Search results: Odyssey

Review: Gustavo C's G.U.S label - short for 'Golden Unreleased Songs' - exists for one purpose: to offer-up limited-edition singles featuring previously unheard gems from the disco and boogie era. The label has already released buried treasure from Central Line and Kenni Rightout and here delves into the archives of obscure 80s electrofunk outfit Odyssey & Co, a band not to be confused with the far better-known Odyssey. 'It's On' was originally recorded and mixed in 1983, but for one reason or another never hit stores. It's a quality slab of soul-fired boogie-funk rich in rubbery bass guitar, spacey synths, eyes-closed vocals and post-electro machine drums. The A-side original mix is on-point, but we prefer the slightly stretched out and more dancefloor focused flip-side 'Dance Mix'.

Review: Where do you start with this one? Stanley Kubrick's landmark science fiction movie might be best remembered for its soundtrack. Or at least the opening overture, 'Also Spruce Zarathustra', and its bombastic drums and brass that seem to scream "we're going to space and into the unknown". However, as the original score proves upon reappraisal, there's much here that you likely won't remember until you hear it again.
Not least the terrifying, shrill chorus of 'Requiem for Soprano', which almost sounds like humanity crying out for help across the great endless nothing we call the universe. Elsewhere, we have the strange, alien refrains of 'Lux Antena', which invokes similarly fitting mental imagery - spareness, desolation, a singular beacon of noise in the darkness. Or the nervous tension of 'Atmospheres'. A testament to the power of music to make you visualise.

Review: Legendary U.S jazz drummer and Black Panther Steve Reid and his band, The Legendary Master Brotherhood, are best known for their cult classic debut Nova from back in the late 70s. He also played in Sun Ra's Arkestra, was a Motown session drummer and backed James Brown at the Apollo. His other album Odyssey Of The Oblong Square is no slouch either though. It is a deep spiritual jazz classic from the master drummer and Vietnam conscientious objector. This special one-off reissue comes on lovely gold vinyl meaning those long and often fruitless searches for a hard to find original are no more.

Review: In the John Williams & Hans Zimmer Odyssey, the Orchestre Curieux embarks on a sonic journey through the iconic film scores of two legendary composers. John Williams, known for his sweeping orchestral arrangements in classics like Star Wars and Jurassic Park, contrasts with Hans Zimmer's modern, dynamic and more minimal soundscapes from films like Inception and Gladiator. This orchestral fusion bridges generations of cinema lovers and seamlessly blends Williams' timeless melodies with Zimmer's contemporary flair. The performance promises a cinematic experience, transporting audiences through the rich tapestry of emotions evoked by these masterpieces, all interpreted through the Orchestre Curieux's unique artistic lens.

Review: Austin Peralta's 2011 album Endless Planets has never before been available on vinyl and now gets pressed up as a special Deluxe Edition by Brainfeeder. Peralta really crafted something special here when the label made its first moves into the world of jazz. He is a prodigious piano-playing talent who uses that as a vehicle for his inquisitive futurism while never forgetting the heritage of original jazz. In this special version, four previously unreleased tracks are unveiled. Among them is a live rendition of 'DMT Song' from FlyLo's 2012 album 'Until the Quiet Comes,' which Austin collaborated on. Wonderful stuff.

Review: There is no end to the amount of music that NOW has served up over its many years in the music business. From its thrice-yearly pop comps to its vast decades-long snapshots, it has always offered up the freshest pop hits in fulsome fashion. This latest collection, NOW That's What I Call 80s Dancefloor: Disco & Electro, is a double vinyl album on purple and pink wax that brings together the best disco and electro of the 80s. All the names you'd expect feature from Malcolm McLaren & The World's Famous Supreme Team to Shannon with Freeze, Chaka Khan and more also adding weight.

Review: NOW Music is on with a big project here that sees the long-running label present a new series of vinyl compilations, NOW That's What I Call 80s Dancefloor. Each one is set to include what they deem to be "an essential collection of tracks" that they hope offer fair representation of a number of key musical movements and genres from across the 80s. The first volume presented the best in HI-NRG and POP and this one, a double album, focusses on Soul & Disco. All the names you'd expect are here from Prince to Daryl Hall & John Oates, Loose Ends to Rufus & Chaka Khan, so it is a useful one indeed.

