Frenchy’s Fracas

General Info
Festival: NuMoonFest
Location: Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam
When: 13-15 December 2007

What’s it about?
Well, read about the festival here. It’s an interesting combo of different styles of jazz, electronic music, etc. and also movie documentaries. It’s my second visit, read my review of last year’s experience here. I’m a bit late with this review so my recollection might be a bit hazy, sorry..

Day 3 (15-Dec)
So remember, you never know what to expect on this festival and this year’s shows were diverse as ever. First off, a not so interesting performance at the cafe podium from Haale. The stuff didn’t work for me, oh well.
After that we got a very big black guy accompanied by guitar and accordion/squeeze-box, singing this incredible falsetto, which was nice. Picked up the closing fifteen minutes from Reboot Your Soul, a Dutch jazzy band fronted by Rob Van Der Wouw. Not bad, saw them this summer at the North Sea Jazz festival, the contrast was noticeable: the crowd was about a tenth of what was at NSJ, but they carried on as good as they could.
In the same hall we were treated by the good people of the Silent Disco. If ever you get a chance to see and hear this event, please do try it out!! It’s an simple concept but a bit hard to explain: everybody get headphones to listen to what the DJ is playing. Imagine a crowd with headphones on dancing to something you’re not hearing and having some wicked fun!
Back to the festival, in the main hall the Numoonlab Orchestra was performing an incredible set. The core band played from beginning to end during the whole evening and other performers would come up and do their thing and then move off.
For me the high point was the enigmatic and energetic and weirder than weird miss Ursula Rucker. She did her poetry like a fierce lioness, wow!!

Conclusion
With this year’s edition there were too many uninteresting performances and quite some main stream stuff too. But the Numoonlab Orchestra was an incredible experience! Miss Rucker was the wacky cherry on top!! I’ll be there next year, because it’s a chance to discover stuff..

Rating:

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General Description
Artist/Band: 4Hero
Album Title: Play With The Changes
Year: 2007

British producers, global quality..
 
How I Got Into This Music
To the best of my recollection, the first track I heard from them was back in 2000/2001 (not sure), a weird and weak 70s rip-off track, called Les Fleur. That song really got me all agitated and the video was even worse; it all just got under my skin for being such a blatantly cheap copycat action. But, it still stuck in that vast grey bucket of trivia called my brain, referenced under Crappy Rip-offs That Are Kinda Interesting.
Flash forward to 2006: I discover this insane album called How About A Game Of Chess? thru the nice people at Last.fm. And I find out that the guy behind that album, Marc Mac is one half of a band called 4Hero, and that triggered other stuff: these guys also worked on a track with miss Jill Scott, called Gotta Get Up (Another Day). Still with me?
So, it turns out that 4Hero were the people behind the aforementioned abomination Les Fleur, a great Jill Scott track and that Chess album. A coupla months back this new album by 4Hero came out and I just had to try it out…

Album info at Answers.com || Album details at Artistdirect.com || Google Search for reviews of this album ||

Tracks that got my attention:
Morning Child ft. Carina Andersson
Same lady doing the vocals as Les Fleur, but now somehow, it works for me. The other weird thing, the horns remind me of Toto’s Georgy Porgy (later covered by Eric Benet).

Take My Time ft. Jack Davey
Nasty and innocent vocals, love it.. Never heard of J*Davey but I might check it out soon.

Look Inside ft. Face
Hmm.. Just a bit too up-tempo for me, gets anoying some times.

Sink Or Swim ft. Lady Alma
Retro Soul, incredibly catchy bass loop and chorus. And some very sweet vocals!

Give In ft. Darien Brockington/Phonte
Oooooo… This track helps me get through the worst of moods, calms me down, makes me enjoy the rainy day. Compact cameo rap by Phonte of Little Brother.

Play With The Changes ft. Talita Long/Harry Mizell
A friend of mine (hiya Tama!) thought the first part of this song sounded like something done by Sergio Mendes; hadn’t thought about it like that, but she was right. The second part is my favorite: added beat is simple, effective and incredibly groovay.

Something In The Way ft. Bembe Segue/Kaidi Tatham
Nothing wrong with this track, it’s great. But it does get skipped sometimes.

Stoke Up The Fire ft. Face
Impossible to skip! The bass on this song is just superb, it’s all over the place while still managing to function as part of the rhythm section. Gonna cost me some months of annoyance but I’ll be trying this one out with my bass teacher. He’ll probably just grin insanely: the pupil’s getting in way over his head again

Awakening ft. Ursula Rucker
New mantra:
I must and shall listen to more stuff by Miss Ursula Rucker
I must and shall listen to more stuff by Miss Ursula Rucker
I must and shall listen to more stuff by Miss Ursula Rucker
This lady’s been on the edge of my musical radar since her work with Jazzanova, Circe (from The Remixes 1997-2000). But I never took the time to seriously get into her music; an entry on my To Listen List..
Back to the song; this one reminds me of United Future Organization: like the soundtrack to some 70s cop movie or TV show. Miss Rucker’s vocals/poetry flows smoothly, carrying a poignant message about The Message.

Sophia
Great one to enjoy while driving the car along the Maasboulevard into Rotterdam, with its beautiful skyline. (And no, I ain’t getting paid one cent for this endorsement, cheap bastards..)

Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) ft. Terry Devos
What can I say? The first part takes getting used to, but knowing what’s coming after that is worth stealing Fire (and the Comfy Chair) from the Gods.
Terry Devos’ voice takes your breath away, this cover of the Stevie Wonder classic is perfect!

Bed Of Roses ft. Jody Watley
Who’d thought Miss Jody Watley would still be active in this crazy music business? She used to be in the 80s groove band Shalamar and some of us senior citizens remember her for that classic catch phrase: “Hasta La Vista, Baby” (Yep, Arnie stole that one..). She’s also one of the few US artists that contributed to the classic Band Aid track, Do They Know It’s Christmas?.
Enough trivia, this is a great collaboration: UK Garage/Soul mixed with US vocals. Catchy as hell!

Our Own Place
Don’t know who’s doing the vocals, but they’re nice. Reminds me of Zero 7.

Dedication To The Horse
An unexpected way to finish the album, but the guitar work works for me. Just gotta keep from playing this track while driving, I cannot keep on getting those speeding fines

Conclusion
First album from these guys I’ve listened to and I like it a lot. Not sure if I’ll be checking out their previous work, more curious about what they’ll be doing on a next album. Their work is solid and mature, there’s this sense of cocky independence: This Is How We Do It, And That’s That. I like that in a musician and 4Hero are excellent craftsmen. I’ve played this album in my car for three weeks straight and now, while listening to it again for this review, I still love it very much: a Frenchy’s Favorite, indeed!

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