El Negocito Records

Apr 9 2019

Album of the Day: Jozef Dumoulin and Lidlboj – “Live In Neerpelt”

 

Artist:  Jozef Dumoulin & Lidlboj

Album:  Live In Neerpelt

Label:  El Negocito Records

Style:  Ghost of jazz passing beneath an electric moon

Favorite Track:  “Ik Roep”

Music from:  Neerpelt, Belgium

What I like about it:  I like how loosely the music presents itself, like it just climbed out of bed and walked to the center of the party.  And I like how that quality contrasts with the crisply dealt phrasings on both saxophone and voice.  The whole disposition of this album is of a band etching shapes into the surface of a cloud.  This live performance originally went down back in 2011, and I like how the economics and technology of the internet provide an outlet for music like this to finally see the light of day on the recorded medium.  Real good stuff, and yet one more fascinating album courtesy of site-favorite Jozef Dumoulin.

Your album personnel:  Jozef Dumoulin (keyboards & effects), Lynn Cassiers (voice, electronics), Bo Van der Werf (baritone sax, electronics), Dries Laheye (bass, effects) and Eric Thielemans (drums).

Available at:  Bandcamp

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Be sure to check out the artist’s site.

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Jan 14 2019

Best of 2018 #20: Mephiti – “Mephiti”

 

When I made this album one of my Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations, I stated that the takeaway of this album is that there are countless ways to express a state of serenity. The Mephiti sextet possess a strong melodic perspective, and the substance of their vision is revealed in the nuanced way they allow each to emerge, slowly, patiently, like nurturing a small flame into a roaring fire.  Four of the instruments are stringed, with two guitars, bass and a kantele, and the way they delicately weave melodic patterns is not unlike Bill Frisell’s masterful use of loops and effects.  Just a gorgeous recording that kept getting better over time.

Released on El Negocito Records.

Music from Antwerp, Belgium.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 22 2018

The Round-up: Dancing with distance

 

Here is some very good new music.

 

Barry Altschul & The 3dom Factor – Live in Krakow (Not Two)

For some musicians, the process to the performance is 1.) Pour gasoline, 2.) Light match.  On this live set from drummer Barry Altschul, bassist Joe Fonda and saxophonist Jon Irabagon, the flames are unleashed on the city of Krakow, and there’s just no end to it.  Even the brief reprieve of “Irina” barely serves as a breather with its insistent extrapolation of the blues.  This album really only has gears that operate at high speeds, and that’s exactly the reason you want to scoop this one up.

Artist site | Buy:  Amazon

 

Henrique Eisenmann – The Free Poetics Of (Red Piano Records)

That way in which a roomful of conversations can take on a life of its own, and achieve a unity that verges on a distinct dialog all to itself… that’s the sensation from this new release by Henrique Eisenmann.  The crosscurrents of melody ripple across the dotted surface of multi-rhythmic expressions, and it crackles with life.  Even during contemplative interludes, that electricity hums quietly just beneath the surface and gives off an animated charge.  The pianist has soprano saxophonist Gustavo D’Amico, double bassist Jorge Roeder and percussionist Rogerio Boccato at his side.  Music from Boston, MA.

Artist site | Buy:  Amazon

 

Tony Burkill – Work Money Death (ATA Records)

Some soul, some bop and plenty of heat to drive it all ahead.  This throwback recording to the old school when hard bop was looking inward at its soul and outward to other musics is plenty addictive.  Saxophonist Tony Burkill finds a way to make the music catchy when at its most intense, and introspective when it’s time for the intensity to catch its breath.  It’s a pattern he has on repeat, and it never grows old, not even a little bit.  The rhythmic attitude of Work Money Death is let’s dance, and while the tempo might not point to any formal method of motion, it elicits a compulsion to move all the same.  Music from Leeds, UK.

No artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

John McNeil & Mike Fahie – Plainsong (Destiny Records)

Nice straight-ahead set from the trumpeter John McNeil and trombonist Mike Fahie.  They stick to the area where hard bop and post-bop can blend into the same crowd and remain relatively indistinguishable one from the other.  “Rain Song, Plain Song” is one of a couple exceptions where the modern influence reigns supreme, and the decision to take this course gives the album its personality.  This doesn’t stray far from the winning formula of McNeil’s Hush Point group.  For this session, it’s pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Billy Hart rounding out a quintet.  Music from Brooklyn, NY.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Giovanni Di Domenico & Abschattungen – The Ear Cannot Be Filled With Hearing (El Negocito Records)

This large ensemble performance led out by pianist Giovanni Di Domenico goes big and gives it everything they’ve got.  They toe the line where sonic wildness becomes random dissonance, and so each of the four extended pieces of his 2017 release perpetually cycle between states of dispersal and reformation.  The thing that triggers the transition back to structure is a groove.  It’s as if it suddenly emerges from beneath the surface of the song, like the earth swelling up and grumbling out a heady tempo.  It’s an arresting feature of an interesting album.  Music from Brussels, Belgium.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

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Nov 22 2014

Recommended: Ruben Machtelinckx – “Flock”

 

There are moments on Flock so pretty, it’s heartbreaking.  Guitarist Ruben Machtelinckx constructs languid melodies and juxtaposes them with insistent tempos, hinting at a potential intensity.  It results in an uneasy serenity that is an immersive experience, but one that could be shattered with just the slightest touch of dissonance.

Key to this sensation begins with the way in which Joachim Badenhorst paints the loveliest passages against this backdrop on reed instruments.  His lyricism is consistent, and to great effect on bass clarinet.  The melody of title-track “Flock” isn’t played, it’s poured.  This continues with “Peterson,” but with the foot pressed just slightly on the gas pedal.  Badenhorst’s bass clarinet sings with a presence, sighs with an arresting redolence.

Machtelinckx and Hilmar Jensson team up on guitars for this session.  The dynamic mix of electric and acoustic guitars, baritone guitar and banjo provides them the tools to play with tone and tempo, while also accentuating the melody in ways that up the level of beauty.  “Cumulus” flashes some teeth and shows some bite with a dissonant outro.  “McMurdo” weaves bursts of electric guitar heat into a melodic cascade from banjo.

On a track like “The Hunter,” bassist Nathan Wouters illustrates his talent for layering shadows across the moonlit path of Badenhorst’s melodic expressions.  On “Loos,” Wouters’s shadows impose themselves upon the fading light of electric guitar.

An album of a mesmerizing beauty.

Your album personnel:  Ruben Machtelinckx (guitar, baritone guitar, banjo), Hilmar Jensson (guitar), Joachim Badenhorst (tenor sax, clarinets), and Nathan Wouters (bass).

Released on El Negocito Records.

Jazz from the Antwerp, Belgium scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

Or purchase the CD or Vinyl direct from the artist.

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