Soft Machine were formed in Canterbury in June 1966; the members originally being Daevid Allen, Kevin Ayres, Robert Wyatt, Larry Nolan and Mike Ratledge. At this time the group were called Mister Head, but soon changed their name to The Soft Machine, after the novel by William Burroughs [1].
Larry Nolan left the group in October [...]

Le Trio Joubran – Majâz
(2007, Harmonia Mundi, RANDANA RAND 002)
Le Trio Joubran are three brothers: Samir, Wissam and Adnan, descendents from a Palestinian family of oud (a North African and Middle Eastern pear-shaped fretless lute) makers and players going back four generations.
Their mastery of the oud is singular and so is the harmony and the synchronization of [...]

A fascinating insight into the remarkably rapid development of a genre.
Stone-cold classic or sacred cow? With synth-pop a prevalent pop force again, La Roux and Little Boots carrying torches first lit in the late 1970s, first-wave acts like Heaven 17 are arguably more fashionable now than ever before. The Sheffield band’s 1981 debut album is regularly cited [...]

Bonobo has blossomed into something beautiful at his own pace.
There was little in Bonobo’s first two albums – 2000’s Animal Magic and 2003’s Dial ‘M’ For Monkey – to suggest that Simon Green could ever craft anything as grand, expansive and accomplished as Black Sands.
Back then his moniker could almost have referred to his tendency [...]

Ismaël Lo – ‘Dabah’ and ‘Sénégal’
When it comes to Africa, the western part of the continent seems to enjoy an almost disproportional status amongst lovers of African music. In particular, the countries of Senegal and Mali are most notable in this respect. Now whilst most have heard of Youssou N’Dour and Baba Maal (both from [...]

“What is life but a spectrum and what is music but life itself” – William Cobham Jr.
Coming as soon, as it does, after a review of ‘Groove Merchant’ by Tommy Chase, it might seem a bit much to follow it up with one from another drummer with close connections to jazz. But Spectrum has as [...]

My exposure to jazz in my childhood was limited to Dave Brubeck and the Modern Jazz Quartet playing around the house when I was a kid. But back in the mid 1980’s, when I was immersing myself in rock music and blues, I discovered something new all by myself – Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Wayne [...]

In part two of this musical journey Music Reviewer Chris Bennett started us on a musical journey to explore the history and surprising links between bands, albums, songs and musicians. With part three the journey continues…….
Track 9
So, what on earth is a Fever Tree then? Well, depending on which part of the world you’re in, [...]

Grasscut – 1inch 1/2 Mile   Ninja Tune ZEN CD145 2010
The brains behind this wonderful new album album on the Ninja Tunes label are Andrew Phillips and Marcus O’Dair.
Andrew Philips is an award-winning film and television composer with over 100 screen credits and he is also a former keyboard player, vocalist and arranger with One [...]

Prince 2010 (NPG Records Promo 2010)
Back in 2007 Prince stunned the music world by snubbing record shops and the conventional channels for releasing music by giving his album Planet Earth, an exclusive UK only release (at that point in time) as a free CD in the Mail on Sunday. This album was eventually given a [...]