Cleo Sol kick started her music career early, from the age of sixteen she was writing, honing her craft in front of showcase and talent spotting audiences as well as posting her demo tracks on the internet. She had a drive and a sharp vision for where she was headed, even adopting the name Sol, albeit as a nod to the Spanish of her mother’s side of the family, offered a clue as to the sound that is the heartbeat of her music. Her first steps though were with Dance and Rap artists like Davinche and Tinie Tempah, who featured Cleo on tracks thus ushering her into collaboration situations and developing her style. Nothing that happened back then though gave much of a hint that a stunning, heavy hitting, Soul opera such as this LP, ‘Mother,’ would land further down the line. Talk about fully realizing an artist’s potential, this album is a monster of a statement. A modern Soul masterpiece that references many classic retro tropes, Donny Hathaway piano balladry, Aretha Franklin testimony and Gospel and yet it does not play like the repro work of a vintage obsessive for one second; no, this album sounds like it was made and absolutely belongs in 2021, a record for today.

As an artist Cleo is a brilliant fusion of the multicultural musical melting pot she grew up around in Ladbroke Grove. So much was written over the last five years about the London Jazz scene that it is easy to overlook that London is the epicenter of all music fusions, there is not one sound that defines the city. Cleo had genuinely eclectic records around her as a child thanks to her parents tastes in Soul, Reggae, Latin and Jazz; add to that her own affection for the Pop sounds around the Millennium and you have an idea where this young girl, with a karaoke machine to sing to her family, was heading musically. But then that in itself is maybe not unlike hundreds of other London kids with a taste for performing, perhaps the thing that pushes Cleo ahead of the pack is that ear for music she undoubtedly demonstrates on ‘Mother.’ A gift that as a youngster steered her towards a deep and fundamentally inspiring affection for Stevie Wonder’s ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing,’ an appreciation revealing a maturity to her musical brain highlighting why an album length musical statement such as this was a likely part of her arsenal.

It is no exaggeration to say that if Stevie Wonder himself had released this album in the 21^st century, critics would have been lining up to praise the LP as an astounding return to the rich vein of form he enjoyed in his early seventies’ heyday. Do I detect a nod to ‘He’s Misstra Know It All’ in the opening riff to ‘Music’? Well, if I do it is only a launchpad from which Cleo dives deep into her own wonderous world. It is not simply that ‘Mother’ maintains a thread throughout twelve strong tracks, or that there is pure soul in Cleo’s singing; the genius is in the tiny details weaved into this tapestry. The baby noises buried in the backdrop of ‘We Need You’ and the way that tune can melt through your skin like the golden dawn of your life, then judder your head with a brief bass led interval. The music flows track to track and the shifts in tempo sail naturally. But they are very real changes, the contrasts exist in each song. Listen to ‘23’, a tune with a real bass driven bounce and a breezy lightness in tone, but then the swirling voices in that chorus are singing “you nearly broke me down”. In nearly eight minutes, ‘Build Me Up’ progresses from tender reflection, gospel style elevation and vulnerable exaltation before literally speeding up as a deep bass groove leads us back to the sunshine, magical stuff. This album is an essential slice of young and modern Soul music; a raw yet gorgeous meditation on relationships, life and motherhood delivered straight from the heart of an artist with music in her DNA. I cannot overstate how great this is.

Get a vinyl pressing of this album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/20965663-Cleo-Sol-Mother

This was arguably the most assured and fully realized breakthrough debut album of the year. Reminiscent of the way Norah Jones first landed with a classic showcase calling card record nearly two decades earlier, this does the exact same thing, firing straight out of the barrel and hitting the bullseye. Lady Blackbird, the performing name of Marley Munroe from Los Angeles, is the kind of jazz singer that infuses soul into her style the moment she steps in front of a microphone. And because she has such an incredible stimulating voice, her collaborators in producing this album (including heavy jazz hitters such as former Miles Davis pianist Deron Johnson) clearly knew that the main objective was to put that voice front and center. They pulled this task off so convincingly that any uninformed listener would be forgiven for assuming this to be cut in the classic late sixties, early seventies analogue era of recording, the work of some long-established legendary diva. The singing is all command, as the music warmly wraps itself around the vocals without ever hustling for the spotlight. At times it is quite bold in its gentle serenity, allowing the performance to breathe as an orchestral conductor would, the audio is absolutely alive with feeling.

