HIS NAME IS ALIVE
Some Day My Blues Will Cover the Earth
4AD
HERBERT
Bodily Functions
K7!
ALPHA
The Impossible Thrill
Melankolik
· It's the rebirth of jazz pop!
While acid jazz still has the deadly combination of too many chords and too little to say, the spiritual descendents of Sade, Weekend, and Tracey Thorne are cranking out some of the sweetest sounds of the summer, if not always the most original.
Michigan's Warren Defever has been displaying his talents for mimicry for more than a decade, first as shockabillly Elvis Hitler, and then as His Name Is Alive, one of the United States’ first post-pop outfits. While Europe's avant-pop contingent is almost obsessively driven to new forms, Defever is happy just to deconstruct whatever is currently considered hip, whether it's This Mortal Coil or Pet Sounds.
This year it's jazzy beats, but instead of mixing it up in the studio he's found himself a new vocalist (Lovetta Pippen) and lovingly replicated the classic jazz-blues sound, down to the scratches on the old 78s.
The music occasionally finds its own subtly different identity, but not as often as it should. Yes, there are a few other contemporary touches, and it sure beats listening to Diana Krall, but some of us already own Billie Holiday albums.
It's a step forward for HNIA, but Warren is still more of a pop commentator than a creator.
Bristol's Matthew Herbert has been kicking around for a couple of years in various guises, but for his latest album he's become a bit introspective and hooked up with vocalist Dani Siciliano, succesfully updating the jazz ballad with some mellow post-rave drum ’n’ bass.
It's an uneven album – the jazz instrumentals are dull, his own singing a disaster – but he lets Siciliano shine on her own for the majority of the tracks, her elegant voice set off by a careful balance of electronic and acoustic accompaniment. Bodily Functions is a succesful update of Everything But the Girl's Walking Wounded, torch songs with a muted techno underpinning – not exactly new, but certainly contemporary.
Most interesting of the lot are Massive Attack protegés Alpha who, of course, were the ones responsible for all this to begin with. But, four years after the groundbreaking Come From Heaven, their follow-up is so different that, five months on from its U.K. appearance, The Impossible Thrill shows no sign of domestic release.
They're still into jazz and trip-hop, but they've dropped the beats and almost buried the voices in layers of orchestration. At first, it sounds like a big musical marshmallow, without any stand-out tracks except "Almost There" and "South," but repeated listens reveal a surprisingly strong and original set, too complex for the club scene, but perfect late-night listening.
HIS NAME IS ALIVE 4/5
HERBERT 4/5
ALPHA 4/5
TIMOTHY HECK
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