Council Meeting Memo #122 — Five for Friday
Hearts And Minds: Hearts And Minds (Workshop, Cassette)
Had this on headphones whilst slow bussing it to Canary Wharf from North London. Took absolutely ages, but I felt like it was weaving some kind of magic and wasn’t giving it my full attention. So…got off midway, made my way to the infamous Blind Beggar pub on the Whitechapel Road and nursed a cider whilst the album did its thing. A texturally rich record fusing house influences with subdued ambience. Loaded with colour and vibrancy. (SA 🇵🇸)
Autocreation: Mettle (Medical, Album Reissue)
I know I should really spend the time bigging up new shit but….I do have to give some love to this incredible record. Originally came out back 1994 on Inter-Modo — partly run by The Orb. ‘Mettle’ is ‘a dark, brooding ambient techno record that feels both spacious and controlled. A subtle, atmospheric album that sits somewhere between minimal techno and left-field ambient music, with a distinctive sound rather than a generic one.’ (SA 🇵🇸)
Booker Stardrum: Close-up on the Outside (We Jazz Records, Album)
Great, all too short long player (that seems to be much longer than its playing time suggests) from the amusingly monikered Stardrum — who is of course a drummer — perhaps best known as one fifth of SML. Close-up on the Outside is just as interesting and diverse as that group’s music, but also very different (though it does feature some of his bandmates on one track). I’m reminded of Jon Hassell’s Aka Darbari Java and, just a little, of Brian Eno’s Another Green World. To this listener that’s major praise. (CB 🇵🇸)
Pat Metheny: Side-Eye III+ (Uniquity Music, Album)
It’s FIFTY ONE years and countless releases since Pat Metheny’s debut, Bright Size Life in 1975. The Missouri-born, shaggy-maned guitarist’s oeuvre is testament to a striking dedication to the craft of music, in terms both of composition and improvisation (of course they overlap) and a seemingly ceaseless curiosity as to jazz’s — indeed music’s — potentialities. Side-Eye III+ shows no slackening in Metheny’s 71st year and it’s even more energised than 2021’s hugely enjoyable Side-Eye NYC. Both feature a core trio, but the ‘+’ sign indicates additional contributors including harpist Brandee Younger and a 9-piece vocal group, both under-employed, but delightful when audible. Metheny’s music is characterised by a sense of warmth, generosity and openness which is fully in evidence here, alongside ambitious arrangements that recall the rich drama of his work with Lyle Mays in the Pat Metheny Group. Unreservedly recommended. (CB 🇵🇸)
Florian T M Zeisig: Music For Parents (Métron Records, Album)
’A quietly beautiful ambient record that turns low bass, slow pulses, and soft texture into something deeply soothing and slightly uncanny. It feels less like an album to analyse than a space to rest in.’ Derivative as fuck but I simply can’t let this one go. (SA 🇵🇸)
