Category: psych jazz

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Ghost Funk Orchestra founder, creative mastermind, composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist Seth Applebaum has always had a latent fascination with space and space travel. Midway through writing the arrangements, which would comprise the material of the band’s fifth album, On a Trip To The Moon, Applebaum became aware that Internet Archive had made the recordings of the Apollo to Mission Control transmissions accessible in the public domain. Once he started listening to those recordings, it gave the Ghost Funk Orchestra mastermind the idea of using the recordings as a narrative binder for the music, which he was working on at the time. 

The process was painstaking. The recordings were frequently filled with long silences, punctuated by surprisingly casual commentary on the cosmos. Applebaum’s commitment to the voyage managed to draw him into a sort of historical tourism, in which he studied film, photos, and music from the era. And as he did so, he was struck by the gusto with which new technology was embraced in pop culture of the day, and he honors that tradition by skillfully blending digital recording techniques to cobble together arrangements incorporating 60s and 70s analog keys and guitar sounds that bring early surf bands from the 50s and 60s. The album’s material also nods to 90s surf punk band Man or Astro-man?, who used vintage sound bites in their music, tying together cosmologically themed concept albums together with clips from vintage sci-fi and B movies. This is also informed by Applebaum’s religious listening to Little Steven’s Underground Garage radio show, which also used soundbites from films and TV shows as a container for a body of music.

As the 15 compositions, which comprise the band’s forthcoming fifth album took shape, Applebaum brought the rest of the band, string arrangements from Will Marshal and a talented crew of collaborators including Megan Mancini (vocals),  Romi Hanoch(vocals), Stephen Chen (saxophone), Billy Aukstik (trumpet), Mike Sarason (flute), James Kelly (trombone), Stuart Bogie (reeds) into the studio with a newfound confidence acquired by heavy touring to support 2022’s A New Kind of Love. Sonically, A Trip To The Moon is a departure from the clean production of their predecessors, as the the sessions players were allowed to let it rip, breathing life and their personal voices into the material. 

Last month, I wrote about A Trip To The Moon‘s first single, the cinematic instrumental track “To The Moon!” Beginning with the transmissions of the Apollo crew to Mission Control, you hear a member of the Apollo crew remark that they’re flying over The Canary Islands before dramatic drumming, a slithering bass line and quivering keys set up a dreamy introduction. At the 45 second mark, a swaggering horn line and funk jazz guitar lines burst into the scene, creating the sense that the listener might be listening to the soundtrack to one of the greatest stories ever told, the creation and the eventual exploration of the cosmos by humankind or an episode of Star Trek. The composition ends with a mind-bending Dark Side of The Moon/Wish You Were Here guitar solo that gently fades out into the ether. 

The composition seems to accurately capture a period specific sense of hope that science and technology could solve humanity’s most pressing problems, while doing some incredibly cool stuff. If only it were that easy, right? 

A Trip To The Moon‘s second single “Again” is a swooning and uneasy fever dream of bitter heartache, cynicism delivered with a soulful, seemingly lived-in experience. Beginning with Apollo and Mission Control banter, dreamily strummed and twinkling keys quickly build up serving as a dreamy psych soul intro paired with Romi Hanoch’s falsetto crooning and bursts of fluttering flute. Seemingly sounding as though it wouldn’t be out of place on Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here or a James Bond soundtrack, the song turns into a Broadway-meets-psych jazz freakout with an explosive horn line, an expressive sax solo paired with one of the more soulful, powerhouse performances I’ve heard from Hanoch.

A Trip To The Moon is slated for a February 23, 2024 release through Karma Chief Records. Click here to pre-order.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Mildlife Shares Mind-Bending and Glittery “Musica”

Melbourne-based psych jazz/jazz funk/jazz fusion outfit Mildlife — multi-instrumentalists Jim Rindfleish, Adam Halliwell, Kevin McDowell and Tom Shanahan — exploded into the national and international scenes with the release of their critically applauded 2017 full-length debut Phase, a mind-bending mesh of jazz, jazz fusion, krautrock and 70s psychedelia rooted in their now long-held penchant for trippy grooves. Phase received praise from  Resident Advisor, Uncut, The Guardian and others, while landing several award nominations including Best Album at the 2018 Worldwide FM Awards,  Best Independent Jazz Album at the 2018 AIR Awards and a Best Electronic Award nomination and win at the Music Victoria Awards.

Fittingly, the album became a word-of-mouth sensation among open-minded, crate-digging DJs searching for that perfect, seemingly undiscovered — or little-known funky groove. And adding to a growing profile, the Aussie psych jazz outfit won fans with a loose-limbed, free-flowing and improvisational-driven live show that led to touring with Stereolab, JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and Harvey Sutherland. 

Building upon that momentum, Mildlife’s first national headlining tour was sold-out, and they quickly followed up with a ten-date UK and European Union tour. 

Mildlife’s sophomore album, 2020’s Automatic was a stylistic shift for the acclaimed Aussie outfit. The album’s material was much more danceable, but while continuing their unerring knack for knowing when to let a track luxuriate and stretch out — without being self-indulgent. The album received critical applause internationally while earning the Aussie outfit an ARIA Award win. 

Unable to play shows in person in front of living, breathing, sweating and dancing humans because of the pandemic, the band traveled by boat to a long-abandoned 19th century fort on South Channel Island, just outside of Melbourne, where they performed material from both Phase and Automatic for a 70-minute concert film and live album, Live from South Channel Island. 

Slated for a March 1, 2024 release through Heavenly Recordings, the acclaimed Aussie outfit’s highly-anticipated third album Chorus is reportedly their most optimistic effort, serving as a sonic testament to their unwavering adoration for 70s psychedelic and comic sounds. But if you delve deeper, the listener will hear references to Polish jazz, Italo disco and a sprinkling of contemporary electronic sounds. The album is the dance of an endlessly expanding and contracting universe — its groove is forever and always, cyclical and evolving. During its most human moments, the album’s material luxuriates in the velvety embrace of Shanahan’s bass lines, Halliwell’s luminous guitar riffs, McDowell’s hushed and alluring vocals, Rindfleish’s intricate percussive tapestries and the spiritual rhythms of regular collaborator Craig Shanahan. Swept up in the chorus, the lines between individual and ensemble blur. 

“It’s knowing that all the pieces of our own puzzles can slot neatly into a bigger one,” the band’s Tom Shanahan says. The album sees the members assurance vocally growing — both individually and as a band. On their previously released material, Kevin McDowell was the primarily vocalist but Chorus sees each member having a moment of expression, highlighting their own choral visions, while forging a new unified openness and humanity to their sound.

“We had this idea that we wanted to create a kind of disparate ecosystem of living things,” the band’s Tom Shanahan continues. “We liked the idea of creating a small metaphor of moving through space. You see moments of things and sounds that may not emerge again, until everything around you starts to unify.” 

The album sees the members of Mildlife thematically linking microcosmic personal meaning with a macro view from on high. “Chorus is about a coming together of disparate elements. Not in some sort of utopian aesthetic where everything works perfectly, but in the natural flow and state of things,” shares the band’s Jim Rindfleish. “It’s about cosmic compatibility and chemistry: what makes things work? Not just what makes the band work, but what makes good music, art or love? It’s the rhythm of nature”.  

Earlier this year, I wrote about Chorus‘ first single,” Return to Centaurus,” which was also their first bit of new material since 2020’s Automatic. Clocking in at a little over 10 minutes, “Return to Centaurus” opens with droning synths and leads into Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd-meets-space rock-like introduction, with Kraftwerk-like vocoders. By around the 2:40 mark, the song quickly morphs into some hook-driven acid funk with loping yet supple bass lines, shimmering funk guitar riffs, glistening space-age synths, bursts of fluttery flute and intricate yet propulsive drum patterns. Rooted in the Aussie outfit’s love of 70s psychedelic and cosmic sounds, the new single serves as a reminder of their seemingly effortless mastery of mind-bending and unhurried trippy grooves. 

The album’s second and latest single “Musica” is built around a groove that’s one-part motorik, one-part glittery Giorgio Moroder-era Italo disco paired with squiggling, Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, glistening synths and a supple bass line paired with McDowell’s hushed, gently vocodered vocal and propulsive congo-driven percussion with a spacey, Wish You Were Here-like synth solo. While seeing the band further cement their retro-futuristic sound, “Musica” reminds the listener — both new and familiar — that the Aussie outfit are modern masters of trippy, mind-bending grooves that draw from and effortlessly mesh elements of funk, jazz fusion, prog rock, komische musik and more.

“Musica” was crafted after hours of improvisation, touring and studio time, and honed over 100-plus shows across 23 countries over the past year alone; at the end of each night of the tour, the band would dedicate space in their legendary extended encores to lengthy improvisational passages, out of this “Musica” eventually coalescing from those jams.

From those origins, the track came to assume particular significance for guitarist Adam Halliwell, whose Italian heritage manifested in the lyrics. “When my Nona passed away, I realized I didn’t really know anything about my culture,” he says, having begun learning Italian since her passing a few years ago. “‘Musica’ started with ‘mi da la carica’, which means ‘gives me energy’. Some of the lyrics were written in Italian and then translated back to English a bit askew – almost like writing a song for Eurovision where the lyrics are not quite right”. 

Directed by Hayden Somerville, the accompanying video for “Musica” is a cinematically shot surreal visual that’s seemingly one-part Coen Brothers and part film noir oddball odyssey set in rural Australia — with nods to the Autobahns of Mildlife’s long-held krautrock influences. There’s also a character who may be — or at least believes — that they’re part-human, part-machine, part keyboard. It’s fittingly as mind-bending as the song it accompanies.

“Listening to the track, the ‘part machine part human’ elements throughout ‘Musica’ were so fun to mess around with,” Somerville says. “Both of those worlds play against each other in a really pleasing way in the song. I think that’s where ‘Keyboard Arm’ came from. The thought of growing your own little instrument and having a jam with friends was lovely and the whole clip grew from there.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mildlife Share Mind-Bending and Expansive “Return to Centaurus”

With the release of 2017’s full-length debut, Phase, Melbourne-based psych jazz/jazz funk/jazz fusion outfit Mildlife — multi-instrumentalists Jim Rindfleish, Adam Halliwell, Kevin McDowell and Tom Shanahan — exploded into the national and international scenes. The album, which was a mind-bending mix of jazz, jazz fusion, krautrock, 70s psychedelia rooted in trippy grooves, became a word-of-mouth sensation among open-minded, crate-digging DJs searching for that perfect, seemingly undiscovered or little-known incredible groove.

Phase was also a sensation internationally. The album was praised by a nubmer of media outlets internationally, including Resident Advisor, Uncut, The Guardian and others. The album earned several award nominations including Best Album at the 2018 Worldwide FM Awards,  Best Independent Jazz Album at the 2018 AIR Awards and a Best Electronic Award nomination and win at the Music Victoria Awards. The Aussie outfit’s full-length debut also received airplay from BBC Radio 6. And adding to a growing profile both nationally and internationally, the members of Mildlife won over fans with a loose-limbed, free-flowing improvisational approach to their live show, which they took on tour with Stereolab, JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and Harvey Sutherland.

Building upon that momentum, Mildlife’s first national headlining tour was sold-out, and they quickly followed up with a ten-date UK and European Union tour.

Mildlife’s sophomore album, 2020’s Automatic was a stylistic shift for the acclaimed Aussie outfit. The album’s material was much more danceable, but while continuing their unerring knack for knowing when to let a track luxuriate and stretch out — without being self-indulgent. The album received critical applause internationally while earning the Aussie outfit an ARIA Award win.

Unable to play shows in person in front of living, breathing, sweating and dancing humans because of the pandemic, the band traveled by boat to a long-abandoned 19th century fort on South Channel Island, just outside of Melbourne, where they performed material from both Phase and Automatic for a 70-minute concert film and live album, Live from South Channel Island. 

The acclaimed Melbourne-based outfit’s latest single “Return to Centaurus” is their first single bit of new material since the release of their sophomore album. Clocking in at a little over 10 minutes, “Return to Centaurus” opens with droning synths and leads into Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd-meets-space rock-like introduction, with Kraftwerk-like vocoders. By around the 2:40 mark, the song quickly morphs into some hook-driven acid funk with loping yet supple bass lines, shimmering funk guitar riffs, glistening space-age synths, bursts of fluttery flute and intricate yet propulsive drum patterns. Rooted in the Aussie outfit’s love of 70s psychedelic and cosmic sounds, the new single serves as a reminder of their seemingly effortless mastery of mind-bending and unhurried trippy grooves.