Review: Whether or not the legendary NOW series is as old as time itself is uncertain, but what is for sure is that the compilations it puts together have always been great collections of the music of the moment. This one harks all the way back to 1978, a golden era for glam rock, pop on TV and artful suns that gave way to more sentimental fare in the following decade. This triple vinyl pack comes on pink wax and has a checklist of all the acts you would imagine covering disco, punk, pop, alt-rock and soul. There isn't a dud on it so it's a great one to have for any occasion.

Review: Marcus Belgrave's Gemini II album has never been reissued before with the original artwork, but here it comes with a Japanese Obi-strip and featuring prominent musicians and legends like Wendell Harrison, Phil Ranelin, Roy Brooks and Harold McKinney. This is a diverse record with plenty of spirituality and a loud and proud sense of blackness. The standout tune 'Space Odyssey' is the best known, not least because it was later covered by pioneering Detroit techno talent Carl Craig. Next to that tense cosmic workout are two parts of 'Gun Finger' which are both horn led and upbeat grooves, the seductive sounds of the title tune and free-bop jam 'Marcia's Opal'. 'Odoms Cave' is a tender and introverted closer.

Review: Une Histoire D amour Bresilienne is the new album by Berlin based Le Commandant COuche-Tot which is "A nostalgic soundtrack to a vanished France from the late 60s." It's the second chapter in this odyssey and finds plenty of exotic disco, languid downtempo and grown up Balearic sounds all making for a super smooth and escapist listen. After the difficult couple of years we have all had, albums that offer such glorious space funk sounds as 'Les Pyramides Cosmiques' and the warming sun of face soul of 'L'Ete Indien' featuring the great Omar will always be well worth hearing.

Review: After making more than a good impression with his releases on the likes of Jeff Mills's Axis imprint and Oscar Mulero's Warm Up, Mike Storm now steps it up a gear with his debut full-length. The Dutch native's The Pale Blue Dot again draws on his love of conceptual sci-fi and was reportedly all written live in one take, with no recall, which is a unique approach in this day and age. that lends each track a realness and toughness that makes them stand out even more as the pummelling drums drive on towards some unknown cosmic future and the synths are so tightly interwoven that they melt your mind as you try and keep up.

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: For a city that famously has been losing inhabitants since the decline of the US motor industry began, leaving behind both economic scars and neighbourhood-sized population block holes, Detroit's impact on western music culture has been ridiculously consistent, with the Michigan metropolis ranking among America's healthiest and most significant sonic hubs. From Motown to techno adn Eminem, sounds born here have echoed around the world, and in many cases made a bid for global domination.
Less talked about is the space rock, shoegaze and dream pop scene the town has long been home to, which was in a particularly good place during the 1990s. The second Southeast of Saturn compilation returns to that community and that time, presenting a number of lesser known talents from the area. Highlights including Grimble Grumble, Sabine, Shapeshifter, Star Phase, and The Sunflower Conspiracy.

Review: Following up great efforts by the likes of Van Bonn & Luis Baltes, Unknown and Shadow-Area, here is the debut LP from Hamburg's Achim Maerz on Berlin-based Freund der Familie. Relief features a wide selections of moods and grooves; from the cavernous and glacial deep house of 'Black Hole', the contemplative ambient journey of 'Dream', plus there's more deepness of the emotive variety offered up on 'Changing Weather', the understated late night mood of 'Memories' and the mesmerising closer 'On The Way' awash in dazzling layers of rich synth tones in the vein of classic Chicago sounds. Mastering by Sven Weisemann.

Review: Last Spring, long-serving electronic experimentalist Norm Chambers (otherwise known as Jurgen Muller and Panabrite) was diagnosed with a rare form of sinus cancer after a period of ill health, During the time he spent waiting on news from his doctors, Chambers recorded what he thought would be his final sonic statement - an album called Facets that he rushed-out digitally. Here it lands on wax, alongside the happier news that so far Chambers' treatment has been a resounding success. Musically, Facets is a little more unsettling than some of the artist's work, with his usual fluid and dreamy ambient sounds being joined by angular and off-kilter beats, strange sounds and unsettling electronic rhythms. It's a formula that makes for interesting and occasionally intense listening.