‘Black Acid Soul’ is kind of a statement of content in itself, both as an album title and too in the wavy psychedelic lettering of the striking cover design, you are invited to expect a certain kind of content within. It is the sort of heading you could reasonably expect someone like Nina Simone to have her name associated with around the early seventies. Therefore, it is no surprise to find that there is a Simone connection in the name Lady Blackbird, paid homage to with the opening track, an arresting version of Nina’s ‘Blackbird.’ Much like the Norah Jones record I referred to, this collection to is a tastefully curated selection of song interpretations with a splattering of original material mixed in. One massive stand out number is a killer take on a little known 1967 track by Soul artist Reuben Bell called ‘It’s Not That Easy’. The piano is especially aching as it’s punctuation echoes to the sky, the organ notes tap tap tap a pensive backdrop, but the core of the performance is Munroe’s definitive delivery.

As any great singer should, Lady Blackbird makes the material she covers very much her own. When you consider that among these are selections like Tim Hardin’s ‘It’ll Never Happen Again’ and a tune best known by New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas, ‘Ruler Of My Heart,’ then to say she succeeds in putting her own stamp on them is a huge compliment. Her own creative muscles are flexed with a re-working of Bill Evans famous ‘Peace, Peace’ wherein Munroe and fellow collaborator Chris Seefried transform it into a lyrical work called ‘Fix It.’ Elsewhere, the same pair are responsible for ‘Five Feet Tall’ and, along with the superb ‘Nobody’s Sweetheart’ by Seefried alone, the new stuff does not impose any dip in quality whatsoever. Therefore, the album does contain a sheen that is both classic and new all rolled into one. The record ends in a manner that should encourage listeners to watch keenly where Lady Blackbird could progress from here on in, for the title track is an ensemble collaboration that suggests in its sonic inflexions, that there is much to come from this artist, ‘Black Acid Soul’ is a mere launchpad and Lady Blackbird is certainly worthy of our continued enthused attention.

Find a vinyl pressing of this album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/20174482-Lady-Blackbird-Black-Acid-Soul

Silver Synthetic are a New Orleans band born out of the punky fuzz excursions of that city’s Bottomfeeders. Around 2017 they found that amid the rough-edged garage creations they had built up there were other kinds of songs emerging. These tunes were crying out for a different sort of treatment, they didn’t seem to belong to the Bottomfeeders, sounding far more in need of a band with a facility for variation, refined flourishes with an ear for melody and texture. So it was that the creator of this tantalizing pile of songs, Chris Lyons, recruited long time musical cohorts and fellow Bottomfeeders to form Silver Synthetic. This self-titled debut album, the end result of their journey, is an artfully crafted jewel of Alt-Americana, timeless in its clarity and surely a record that will delight those who discover it for years to come.

Opener ‘In The Beginning’ sets its stall out with easy country-rock vibes, there is an unmistakable hint of Beachwood Sparks in the air and a curiously inviting tone to the expressive electric guitar playing. ‘Unchain Your Heart’ is pure acid-country gold, a momentum fueled rhythmic guitar chug that makes the simple plea to “unchain your heart, bring it back to me.” Its that classic killer number two album track that puts a record on the front foot with the listener, locking them in for the duration. You just cannot fail to get into this track, it is the very definition of infectious simplicity in terms of lyric and ear worm hooks but on top of that there’s still space for a burning, bending guitar solo that lifts the track even higher.

This happens again on ‘Around The Bend,’ in which the song hangs itself deliciously around lush guitar hooks, chiming folk-rock chord changes and yet another easy on the ear chorus. About two thirds of the way through there’s a gear change, everything speeds up and the track literally accelerates its way to a conclusion. Simple musical furnishings these may well be, but they are tried and tested movements that will always work when executed, as they are here, by a band that sound totally locked into each other.