Directed by Jordan Gusti, the accompanying video for “Return to Centaurus” sees the quartet longing around a sleek and artful, mid-century mod-meets 70s space age/futuristic living room, seemingly absorbed in deep, brooding thought. Through a series of mesmerizing, slow zooms, the video reveals the cosmos both within and without.

 “We liked imagining a room that our minds inhabit together while we’re in hyper sleep on the way to a distant constellation,” the band says of the new single and accompanying video. “As our bodies lay still in a capsule tucked in the closet of a fast-moving craft, our minds meet in this artificial room designed by someone or something else. The room is a tool to keep our minds limber as our human forms spin against time in the physical world. Is it a room within a room though? Does your body lay still in a capsule as your mind watches this clip? Are we all returning together? Who knows. It was fun to draw on each other and watch Adsy take his true form as the silver Mark anyway.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

London-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Oscar “Sholto” Robertson grew up with a deep and abiding love of jazz, soul, krautrock and 60s and 70s soundtracks. Roberton may be best known for being one-half of indie outfit Sunglasses for Jaws. He honed his production skills under the guidance of Allah-Las‘ Nick Waterhouse and Inflo.

Three years ago, Robertson stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his latest project SHOLTO, which sees him crafting a unique take on cinematic, instrumental soul. 2023 looks to be a big year for the rising London-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer: He signed to Deep Matter imprint Root Records, who will be releasing Robertson’s SHOLTO debut, The Changing Tides of Dreams EP.

The Changing Tides of Dreams EP‘s first single “Vampire” is built around an expansive and cinematic arrangement featuring twinkling percussion, swirling Wurlitzer organ, cascading harp, lush strings, burst of fluttering flute, a supple and propulsive bass line, a soulful horn solo and skittering boom bap drumming paired with a strutting and infectious groove. The result is a song that reminds me a bit of the gorgeous, widescreen instrumental soul of The Ironsides with the trippy grooves of L’Eclair and Mildlife.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s BADBADNOTGOOD Releases a Gorgeous and Mind-bending Visual for Expansive “Beside April”

The acclaimed Toronto-based jazz-inspired act BADBADNOTGOOD — currently founding members Chester Hansen (bass), and Alexander Sowinski (drums) with Leland Whitty — have developed and honed a sound and compositional approach that draws from hip-hop, electronica, jazz, acid jazz and prog rock — and famously for jazz based interpretations of hip-hop tracks, which has allowed the acclaimed Canadian ensemble to collaborate with Kendrick Lamar, Tyler The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Denzel Curry, Danny Brown, Mick Jenkins, Ghostface Killah and others.

Interestingly, BADBADNOTGOOD can trace its origins to its founders — Hansen, Sowinski and Matt Tavares — bonded over a mutual love of MF Doom and Odd Future. As the story goes, the band played a composition based on Odd Future’s music for a panel of their jazz performance instructions, who unsurprisingly didn’t believe it had much musical value. Instead of listening to their instructors, the band released the composition as “The Odd Future Sessions, Part 1.” The track eventually caught the attention of Tyler the Creator, who helped the video go viral.

BADBADNOTGOOD followed up with their full-length debut, 2011’s BBNG, which featured interpretations of A Tribe Called Quest, Waka Flocka Flame and of course,. Odd Future. Building upon a growing profile, the members of BADBADNOTGOOD recorded a live jam session with Tyler The Creator in Sowinski’s basement, with videos from the session amassing more than a million views each.

The Toronto-based act’s sophomore album 2012’s BBNG2 was recorded over a course of a ten-hour studio session. Featuring guest spots from Leland Witty (saxophone) and Luan Phung (electric guitar), the album was a mix of their own original material, as well as renditions of songs by Kanye West, My Bloody Valentine, James Blake, Earl Sweatshirt and Feist. That year, the band was the official Coachella Festival house band, backing Frank Ocean and Odd Future over the course of its two weekends.

Their third album, 2013’s III featured “Hedron,” which was featured on the compilation album Late Night Tales: Bonobo. They also assisted with the production and composition of The Man with the Iron Fists soundtrack.

The band’s fourth album, 2015’s Sour Soul saw them collaborate with Ghostface Killah on what has been described as a hip-hop album that nodded at jazz. They ended the year with covers of a handful of holiday standards, including “Christmas Time Is Here” with Choir! Choir! Choir!

