LADYHAWKE: LADYHAWKE
***
MODULAR/ISLAND, £10.99NEW Zealander Pip Brown pays brazen tribute to her 1980s upbringing on a debut album that effortlessly references such nostalgia radio favourites as Cyndi Lauper, Stevie Nicks,
Pat Benatar, Don Henley and Gary Numan. Not with the knowing, fashion-led irony favoured by the likes of Les Rythmes Digitales (aka Madonna's producer Stuart Price), but in the same spirit of insouciant celebration as Santogold, Calvin Harris and CSS. Ladyhawke radiates affection for its electro-pop and MOR source material – My Delirium sounds like it should be accompanied by a video featuring serious dancers in legwarmers, while former single Paris is Burning expresses the youthful sense of anticipation and entitlement about a night on the town that is hardly confined to the 1980s generation.
MERCURY REV: SNOWFLAKE MIDNIGHT
***
V2, £11.99HAVING taken the psychedelic lullabies of their breakthrough album, 1998's Deserters Songs, as far as they can go over subsequent releases, and having been somewhat eclipsed as a cosmic pop force by fellow travellers The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev have changed direction quite dramatically on their seventh album, using random note generator software and a bunch of synthesised effects to create a pulsating canvas of soothing digital ambience which belies the less-than-organic composition techniques. The majestic sweep of old is largely absent, although Dream of a Young Girl as a Flower does build to a compelling Krautrock climax. Overall, an intriguing exercise rather than a ravishing listen.
FOLK
DOGHOUSE ROSES: HOW'VE YOU BEEN ALL THIS TIME?
***
YELLOWROOM MUSIC, £10 THIS Glasgow duo, comprising singer Iona Macdonald and guitarist Paul Tasker, presents a seamless mix of folk, blues, country and Americana on their full-length debut, with the folk factor ultimately pushing through most prominently. Macdonald's voice is pretty and pure and the arrangements fall on the mellow side of the roots spectrum. Their love of 1960s folk trailblazers Pentangle comes to the fore on the track Happiness with its beguiling vocal melody and Bert Jansch-style guitar, but their own personal style has yet to emerge.
SARAH-JANE SUMMERS: NESTA
****
DELL DAISY RECORDS, £11.99THIS Inverness fiddler named her debut solo album after the old Celtic name for the River Ness, but one of the most prominent musical influences on the disc is the distinctive sound of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. She employs it to striking effect on both her own tunes – as in The Happy Hardanger and Urban Trad – and material from both Scotland and Norway. The Scots fiddle is by no means neglected, and she brings a deft touch and lyrical grace to both instruments in the course of this all-instrumental outing. Ewan MacPherson's guitars and Barry Phillips five-string cello provide excellent accompaniment, supported by Kevin McGuire on bass and percussionist Paul Jennings.
JAZZ
JOE LOVANO: SYMPHONICA
****
BLUE NOTE RECORDS, £12.99ONE of the qualities that have made Joe Lovano such a major figure in the contemporary jazz landscape has been his ability to absorb a huge swathe of jazz's stylistic spectrum, from straight swing to free jazz, and recast the results with his own distinctive signature. That process is at work again here in arguably the most ambitious project he has undertaken. The saxophonist is featured with the WDR Big Band and the Rundfunk Orchestra, performing a range of his own tunes and a lovely version of Mingus's Duke Ellington's Sound of Love. As in most such projects, the orchestral writing by conductor and arranger Michael Abene is accomplished but largely unambitious, and offers a lushly textured backdrop to Lovano's powerful soloing. The music ranges from gorgeous ballads through to freewheeling post-bop jousting with alto saxophonist Karolina Strassmayer.
CLASSICAL
JOHN ADAMS: THE FLOWERING TREE
****
NONESUCH, £24.99WRITTEN as a commission for international sources including the Berlin Philharmonic and London's Barbican Centre, and timed to coincide with the 250th Anniversary of Mozart's birth, John Adams's opera The Flowering Tree has all the glittering innocence of a Mozart opera coloured with Adams's own loose brand of minimalism. Adapted from an Indian folktale by composer and co-librettist Peter Sellars, there is magic and ecstasy in every bar performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Schola Cantorum Caracas and soloists Jessica Rivera, Russell Thomas and Eric Owens under Adams's direction. Rarely a moment passes when the pulsating rhythms and radiant orchestration lose their thrill. Even as an opera simply to listen to, its music is compelling.
BEETHOVEN: MASS IN C
***
LSO LIVE, £8.99BEETHOVEN'S Mass in C may not be as popular as his other big choral works, but it is no less impressive in the magnitude and scale of its vision. The real merit in this live recording by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under Sir Colin Davis, lies in the sheer warmth of colour of the choral singing. There is understandably fine support from soloists Sally Matthews, Sara Mingardo, John Mark Ainsley and Alastair Miles, and of course from the LSO, but Davis elicits electrifying commitment from the choir, imbuing the Gloria with a terrifying explosiveness and the Credo with enough agility of mood to realise its operatic aspirations. Speaking of which, a token addition of the Prisoners Chorus from Fidelio completes this all-Beethoven disc.
WORLD
PRINCES AMONGST MEN: JOURNEYS WITH GYPSY MUSICIANS
****
ASPHALT TANGO, £13.99AS THE soundtrack to the book, this couldn't be bettered: when it appeared last year, Garth Cartwright's Princes Amongst Men (published by Serpent's Tail) was instantly acclaimed as the best book yet on Balkan Gypsy music. Chronicling his wanderings across four states in 2003, and written with beautiful precision, it vividly evokes scenes and characters from this world, with its resilient but perennially endangered culture. Cartwright's compilation on this CD draws on the very best music on offer, and includes those old favourites Kocani Orkestar, Taraf de Haidouks, and Fanfare Ciocarlia. But he casts his net wide to bring in lovely and less-familiar stuff: my favourite tracks include Romica Puceanu's haunting vocal artistry, the dizzy speed and accuracy of Ferus Mustafov and his band, Saban Bajramovic's brand of Balkan flamenco, and Sofi Marinova's extraordinary vocal ornamentation in interplay with a clarinet. What is the future for Balkan Gypsy music? This brilliant CD suggests a bright one.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC: SILK AND BAMBOO ENSEMBLE
****
EUCD, £10.99TO COOL off after the above, why not try this series of songs and dances from a highly accomplished group, which includes all the main instruments in China's traditional armoury. This genre goes back to the 8th century BC, but its charm is timeless.
The full article contains 1101 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