The entire album is without fault, every song enhances the collective tone. ‘Chasm Killer’ is mellower but just when you think you are familiar with the formulae here, Silver Synthetic throw the heaviest of golden chord changes in the chorus and let rip more sumptuous melodic fuzz guitar ploughing. ‘Out Of The Darkness’ is appropriately urgent, reminding me a little of the way the Velvet Underground took a charge at a song like ‘Foggy Notion.’ ‘Unholy Love’ floats on a vacillating sea of summer harmonies, forlorn guitar strokes and a soft underpinning of organ; in other words, it is rather exquisite. ‘Some Of What You Want’ arrives with drive, this time the band show how seemingly straight forward arrangement ideas can result in head spinning excitement; they do this by opening with a guitar solo then breaking down to a middle-eight section that lands right before the final chorus. Finally, LP closer ‘On The Way Home’ sets the sun down on a song collection that has warmed the heart and mind of this listener and with just eight songs to thrill over, Silver Synthetic have definitely left me wanting more.

Get a vinyl pressing of this album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/18257998-Silver-Synthetic-Silver-Synthetic

Esther Rose proves on this stunner of an album that design classics never age if they are presented with sincerity and conviction. By that I mean, Esther’s sound is wholly classic country in its tone, it has acoustic guitar alongside tasteful electric and steel guitar textures, rolling fiddle, easy swinging drum strokes and is topped off with a voice that is achingly pure. The songs, especially on this collection, sing of heartbreak and relationship crisis points but they are varnished with hope, resolve and a lust to kick back from these bumps in the road. Above all though and the main reason why my opening sentence carries some weight, is that these are fantastic melodic songs that have insistent repeat-play worthy pleasures. This is great songwriting, and the album serves the songs so well, with simple vintage style production breathing life, heartbreak and soul into every tune.

It became an album of 2021 for me primarily because it delivered on that ingredient that all the essential albums should; every song was a winner and across the whole set the standard did not drop. OK, it is a shorter than average album clocking in at 35 minutes, but then there are classic Beatles albums that only run to the half hour mark and essentially, this is a record that does all it needs to do within its time. Esther did make some reference to a relationship break up at the time of the release, which maybe explains why there is so much feeling and belief injected into every performance. The tune ‘Songs Remain’ is a splendid example of this as it appears to fondly yet a little mournfully, recall music indelibly connected to a partner. She sings the heavily loaded line “I am glad it was you who broke my heart, because it had to be you who broke my heart” seeming to suggest that the hurting has only served to instill those songs with greater meaning. The fade is quite poignant too, as the sound of a rocking western style tune cuts through to the backdrop of pouring down rain, like a brief audio flashback.

Even though heartbreak is a recurring theme on the record, it doesn’t ever become a song cycle that brings the listener down. Quite the opposite, even on the title track opener Esther is asking “how many times will you break my heart?” while the music is somehow celebratory, as if already picturing the day she emerges from this ordeal a stronger person. ‘Are You Out There’ acknowledges that there is no one on a New Year’s Eve or Saturday night that the singer wants to kiss, but as she asks the question the song sets out by name, there is more certainty than doubt bleeding into the enquiry. All the way the singer is finding strength even as she stands alone. This is an album that anyone determined to pick themselves up after a fall should make part of their musical life. The poppier moments, such as ‘Keeps Me Running,’ slide and swing like audio medicine that can only be administered on a honky-tonk hardwood floor while the more reflective numbers, such as the beautiful ‘When You Go,’ massage the heart strings and shower this set with the many shades of emotion tied to a relationship ending. The ace in Esther Rose’s pack though is that you do not really have to get too deep and heavy into those details to enjoy the record, these songs are just so musically satisfying, like sweet vintage sonic honey.

Get a vinyl pressing of the album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/19987084-Esther-Rose-How-Many-Times

Chelsea Carmichael is a saxophonist, composer and arranger who released this, her solo debut, in 2021 and added more lush sparkle onto a music style that has been on fire for me in recent years. My journey into Jazz appreciation came at a late stage, at least compared to other genres that I remain heavily into. I began to soak up the classics as an entry point, the Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s that you always read about before branching out and often backwards to people like Sidney Bechet and Dave Brubeck, as well as digging into the groove of so much classic Blue Note material. There was new stuff on my radar too but nothing close to the explosion enjoyed for the last five years. It was roughly that long ago that the emphasis shifted and Jazz became a principal component to anything exciting and original I was hearing from the area marked ‘contemporary music.’ Yes, my imagination had been captured by the artists the press had herded together and labelled the ‘New London Jazz Scene.’

