9. Djabe & Steve Hackett - Back To Sardinia
Genre: Jazz-Fusion, Prog, Ambient, Post-Rock
Put On A Playlist With: Late 60's Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Pink Floyd, Return To Forever
The former lead guitarist from Genesis's 70's prog heyday continues to be prolific well into 2020. While this isn't the first time he's teamed up with Hungarian world-jazz group Djabe, this particular outing is interesting in that it puts a prog guitarist in a jazzier, way breezier setting that plays in a variety of moods. Think late night Miles Davis moods or Return To Forever when they went meditative. And while Hackett is more like David Gilmour than Pat Metheny, his approach to the axe gels really well with the trumpet solos, Rhodes, and other lite-fusion elements. Great record to just kick back to on a quiet day.
8. Ben Vince - Don't Give Your Life
Genre: Avant-garde
Put On A Playlist With: John Zorn (Naked City era), John Surman, Praxis
Simultaneously a prominent U.K. saxophonist and electronic musician of keen talent, Ben Vince likes to push his jazz background into places where the genre tag "jazz" no longer easily applies. Every song is a beautiful exercise in contrast. 'Mark Of The Spirit' juxtaposes warm vocals against a screaming saxophone backdrop, 'Luxx' is Trent Reznor in 1989 trying to do the soundtrack to The Last Temptation Of Christ and closer 'Fallout' is a 10 minute meditation that Trevor Jones and bands like Dead Can Dance would be proud of, a place where Ben lets his sax actually unwind from the madness that came before. What an absolute gem of a record....seriously.
7. Equip - CURSEBREAKER X
Genre: Vaporwave, Video Game OST
Put On A Playlist With: The Castlevania series, Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu
Signed to 100% Electronica not long ago and known to be something like a workaholic in the "vaporwave" scene, Kevin Hein pulled out all the stops in 2019 with CURSEBREAKER X, a dark fantasy-themed extravaganza that really captures the magic of the early 90's side scroller, and even wrote a cool Hero's Journey-styled story to go with it. It's barely over 30 minutes, but it makes them count.
Last edited by Anteater; 12-14-2019 at 01:52 PM.
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