Jazz Articles

Colin John Band: Live Voodoo Surfing from the Beachland

by Chris M. Slawecki
March 16, 2005

Guitarist, songwriter, and singer Colin John takes his music way beyond “traditional blues. “It's sort of a stigma that all blues sounds the same, he says, so he tries to ignite a musical fire that burns differently from the straight blues flame. “I would call it contemporary blues, rock, and soul, he says, or, “non-traditional, traditional blues.

John mainly sounds like the sum of his influences. Formative gigs include his stint in the Saturday night house band ...

Nikakoi: Sestrichka

by AAJ Staff
March 1, 2002

To celebrate its first anniversary, the Berlin electronica label WMF has released Nikakoi's Sestrichka on its [komfort.labor] imprint. The Georgian artist (née Nika Machaidze) creates a sound coherent with the imprint's decidedly eclectic orientation. Sestrichka conveys a gentle percolating energy: decidedly moderate in tone, but pulsating all the way through. The opener, “climb," begins with a treble-rich drum-n-bass sequence accompanying a simple synth melody. As the track proceeds, it gently but insistently explores the theme, not unlike an early Squarepusher ...

~scape and Stefan Betke: [komfort.labor]

by AAJ Staff
August 1, 2001

Is it just me, or did I hear a turntablist on [komfort.labor] ? Here's the story: we've got Stefan Betke (=Pole) doing a bunch of remixes. The original tunes have very little relationship with the remixes, unless you choose to look at the submicroscopic level... with one exception: Pole remixes Pole (interesting angle there). Now if you've heard any of Pole's records, you'd likely understand that he has his own way of doing things. There's a lot of dub bump ...