Now, even though that catch all title is still very much in use, I think there is a wider understanding by those in the know that it is a bit of a fiction. The artists at its core are UK wide and beyond and even though there is much cross pollination between performers, that in itself is hardly anything new in Jazz; they do though all share a visionary outlook that is far more panoramic than to be confined to the style and sound of just one city. That said, I believe the thing that did stimulate me was that, of all the new Jazz I ever listened to, this loose collective of people shares a sound that could only be generated in the modern world. I am talking about The Sons Of Kemet, Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia, Seed Ensemble, Kokoroko, Ruby Rushton and Moses Boyd plus others. Theirs is Jazz played with a pulsating beating heart, a sharpened street wise city edge and wide-open ears that have absorbed everything from Hip-Hop to Be-Bop and have the chops to bring vibes that have gone before into a bubbling melting pot to serve up a banging, heavy brew.

Sons Of Kemet main man Shabaka Hutchings is a key figure in the whole scene and pretty damn important to the Chelsea Carmichael story too. It was his invite that led to Chelsea recording the first full length LP on his new label Native Rebel Records. Sure enough, the resulting record not only fizzled with the va-va-voom that typified so many of the ‘London Scene’ releases, but it also shone a light on Chelsea’s own emerging gift for composition, something which maybe had taken a back seat as she worked with, amongst others, the Seed Ensemble (whose ‘Driftglass’ was one of my albums of 2019) and Outlook Orchestra with Theon Cross. Now, with ‘The River Doesn’t Like Strangers,’ she has un-corked a forward-thinking musical grain of her own that appears to be spilling over with melodic and sonic progressions. Take that title track alone, it is propelled by deep, lolling bass lines but Carmichael’s saxophone progressions develop in a never-ending splintering of directions, each one as worthy and moreish as its predecessor.

And that only scratches the surface, the whole album is a nine-track blast rammed with ideas that are executed with class and style. ‘There Is You And You’ positively throbs, its joys are truly head spinning and by the time the piercing slashes of guitar enter the picture you really do feel like your mind could split open. That is where Jazz music is really doing its job, starting you out on a journey where, if you climb aboard and trust in the magic, you are going to be lifted to a better place. But it is not going to hold your hand and spoon feed you its sweet tastes, you have got to commit. Do that and you will surely enjoy the finest rewards in music. This stuff is important and what you listen to should not always be limited to the background or to enhance other activity, sometimes you need to give it your all. Just as Chelsea Carmichael did with the making of this album, the end result is a collection of music where the grooves are absolutely loaded with imaginative, soul cleansing, sonic pleasures and they come at you in an overwhelming abundance.

Get a vinyl pressing of the album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/22787624-Chelsea-Carmichael-The-River-Doesnt-Like-Strangers

I came to the Surfing Magazines in 2017 when they put out a brilliant, grungy eponymous debut album. It took me a little time that year to realize they were actually more than half a combination of one of my favorite bands of the decade. It took a YouTube video for me to click, the light suddenly coming on as I recognized “hang on a minute, that’s David Tattersall and Franic Rozycki out of the Wave Pictures.” Well of course… Wave Pictures / Surfing Magazines… it was all there staring me in the face. No wonder the sound of this apparently new band grabbed my attention so much. They also consist of half the members of Slow Club and so are a perfect amalgamation of the two bands; I received the news that a second album would land in 2021 with excitable anticipation.

There are a multitude of reasons I love the Wave Pictures, but one significant string to their indie-rock bow is the way they can inhale the grinding, pulsating essence of the Velvet Underground at their scuzzy, rocking peak and sprinkle this gold dust over their own music. When they hit the mark with this trick, which they do too often for it to be a fluke, the resulting music is truly special. I am aware this is a big statement so; I will present you with the track ‘The Woods’ from their 2013 album ‘City Forgiveness’ as exhibit A in my presentation. If we are in agreement, then read on because with this Surfing Magazines project David and Franic along with Charles Watson and Dominic Brider allow themselves free reign to drink copiously from that Velvets stream without inhibition.

