GREG FOAT Vinyl & CDs

Review: Greg Foat's The Glass Frog, released on Blue Crystal Records, is a sublime blend of smooth jazz and spacey, euphoric atmospheres. Foat shines as the lead at times, while the band complements him perfectly, setting a relaxing mood throughout the album. Highlights include 'Sea Of Tranquility,' a moody horn lullaby that embodies space jazz at its finest. 'Foals Of Epona' features a soothing jazz band with a funky drummer, creating a delightful groove. 'Clusters' brings a nostalgic 60s jazz ambiance, enveloping listeners in its rich soundscape. The standout track, 'My Love Has Green Eyes,' showcases magnificent sax work with beautiful keys, enhancing the band's intricate mixture. The Glass Frog is a fantastic album for both casual and hardcore jazz fans, offering a perfect blend of smooth, funky, and atmospheric jazz elements. Greg continues to impress.

Review: Greg Foat is a London-based keyboardist, composer, bandleader and DJ. Foat's latest full-length record displays the musician's lifelong, self-described 'love-hate relationship' with the keys, which he says began in childhood, when he fell off a piano stool at his aunt's house. A domestic homage, 'Spider Plant Blues' fittingly pays tribute to two houseplants that sit on Greg's bedside tables, and move periodically depending on his whims; 'Spider Plant Blues' is an evening high-flyer for electric piano, unbothered drums and backing strings, while 'Snake Plant Shuffle' is a darker and drier organism backed by arpeggiating sytnhy blossomings in the stereo mix.

Review: Greg Foat is something of a musical polymath, with his various solo and collaborative albums touching on everything from spiritual jazz, library music and soundtrack sounds, to Balearic beats, jazz-funk and deep house. On Psychosynthesis, his first solo set for two years, he largely keeps things warm, chilled and dreamy, joining the dots between horizontal jazz-funk, exotica, Balearica, and sensuous sun-down sounds with the aid of a vast battery of analogue and modular synthesizers. The results are predictably impressive, with the album's many highlights including the spacey, slo-mo shuffle of 'Underwater Fantasy', the throbbing, Sun Palace-esque starry jazz-funk of 'Psychosynthesis (Part 1)', the gaseous ambient drift of 'The Green Odyssey' and the Wally Badarou style warmth of 'The Investigation'.

Review: Acclaimed pianist Greg Foat is a mainstay of the current UK jazz revival thanks to works on Jazzman and Athens of the North. He draws on soul and library music for his inspiration and serves up lush symphonies that are rich in detail, layer and emotion. This new album, which makes use of pedal steel for the first time, goes even more widescreen in its approach and includes powerfully uplifting tracks like "Anticipation" as well as more sensual and slower groovers and languid movers like "Island Life." It is the sound of an artist and composer at the very peak of his powers.

Review: The Fish Factory Sessions is a captivating live studio recording from the dynamic pairing of Greg Foat and Gig Masin. It features two brand-new compositions and two reimagined versions of tracks from their previous album, Dolphin. It was recorded at the namesake Fish Factory Studios in London with Moses Boyd on drums and Tom Herbert on bass. The four pieces are lavish and expansive with free-flowing sax melodies and tingling keys that bring to mind sun reflecting off glistering Mediterranean waters. It's happy, sombre, and beautiful, often all at once.