PeteDIG

Glad you enjoyed it...

to that Jaco album about once a month or so.

Everyone plays so beautifully on that, particularly Jaco, Narada Michael Walden, Wayne Shorter and Herbs.

Need to dig that out tomorrow actually!

Your rat out!

from which there's an utterly tasteless quote at the end of one of the tunes by the lovely Peter Wright of Vessels fame (NAMEDROP!!!ish).

I, needless to say, WASN'T in the studio that day... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3J54QfOAOs

Cheers for the review though dude! Glad you enjoyed it...

Please

What the fuck are you on about?

heard this record?

Marvellous...

I had a good time at the gig.

I think they're aq fantastic live band...

and thanks for being so massively supportive of our band!

Stop reviewing records that have this. It's ridiculous and unneccessary...

...go on.

One element of the coverage that annoyed the hell out of me.

The way the three of them were talking, there may as well have been 4 bands on the list.

I thought the whole point of the prize was to give a less biased view of music released that year generally, hence nominating from across the board? That attitude is totally destroyed when it's covered by three people who are either concerned only by what will be 'hot' or have only listened to a few of the albums...

I'm offended by the misuse here.

This should be "Skins SWWYTL" (songs we want you to like)

or

"Skins TWTWMYWOP" (tunes we think will make you watch our programme)

In any case, thanks for answering.

...does the 'O' stand for in 'OST'?

...to hear Charlottefield. Alan played me some and they sound amazing!

We might even have some robotcores and t shirts for this. Amazing...

I've played there loads and it was always great...

I've recorded there many times and it's a unique, wonderful studio.

Anything new would certainly be unable to 'replace' what they have there.

How pathetic not to know a local of mine! "Support your local scene" I don't think...

I've never heard of it...

Records are but flyers for the real deal. There's no substitute for watching those guys in action.

Utterly spellbinding stuff...

...will make you shit! Amazing stuff. Come to brixton early and watch us and I'll steal you a drink.

and good review.

Rolo kick my balls...

he couldn't stay quiet for THAT long...

...in videos?

The Down I Go video has tits and even some balls in it, so we were guessing it needed to be censored...

...I get excited about new rcords, but I'll be in the queue for this mutha!

I like them and I'm not cool. At ALL!

...and they blew me away.

They really seem like a band that doesn't know what's about to happen next on stage, which is mightily endearing in front of such a large and attentive audience.

There's an almost fugazi-ish vibe about the whole thing, which I'm sure will cease the minute megastardom ensues.

Not any kind of criticism at all, but that haphazard spontinaity simply won't be ALLOWED to exist when a few techs are thrown into the mix.

They're still Awesome...

My mighty, bearded face will do that job for me!

If yes, I might fancy it...

... you actually DO something with it a la Radiodread/Dread Zeppelin. Admittedly, what they've done is sacreligious to some, but at least it's creative, even in a (possibly) slightly tongue in cheek way...

I know a few people who were so, so annoyed when Muse covered 'Feelin Good' just because of the height the bar had been set by previous versions (nina simone and john coltrane particularly).

Personally, I'm on the fence; If you do a cover to try and emulate/absorb some greatness from the original, you're a prick, but if it's a good song that you think you can pick up and run with, why not?

I know sort of what you mean, but the trouble with it is that improvisation in the form of 'a handful of solos per song' is a virtually intrinsic element of jazz as a music.

I think a lot of the issues arise from this being 'hip hop elements in a jazz setting' as opposed to the reverse: what a lot of people percieve to be 'jazzy' (complex chords, unusually phrased lines, small elements of improvisation) often comes from interludes or features of music from other traditions which have adopted characteristics from the jazz tradition. Soweto is closer the reverse of this in a live setting.

See also: massive introverted stream of conciousness nonsense I wrote below... ;)

Since I first saw him at a jam session years ago, it's been really obvious that he's the type to make waves. Such a good player.

As for the 'excessively jazz based' comments: a fusion like this is always going to draw criticism as it's bringing together people who have fairly polarised listening experiences.

As someone said, on the record it's possible to balance these things out, but jazz music is an essentially 'live' experience, in the sense that the musicians are constantly improvising, not just in the solo sections, but throughout the music and in response to the melodies. This means that solo sections are likely to 'stetch out' as they have an indefinite length and tend to run their course according to the mood, situation and basically level of creative development the soloist is capable of.

To an audience with hip hop in mind, this is obviously a slightly alien approach. In saying this, I'm not discounting the freestlye traditions which are innate to hip hop, but more highlighting the decades of harmonic development in jazz improvisation which have led the the lenghtly interpretations possible of a spontaneous solo. It's hard to go into without getting massively technical, but it's well worth watching/reading any interviews with Soweto on the subject of the push and pull between traditions. Also, check out his tune 'Intermission: Split Decision' from his first record.

Basically, Jazz can be an artform that isn't neccessarily instantly gratifying and can take a little getting used to: The first time I heard John Coltrane (someone who's since gone on to totally shape the way I enjoy music) it just sounded like a bunch of noise and it took a long while for my ears to come around to it.

I don't see any harm in investing a little time in learning about a tradition if it helps you understand and in the long run, enjoy the sounds you're hearing...

In a two man, very loud sort of way...

Why the hell is Elton John headlining a jazz festival?

I have a gig on Saturday.

We played with these guys in Brighton the other week and they were awesome...

Wynton Marsalis is on his way over now to whoop yo ass!

In other news: great interview.

Throwing dying old ladies off life suppost so MJ can blow what's left of his nose? Truly the American Dream!

That said, no amount of granny murdering can take Off the Wall away from him...