That said, they are far from a one-trick guitar distortion beast, far from it. David Tattersall’s songwriting has always kept a keen eye on the pop world, in that sense these are like a slightly old-fashioned eighties indie band, before Britpop took the format overground, producing brilliant little vignettes that reference every strain of outsider pop, the kind that would treat troubling the lower reaches of the charts as a badge of honor. Take the slow, gangster strut of the title track ‘Badgers Of Wymewold;’ there are echoes of classic garage rock in that groove, a hint of shoegaze head grinding in the aggressive guitar punctuations and even a taste of experimental Jazz in the saxophone intervals. This is a musical project where everything is on the table.

I hear the Pixies too, especially from around the time they embraced surf-rock into their sound with ‘Bossanova.’ I could bring Jonathan Richman into the equation too, just listen to the child like vim the Surfing Magazines bring to the tune ‘Pink Ice Cream.’ That said, I only like to bring direct comparisons into a review if I believe the act I am writing about take those influences, develop them, toss them up in the air and construct something new and brilliant with them and that is exactly what the Surfing Magazines do. As such they are in themselves a band that deserve appreciation for being far more than a side project to the respective bands they come from. If anything, this is where David Tattersall has captured most effectively the full range of underground rock wonder and tender, bruised balladry that bleeds into all his best work. This album is worthy of the attention of anyone with ears that work properly.

Get a vinyl pressing of this album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/22554830-The-Surfing-Magazines-Badgers-of-Wymeswold

French psychedelic pop finery from a group who first caught my attention with their 2016 debut album ‘In Excelsis Stereo’. Five years on, all that I had heard in the intervening period that these were still a going concern was a couple of, admittedly superb, EPs amid reports in the press that there had been a change in personnel. Now a sextet, their second album realized the stunning potential apparent on that first album then added to it in waves. ‘Sabbat Matters’ was an incredible record absolutely spilling over with heavy melodic adventurousness, lyrical vim and wonder. A dizzying, head-in-the-clouds, musical dream bursting into reality.

Maybe not to younger ears for whom the popular sounds involve a bit of electronic modernism, a rap segment or an autotuned vocal track, but for me this is out-and-out pop music. OK, so you could argue that it is a pop music sound that found it’s big moment in the charts more than fifty years ago when Shocking Blues were frugging ‘Venus’ and fuzz guitaring their way through the ‘Hot Sand’, but if pop remains built around songs and tunes, especially ones that are instant, alive and played with joy and passion, then this can be called nothing other than pure pop. This is a ten-track record without filler, it fizzes, sparkles and hits its mark on every single track.

Up front the group build their sonic wizardry around a trio of female vocals who all caress the lyrics in that precise way that mainland Europeans do when singing English language words. But this is, in part, why the music is so vital, because as much as there is a feeling of looseness and opportunities to wig out a bit instrumentally are not denied, this never slips into indulgence or sloppiness; these tracks are as carefully and creatively constructed as the lyrics are meticulously enunciated. Then add to that the late sixties, early seventies period stylings of playing, but playing that is alive with feeling as it breathes life into these songs. So, a near perfect retro pop record then, but only because the compositions are so strong; retro sounds for the sake of retro sounds are never that exciting to me.

Nothing this good was ever built for the sake of it though. Yes, the pagan and sabbat themes may well conjure up images of fifteenth century witchcraft, ‘The Wicker Man’ and acid-folk queens, which are far from the topics on the lips of the average pop kid, but choose to embrace the vintage eastern vibes, the overwhelming smell of incense and peppermints, and a kaleidoscopic pop experience is here waiting for you. This is the reason music aficionados like me dig around the margins, there may well be a lot of unwanted and unloved dross fallen to the wayside, but there is also an abundance of rare and beautiful gems either waiting for discovery or ripe for rediscovery. This is music that needs to be heard by anyone with a love for strong, colorful, gorgeously sung pop music with a late sixties psych-pop, fuzz heavy, freakbeat flavor. Yes, it really is that good, go and check it out immediately.

Find a vinyl pressing of this album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/17252311-Gloria-Sabbat-Matters