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 …

Blog interview: Modeste

Congratulations on the release of “Queen” how does it feel?    Thank you, yeah, honestly it feels good to be able to show another aspect of my writing. “Queen” has a much more romantic feel than my previous releases. What’s the story behind the song?    The story is actually based on a fictional scenario. …

Single Review: “Mindfulness” – River Nelson.

This track starts off with a jazzy gospel part that’s just two chords over some lush strings.  When Andy Kettle sent me this, he had me from the chord progression.  But this is not where I was invested.  Oh no.  No no no. The hard hitting drums?  Nope.  The lack of bassline?  Oh yeah I …

Single Review: “I Wish You Well” – Chidi Digital and ROT8TIONS

This is an instrumental of sublime levels… The drums are dusty and warm, reminding you of old jazz records, fused with a vinyl crackle, and it just whisks me back to listening to records on a really good hi fi system, it just sounds so natural. You can’t always get that with a sample of …

Single Review: “Away From Here” – Speech Debelle X Baby Sol

Speech Debelle just dropped a beauty of an album, “Sunday Dinner On A Monday” and one of my favourite tracks on it is this one for many reasons.  The warped record playing the chords sets the tone, especially with the crackle. The beat drops in borrowing from afrobeat with the rimshot, kick and shakers.  It’s …