We start this week with a jazz album. Why is HOME.S so special?
‘Partly because there is such a heavy story behind it HOME.S (★★★★☆, 9 issues) by Esbjörn Svensson. The Swedish pianist died in 2008 in a very tragic accident. He went diving with his 14-year-old son in a lake near Stockholm, but never surfaced. His son found him with a diving instructor at the bottom of the lake, after which he died in hospital.
‘Svensson was the great Swedish pianist at that time. He was world famous with the piano trio est in which he played with two childhood friends. In doing so, they changed the world. They made jazz with a lot of spectacle. They went to festivals, were loved by a large pop audience, made big shows with smoke machines and all the trimmings. Est’s records are also really nice: quite pop and rock-like in a nice way, but still really jazz.
‘Actually, nobody knew that Svensson sometimes did something outside the trio, until his widow discovered a scratched CD while cleaning up his things. “Solo,” it read. It was so damaged that for years it seemed impossible to do anything with it. But then his regular producer decided to try again with new techniques. It worked. The recordings were secured and it turned out not to be just some ideas, but a full-fledged solo album from start to finish.
‘Svensson always played in his trio, of course, with interaction between the drummer and bass player, but these are ‘his most intimate thoughts’, as his widow put it. She also recognized this sound from how he played at home. The music is also very melancholy, as Scandinavians always are in winter. The compositions are very open, as reviewer Gijsbert Kamer also writes. He carries you along in his compositions: it is simply a record with a beautiful story. You put it on and you get it right away.’
And then you tipped Leftfield.
‘Yes: Leftfield, Underworld and Orbital were the great British bands of the nineties that brought dance music to the pop halls and festivals. Thunderous performances, good light shows; Leftfield made sure that the rock audience at Lowlands, for example, started thinking: pretty cool actually, that dance. No fiddling behind a laptop, but two men who made live music: a bit of trip hop, dub and reggae, real London club atmosphere. It was a great time, that British rave culture back then. Now Neil Barnes of Leftfield has released another record after seven years. This Is What We Do (★★★☆☆, 11 tracks) is only Leftfield’s fourth album.
‘In 2015 Barnes already came up with a great comeback album, after fifteen years of silence, but after that it remained quiet for a long time. Until now. Barnes went through a tough period: he got cancer and was in a divorce. Fortunately, he recovered and started making music again ‘like he was doing it for the first time’, as he said in an interview. The striking thing is that he makes exactly the same music as 25 years ago, so in that respect he has not taken a different path. This Is What We Do just sounds nice. A nostalgic sound for some and just a happy dance record for others. The harder you turn it, the tastier it gets. Let those basses pop.’
This is also worth listening to:
Gaye Su Akyol makes fascinating, transverse Turkish pop, says reviewer Menno Pot. on Anadolu Ejderi (★★★☆☆, 11 songs) you hear – partly due to her guitarist – traditional Turkish folk mixed with western surf punk.
The Amsterdam band Mich turns the dark sound of new wave and post-punk into something frivolous and bouncy. The rather short songs on their new album Nuts (★★★★☆, 12 numbers) are in almost all cases ‘irresistible in their mobile nervousness’.