boxerin is such a project.
