ALBUM REVIEW: MAX SWAN “SLOW JAIL”
Staff Pick
Photo credit: Mike Ryan
In a smooth, heavenly choir, Slow Jail unveils its mystery in a luscious jazz soundscape with a hint of soul and R&B that drops right into a punchy, edgy electronic hip-hop landscape with brutally honest, cathartic storytelling. Slow Jail is characteristic for its vast influences and capacity to host Max Swan’s unique, multi-dimensional visions.
Fusing the night-life ambiance with captivating hip-hop storytelling, the rich R&B, and soul complete in the rhythms and vocal style, while the urban jazz influence gives the album a touch of wildness and freedom where pure emotional expression flies high and concentrated in the sky. As a classically-trained jazz saxophonist, a vocalist, and a hip-hop producer, Max Swan creates a smooth, lush texture that communicates the spirit of each genre with a touch of his own avant-garde ambition.
From “Sheesh” to “Filler” to “Woohoo” to “Change Your Mind,” Swan introduces a variety of distinct color palettes that remain exclusive to his creation while staying inspired and authentic to each sound. He channels a world between lucid and surreal with “Sheesh” where the pulsing funky bassline and ethereal vocal lure you into its strange, ever-changing world.
“Filler” has a dark distorted piano that comes in waves and interacts with the idea of waterdrops, which was very fascinating. “Legend” lays on the experimental side that challenges your sense with dynamic contrasts, where “Woohoo” features a smooth, evocative vocal that feels like the wind, and “Slow Jail” revisits a golden sound that concludes the album in celestial choir and whistle that blossom in the dark with a vintage glare.
Written by Katrina Yang
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SINGLE REVIEW: BRIDGET KELLY QUINN “ISLA”
Discovery
Photo credit: emabat_
“Isla” is a lullaby Bridget Kelly Quinn wrote for her daughter. Starting out as a cappella, Quinn ornamented with a beautiful, flowing piano, played by David Lennon. The simpleness of the song astonishes you with its raw, refreshing energy as opposed to the heavy, buzzy feeling sometimes a loud, overly polished track gives you. Like the wind that gently and playfully lifts off a strand of your hair, “Isla” is stunningly wonderful.
It reminds you of a simpler time and the beauty of something so pure and real -- love and happiness. “Isla” creates a little happy bubble around you and folds you in with its tender, loving field of energy that instantly melts all the outside noises and voices. listening to Bridget Kelly Quinn’s stunning vocal where a classical influence meets a tasteful jazz twist is simply fascinating.
“Isla,” as a debut of Bridget Kelly Quinn’s own writing shows potential. As a singer, the artist surely knows the charm in her voice, which she brings out so perfectly in her own songwriting with melodies that are soothing, refreshing, and authentic to her voice. It’s quite exciting to see where the future holds for Quinn.
ALBUM REVIEW: CHRISTER FREDRIKSEN “MAUVE”
Album of the Week
Identified as creative, free-form jazz, Mauve directly challenges the emerging stagnation in the jazz landscape. It comes from deep exposition into the genre when one dived deep in search for the truth and stands at its very core. What is jazz? Does jazz vocabulary define jazz? What do we seek in a jazz vocabulary? Sometimes, the answer is as simple as truth.
Intuitive and spontaneous. Fredriksen’s sound is nurtured and encouraged in a way that it stayed pure and lucid from the outside noise. It allows the messages and creative ideas to flow freely and interact with its other in the most natural, stimulated form that it is reflective and nostalgic to experiences, memories, and spirituality.
Inspired by life and written about life, the music Christer Fredriksen shares with Mauve has tastes, color, and scent. It wrapped your auditory system with multi-dimensional production that projects each sound to every detail from its location, distance, and altitude. It captures the moments and experiences in life in a cinematic, sensitive, and romantic way.
Christer Fredriksen is an artist, a perfectionist, and a keen observer. Mauve is intricate, sensitive, and immersive in that it brings you an experience that goes beyond the senses. From a personal, intimate perspective to the grand capture of dawn, wind, and clouds, Mauve is a mixture of those immediate, deeply touching experiences in a close-up position. It evokes different feelings and textures through the artist’s unique lenses and gives it a personal touch to the sound itself.
EP REVIEW: SAMMY HAIG “CUCUMBER”
Staff Pick
Photo credit: Dylan Garcia
“Cucumber” is infectious. In the striking, near-shoegazing stop-n-motion jazzscape, Sammy Haig charms you with a witty sense of quirkiness. A light electrified edge in his trumpet playing.“Cucumber” is one of the songs that change your perspective.
The initial sparkle of Cucumber first burst into sprout during a difficult time, which gradually grew into a multimedia project featuring more than 70 musicians and artists. Witnessing the collective force of creative minds, Cucumber has preserved the uplifting energy that transformed a time of darkness and isolation with passion and love.
Rooted in jazz vocabulary, the album travels freely between genres and times, blending different influences and collective memories into a perfect balance of pop, funk, and soul at the same time, allowing individuality and uniqueness to shine brightly. “Dreaming Of” introduces us to an immersive, carnivalistic jazz-pop fusion, swirling into landscapes and thrilling passages, psychedelic yet fully lucid. “Dasher II” leans into the funk with close voicing dissonance contrasting with a nostalgic, futuristic dazzling texture where gritty trumpet meets an equally edgy trombone (featuring Jake Handelman) bursting into creative flames.
The sound of the ocean and nature is subtly planted into the background. “Will I See You Tomorrow?” opens with an ocean-vibe ballad that drifts in waves. With tender trumpet solo and emotive strings, the warming vocal has traveled far. While “Cucumber” embraces the world of bizarre and quirkiness in its identical storytelling setting its scene at the shore.
As a recent jazz graduate from Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University), the young artist’s creative endeavor is just the beginning. Off to an ambitious start, one can only expect great things.
Written by Katrina Yang
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SINGLE REVIEW: ALBA ROSE “EVE”
Song of the Day
Photo Credit: Maria Memet
Being heavily involved in the underground music scene in New Zealand, the upcoming singer-songwriter/producer Alba Rose is bringing us a sneak peek of what can only be put as a fruitful music journey. The artist’s unique background in jazz, neo-soul genre, and live performance has brought a very solid, laid-back lounge vibe to this recording.
Alba Rose is not lacking stories. The unworded undercurrent is what made up for the unique flavor and soulfulness in her voice. There is something beautiful and liberating imprinted in the sound of “Eve” The song narrates around the theme of letting go and trust in the background of the ocean shore at sunset. A ballet dancer improvises to the sonics, bringing visual, live elements into this art project.
The laid-back, loungy vibe brings you to a corner cafe, having a meaningful conversation with friends or yourself. The live set also offers an interactive experience for the listeners to follow and submerge themselves into the wonderfulness.
Indie-pop meets neo-soul in a natural, subtle way. The influences brought up by the musicians are rooted in experience and history. “Eve” is a song you could listen to forever.
Written by Katrina Yang
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