Category Archives: Reviews

CD Review: The Bombay Royale… a musical romp through the mythology of cinema music born of the blending of eastern and western subcultures

The Bombay RoyaleArtist: The Bombay Royale
Title: The Island of Dr. Electro
Label: HopeStreet Recordings
Genre: synthesizing Indian classical and folk music with Western styles such as surf, rock and disco/soundtrack

CD Review by Dawoud Kringle

Formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2010 by musical director and saxophonist Andy Williamson, The Bombay Royale is an 11-piece Australian band fronted by singers Parvyn Kaur Singh and Shourov Bhattacharya. Taking soundtracks of 1960’s and 1970’s Bollywood movies as their main source of inspiration, their music synthesizes Indian classical and folk music with Western styles such as surf, rock and disco. In their beginning, they played covers of popular Hindi songs from the 60s and 70s. They have since composed and performed original music.

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Concert Review: X…The (Wild) Gift That Keeps On Giving

Date: Friday, August 22, 2014
Venue: City Winery (NY)

Concert Review by Joe Yanosik

Photo by Joe Yanosik

Photo by Joe Yanosik

It was a packed house on the evening of August 22 at the City Winery for the second night of legendary L.A. punk band X‘s 4-night run at the Soho establishment. Young punks, old fans and foodies all came together for wine, dinner and song. I arrived around 7:00 pm in time to have an excellent burger and a glass of Cabernet while the venue played Elvis and Carl Perkins music before the band came on stage promptly at 8:00 pm, looking very similar to how they looked (can it be) 30 years ago, with the only major differences being singer Exene Cervenka‘s added pounds and guitarist Billy Zoom‘s reading glasses (so he can see the frets on his guitar I’d imagine). But drummer DJ Bonebrake and singer-bassist John Doe looked almost indistinguishable from their heyday in the early 80s when their unique west coast hippie punk band enthralled fans and critics alike with one great album after another: their four-album run from 1980’s Los Angeles and 1981’s Wild Gift (both produced by ex-Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek) to 1982’s Under the Big Black Sun and 1983’s More Fun in the New World ranks up there with the other great punk album runs from the Ramones, the Clash and Sleater-Kinney.

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CD Review: Kali Z. Fasteau’s “Piano Rapture”…new works on piano

Kali Z. Fasteau CDArtist: Kali Z. Fasteau
Title: Piano Rapture
Label: Flying Note Rec
Genre: jazz/improv

CD Review by Matt Cole

Kali Z. Fasteau is an accomplished composer and multi-instrumentalist, having traveled all over the world learning and playing various woodwind and string instruments and absorbing the music of the many places she has lived and created. On Piano Rapture, she returns to her first instrument, presenting nearly an hour of spontaneous compositions for both solo piano and small ensemble. Her collaborators on this project include reed players Kidd Jordan, L. Mixashawn Rozie, and J.D. Parran; and percussionist Ron McBee.

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