|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
review by Dene Bebbington Documentary film producer and composer Joe Weineck has come back nearly ten years after his debut album Acoustic Landscapes with another offering. The theme of the new album is to go from the sounds of the jungles of Earth out to the solar system and beyond to the rest of the galaxy - in which case you might expect some kind of spacemusic album. If you did then you'd be wrong, From Jungle to Galaxy may contain sound samples from jungles and the moon landings but it's more along the lines of lounge/chill-out cum jazz. The journey out into space is spread over fifteen tracks which all come in at under seven minutes. As you'd expect from jazz style music there's a plethora of instruments such as guitars, drums, piano, sax etc - some of which are played by guest musicians. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a variety of influences peeking out in this album, for example, "Grooving Gravity" has a guitar line that reminded me of 1980s pop band The Police; in fact the whole tenor of this piece was reminiscent of various 1980s British pop bands with the guitar, sax, and drums. Most tracks have a lounge music feel, there are plenty of mid-tempo grooves with chilled out rhythms and melodies to convey a relaxed yet interested mood. My favourite track, "Fullmoon Fever", begins with a doleful acoustic guitar and sax before a percussive rhythm and beat strikes up and then short melodies are played on piano and quickly repeated by the sax - it's a great effect making this an especially pleasing track. I had high hopes for this album when I saw the title and classy digipak that it comes in. Unfortunately jazz is not really my kind of music, yet somehow the music has grown on me to the point that I'll play this album occasionally rather than leave it collecting dust in my collection. I can recommend it to those listeners out there who are partial to a bit of jazz, albeit not full on. |
|