Single Review: “Somebody’s Daughter” – The Deep Blue

This song….  It got me through my morning cuppa and emails. It then got me through my walk around sainsbury’s. It got me through putting my shopping away.  I’ve been sat at the keyboard playing around with the chord progression too.  What a beauty! The electric piano is what did it for me, especially in …

EP Review: “Modern Artifice” – Freyja Elsy

Freyja is here and she’s brought four stunning tracks! Let’s get into it. Sad Girls This track opens up with ethereal sounds, bells and what sounds like an arpeggiated muted guitar. The drums are quite complex once they get going – hi hats switching between 8th note rhythms to 32nd rhythms, the rim shot playing …

Album Review: “Green Park” – Benet McClean. Words: Sammy Stein.

It’s the energy that grabs you. I reviewed Benet Mclean’s ‘The Bopped and The Bopless’ back in 2016 and have not tired of it. So, it was a little trepidation I pressed ‘play’ on Mclean’s latest release ‘Green Park’. I mean, how can you top ‘The Bopped and The Bopless’? Mclean does not even try …

Single Review: “First House On The Left” – Katherine Priddy

What I like about folk music is that as you listen you can close your eyes and see the story unfollowed as it’s sung, it’s essentially a way to pass down family and local lore through the generations – Molly Malone, Eleanor Rigby, and so many more. This song is no different. Katherine sings of …

Single Review: “Witness Me” – Jacob Collier, Kirk Franklin, Stormzy, Shawn Mendes.

Well, this is…. HUGE. A multi instrumentalist with prodigious amounts of talent. A gospel music legend. A British rapper who is larger than life. An incredible singer songwriter from Canada who’s killing it right now… Plus a 500 voice choir no less. This starts off with Jacob’s signature tones, rich in sound, backed by finger …

Single Review: “Master Narrative” – Barbara

Well! This is a stonker of a track from Barbara. Electric piano put through a slight phaser for the intro, it comes at you with the feel of a musical theatre song, you can just imagine the gaudy colours and big gestures. Just to add to that the big vocals with harmonies panned left and …

Single Review: “News And Media” – Ahmed And The Romans

This starts off with that real live room rehearsal feel, like you’re sat in Pirate Studios and privy to a band’s inner sanctum… I like that idea! Sometimes the mix doesn’t need to be clean to capture the energy of the track. It’s big, it’s loud, and combines all the elements – Italo-Egyptian-Garage-Punk. Love it. …

Album Review: “The Summoned” – Mama Terra. Words: Sammy Stein.

I became aware of Mama Terra when I took part in a Jazz FM panel show at Pizza Express, Holborn, London. The band was exploring and recreating partially, Herbie Hancock’s 1973 album ‘Head Hunters’. I was impressed by co-leader Marco Cafolla’s animated exposition of why he likes Herbie Hancock – and then by the music …

Single Review: “Give And Take” – Rosie Frater-Taylor

Rosie is back with the opening track from her upcoming album “Featherweight”, it switches gears well – going from Latin-jazz flavour to distorted riffs – I’ve been a big fan for a long time. Her voice is as strong as ever, my favourite part is at 1:20 nice bit of guitar playing but then there’s …

Single Review: “Finally Alive” – Edsun

Track Of The Day “Finally Alive” @edsunmusic This starts off as what I thought would be a retro disco track, especially with that piano and the bass drop.. but then it kicks into something funky, loving the muted guitar on this… watch out for the drum rolls because that’s where it changes up into a …