Marking an incredible year for drummer Richard Spaven, which
we’ll address shortly, the icing on its cake must surely be the release of his
own full-length album, ‘Whole Other*’ available in the UK through Fine Line
Records.
Following on from the 2010 well-received EP release of ‘Spaven’s
5ive’, Richard Spaven’s ability to straddle that incredibly fine line between
contemporary jazz and drum-n-bass makes for a distinctly unique listening
experience, both, from his EP and the brand new album release. Beyond this though, this year also serves to
show just how diverse his musicianship really is – being the featured drummer for
long-term collaborator Jose James’s eclectic album ‘While You Were Sleeping’, and
again featuring on all tracks for Seravince’s nu-jazz/funk album, ‘Hear To See’
– another album we’ve recently got hold of that’s occupying our speakers fairly
prominently.
Even with all the aforementioned projects – plus a resume
that consists of work with Flying Lotus and The Cinematic Orchestra – Spaven genuinely
has created a lane all of his own. I
mentioned previously this no man’s land where electronica and jazz music occupy
the same space but it takes an artist of incredible vision and skill to make it
actually work and make it a decent piece of music happily adopted by either
genre. But much like ‘Spaven’s 5ive’, ‘Whole
Other*’ nails it. Trumpeter Takuya Kuroda
appears on the album opener as do The Hics on the title track and Cinematic
Orchestra guitarist, Stuart McCallum, rekindles their musical chemistry as well.
Well worth your time and you're definitely encouraged to get your hands on 'Spaven's 5ive' as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment