Album reviews

Published on Thursday 10 January 2008 18:40

POP

BRITISH SEA POWER: DO YOU LIKE ROCK MUSIC? ***

ROUGH TRADE, 11.99

BRIGHTON eccentrics British Sea Power have promised great, or at least unusual, things for several years now but have remained the perennial underachievers, both creatively and commercially. Someone still believes in them though, as they are now on to their third disappointing album in a row – one which, more than ever, sounds caught in a compromise between their quaint vision of ye olde English art rock and their empty, shiny, more successful indie contemporaries. One example: the single Waving Flags, which the band launched with a gig at the Czech Embassy in London, allies an offbeat lyric celebrating "pan-European unity" – including a namecheck for the Carpathian mountain range – to an underwhelming backing which just sounds like a less chest-beating version of Editors. Elsewhere, nothing much happens, but it all sounds tastefully crafted.

MATT COSTA: UNFAMILIAR FACES ***

BRUSHFIRE, 10.99

LIKE Kate Nash, this Californian singer/songwriter first started writing songs while laid up, recovering from an accident, and found support for his efforts from surfer-songwriter Jack Johnson, co-founder of the Brushfire label. Costa is a bit livelier than his mentor (could be his background as a skateboarder) and has produced a pleasingly diverse second album which encompasses the acoustic country saunter of Never Looking Back, shuffling roots rocker Emergency Call and a brazen Mungo Jerry pastiche for afters. There are a couple of misfires – an indifferent title track for one – but Costa makes up for it with some mellow bossa nova atmosphere on Vienna and the Devendra Banhart-style folky quaver of Bound.

GRANT CAMPBELL: BEYOND BELOW ***

CROOKED MOUTH RECORDS, 12.99

SELF-STYLED "inner-city cowboy" Grant Campbell hails from Glasgow, but his second home-recorded album is just as evocative of the dusty panoramas of Texas as it is of the bleak but romantic Scottish landscape. By necessity, Campbell keeps things simple and intimate, but his gravelly voice is rich enough to carry these country, folk and blues songs with only the barest musical embellishment. Both understated and atmospheric, Beyond Below gives a respectful nod to Bruce Springsteen at his most vulnerable.

CLASSICAL

JAMES MACMILLAN: THE WORLD'S RANSOMING/ THE CONFESSION OF ISOBEL GOWDIE ***

LSO LIVE, 7.99

THE World's Ransoming and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie are among James MacMillan's golden crop of works. It's perhaps surprising, though, to hear them recorded anew on the London Symphony Orchestra's LSO Live label, when there are fine existing recordings by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. You could argue that Sir Colin Davis, in these new recordings, offers a more reflective take on MacMillan, but that is also to acknowledge that these performances – especially The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (the audaciously intense work that essentially launched the composer's career into the stratosphere) – lack the edge and sense of danger that light up the earlier versions. Of the two, Davis seems more obviously comfortable with The World's Ransoming, the first of MacMillan's trilogy of the 1990s. He draws out its contrasting elements with mastery and a keen sense of pace. Much of the onus here is also on the solo cor anglais, which Christine Pendrill delivers with sinuous expressiveness. If anything makes this new release highly attractive it is surely the price.

STRAVINSKY: LATE BALLETS ****

NAXOS, 5.99

FEW people knew Igor Stravinsky better than Robert Craft. As the composer's closest confidant he had a unique insider knowledge of Stravinsky's mind and his music. This is Volume 9 in his recorded survey of the complete works of Stravinsky for Naxos, and it includes some of the brightest moments from the composer's pen. Stravinsky held a special affection for ballet music, and in this scintillating grouping we hear the frivolous lustre of Jeu de cartes from the Philharmonia Orchestra, the impish humour of Danses concertantes performed by Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble, the gorgeous Scene de Ballet featuring the Orchestra of St Lukes, the famous 1960s Variations and perhaps the most interesting work – the fun-filled Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra with Mark Wait as soloist.

JAZZ

JOHN TAYLOR: WHIRLPOOL *****

CAMJAZZ, 13.99

ANOTHER gem of jazz creation from this English pianist. Right from the opening bars of Kenny Wheeler's poignant Consolation it is clear we are in the hands of master musicians. Taylor's standing among cognoscenti has always been sky-high, and his playing seems to grow more profound with each year. His gloriously clean touch and original melodic and harmonic thinking are beautifully captured in pristine sound in this meticulous recording. His dialogues with the equally inventive Palle Danielsson on bass are a joy, and will continue to reveal new facets over many listens. Drummer Martin France revels in this company, and is entirely at home with the rhythmic freedom of the music. Taylor's own swirling title track and his effervescent The Woodcocks are standouts, as are their interpretations of Gershwin's I Loves You Porgy and Holst's In the Bleak Midwinter.

FOLK

DONALD BLACK: KEIL ROAD ***

MACMEANMNA, 13.99

HARMONICA is not the first instrument that springs to mind when Scottish traditional music is mentioned, but Donald Black has been an assiduous as well as persuasive advocate. This disc focuses exclusively on what he describes as "slow airs and reflections" from the Highland and Gaelic traditions (a slightly livelier waltz quadrille from Canada is the exception), played on the distinctively tuned Scottish Celtic harmonica he has developed with Hohner. It could have been a recipe for a rather bland collection in other hands, but Black's technical facility and expressive interpretations ensure it remains an engaging listen, and he throws in a vocal version of the Gaelic song Gleann Bhaile Chaoil for good measure. Other innovations include a first-ever pibroch on harmonica. A stellar cast of helpers includes Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham, Duncan Chisholm and Allan Henderson, who also produces.

WORLD

LA FELICIDAD CUMPLIDA: PERFECT BLISS: ARABIC INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE ALCAZAR OF SEVILLE, 11TH-14TH CENTURY ****

KARONITE, 13.99

THE inscriptions of the title decorate the rooms of the most beautiful palace in Spain – designed and erected by Muslim master-builders and bricklayers in Seville. Eduardo Paniagua, a flautist, has brought in virtuosi on the oud, kanun zither, and tar drum, as well as Arabic singers, and he's added in Western strings. The result is a gravely beautiful series of pieces reflecting the quintessence of medieval Andalusian music.

GRUPO MUZENZA: CAPOEIRA ***

PLAYASOUND, 13.99

CAPOEIRA is both a dance and a martial art, the origins of which lie in 16th-century Angola, whence slaves were exported to Brazil. With the abolition of slavery, capoeira lost its ideology, but was still practised among the poor until the Brazilian government banned it. Then came its rehabilitation as a martial art, followed by a craze in the favelas which continues to this day. This CD is basic, but British capoeira groups will find it the perfect learning aid.