Music Reviews
Viorica & Lonitsa Clejani Express - A Delva
NetworkThere is a really brilliant number of gypsy music releases just now and this one is straight out the top drawer. The village of Clejani in Southern Romania is the birthplace of an amazing number of brilliant musicians, including Taraf de Haidouks, their arranger and musician Ionitsa, with his wife Viorica, decided to branch out and form Clejani Express here we get both highlights from recent years and some brand new recordings. Top class.
PermalinkGraham Radley, 06/07
Vladimir Cetkar - We Will Never End
Vladimir CetkarMacedonian native and New York resident, Vladimir Cedkar is a guitarist, vocalist, composer, arranger and producer whose debut studio album ‘We Will Never End’ is pure class. He cites George Benson and Earth Wind & Fire amongst his influences and it shines through the up-tempo feel-good grooves ‘All For You’, ‘Born For The Screen’ plus the string laced jazz-funk cuts ‘The Open Space’ and the title track. How this guy hasn’t been picked up by a major label I’ll never know!
Andy Allen, 03/08
Voice - Gumbo
Public Transit RecordingsVoice has often been compared to Bahamadia, mainly due to their similar voices and I'm sure she won't be dismissing that. Voice has recently featured on Marc Marc's Visioneers and Zero dB albums, which is certainly diverse, and that pretty much sums up the feel to "Gumbo". Voice sounds ace, whether the beats are hip-hop, or broken, or in-between, but that could be due to the heavy weight producers involved i.e. Marc Mac, Moonstarr, Murr, Arch Typ and Alister Johnson. The lyrics are also a treat: witty and flowling wonderfully over the beats and basslines. Hip-hop producers should take note... this is the way forward!
Simon Harrison, 11/06
Voom Voom - Peng Peng
K7!This is Voom Voom's first full length album after a string of 12"s released over the last few years on K7! Voom Voom is the pairing of Peter Kruder and Fauna Flash, and if you were expecting loads of chilled K&D style breaks n beats? then you will be surprised indeed. Most of the Tracks are 4/4 dancefloor numbers are designed to make you dance rather than chill. Lots of electronic noises sit side by side with twisted vocal stabs and bubbling basslines. The album is getting released as 4 separate 12"s over the next few month's. The first of those is already out and features the tracks 'All I Need' and 'Sao Verought'. But each of the 4 separate vinyls are limited to 2000 so you best be quick. The CD will be appearing in the Spring featuring all the tracks that appear on the vinyl. I'm really loving the album, but I can see a few of the tracks rubbing the purists up the wrong way with the rock guitar samples, off-kilter b-lines and electro beats . I'll be giving some of the tracks main room action over the coming month's cause I reckon it'll get em grooving for sure.
Jax, 03/06