Last night I had this tedious job of fixing my guitar. Well not that tedious, I rather enjoy setting them up. So I thought might as well put this album on. Prior to listening to this album I went through album I wanted to listen, stuff that I like
Tal Farlow '78. After reading these reviews I was totally not in the mood for this album. I was listening to real snazzy Jazz and I didn't switch over to "abstract noise." The reviews had me convinced it was a junk album. I was avoiding this album like the plague, playing my albums one after the other and really enjoying them. Across the board I dread being force to listen to other people's music that is rec in the Album Club 2017, except for a rare occasions when it's something I already know and like. After the last two albums I felt like I
ran the gauntlet of musical punishment, but this album came as a well deserved reprieve from such musical tortures. A few tracks in and I was convinced this album was better than what the reviews implied. I kinda felt mislead by those opinions. I tend to believe it is better to start an album with low expectation than have an album that is set up as the greatest and not living up to the hype. (No offense to Ant since he hyped
Colours last week. Stick to your guns Ant
)
The very first impression of the album, like within the very first few seconds: this was and album by the Lijadu Sisters. Since the names "Millie & Andrea" sounds like two names of two sisters, but no that's wasn't the case, cause the actual names of the two Lijadu sisters are Taiwo and Kehinde. (Helps to check Wikipedia). Millie & Andrea are not even sisters, they are dynamic musical duo by the name of Andy Stott and Miles Whittaker
"... the more you know." So basically this was my very first impressions when I heard female vocals within the first few seconds of opening track,
Gif Riff. After approximately forty-five seconds when I heard voices fading out which it did very neatly I then realized it was just sampling. It wasn't a whole album of African music, but collage of various styles. The second part of of the opening track, the thumb piano was a nice touch tying in well with the opening sample.
The intro provided an interesting case cause it didn't give away immediately how the rest of the album was going to turn out to be. What is true about the first song, is also true of the whole album. Instead of focusing on one specific moment, one has to step back and think about it in its entirety. Overall a very good album.
~ 8.5