Leland Whitty joined the band as a full-time member in early 2016, and the band quickly went to work producing “Hoarse” off Earl Sweatshirt’s full-length debut Doris and “GUV’NOR,” a remix, which appeared on JJ DOOM’s Keys to the Kuffs (Butter Edition). Capping off a busy year, they released their fifth album, the somewhat ironically titled IV, which featured Future Islands’ Sam Herring, Colin Stetson, Kaytranada, Mick Jenkins and JOVM mainstay Charlotte Day Wilson. The album was also named BBC Radio 6’s #1 album of the year.

The Canadian outfit’s highly anticipated psych jazz album Talk Memory is slated for an October 8, 2021 release through XL Recordings. Composed in conjunction with legendary Brazilian composer Arthur Verocai, the album features features guest spots from Karriem Riggins, Laraaji, Terrace Martin, and a list of others. Perhaps more so than their previously released material, Talk Memory sees the acclaimed act actively capturing some of the focus, energy and improvisation which is at the heart of their live show.

For the band, a song is a living, breathing entity that naturally changes and evolved as it’s played in different settings. The album plays with that thinking. After years of relentless touring, the band paused and refreshed and looked at their history and experiences before starting out on the creative process for the new album. And as a result, a sense of reflection and renewed communication is at the heart of their new creative approach. Interestingly, that led to the album’s title. While their earliest material took place very quickly, the band took on a much more international approach: The album was written over a two year period, with the band expanding upon the album’s material in the studio, rather that on the road.

Talk Memory’s latest single “Beside April” is an expansive and breathtakingly gorgeous composition featuring a cinematic string arrangement, skittering syncopated drumming and a mind-bending and expressive guitar solo. The end result is a song that — to my ears — is one part indebted to Brazilian psych rockers and JOVM mainstays Boogarins, one part jazz fusion, one part shimmering film score.

Directed by Camille Summers-Valli, the accompanying visuals draw some inspiration from the first motion picture, Horse in Motion 1878. The video itself manages to be simultaneously surreal, trippy and gorgeously shot. Plus, there’s a majestic horse that’s really the star of the entire affair. “There was really special energy around this video,” Camille Summers-Valli says. “The band wanted to do something with horses and equestrians. That’s where this begun. Funnily enough, I am petrified of horses. But it felt like a good way to overcome my fears. Subconsciously through a process of reading, finding references and discussing with my team, I started to piece together the puzzle of what this video could be. We shot this in Georgia; where the casting was incredible. The horse also was wonderful. So strong and majestic, we just wanted to do this beautiful creature justice. The magic aligned, so many great hard working people pulled this video together.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Born in Washington, DC and currently based in Austin, TX, Zapot Mgwana never knew his father, but his mother, who worked for the Ethiopian Embassy always told him that Herman Poole Blount (a.k.a. Sun Ra) was his father. When Mgwana was nine, he and his mother moved to Nigeria, where he spent most of his formative years. Recently Mgwana returned to the States and formed his musical project The Golden Dawn Arkestra — and much like the work of Sun Ra, Mgwana’s Arkestra focuses on intergalactic travel, transcendence, and time travel but while sonically pairing deep grooves and cinematic quality with a world spanning expansiveness.

Children of the Sun, The Golden Dawn Arkestra’s finds the band further cementing their growing reputation for an expansive, globe spanning sound with album’s material inspired by the sounds of Berlin, Brazil, psych rock, disco, soul and world music. In fact, Children of the Sun‘s latest single “Lovely Day” sounds as though the band were drawing from Bossa Nova, Afrobeat and the work of Ennio Morricone — it’s an expansive, global and forward looking take on the large band format that manages to be mischievously retro-futuristic and with a kaleidoscopic vibe. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Multinational Jazz Band KUHN Fu and Their Trippy and Expansive Sound

Comprised of German-born, Dutch-based guitarist and composer Christian Kuhn; Israeli-born, Dutch-based bass clarinetist Ziv Taubenfeld; Serbian-born, Dutch-based drummer Lav Kovac; and Turkish-born, Dutch-based bassist Esat Ekincioglu, KUHN FU is a Groningen, The Netherlands-based psychedelic jazz band […]