Jazz Articles about Isotope

About Isotope

Album Review

It is with great sadness that the recent passing of electric bassist Hugh Hopper (1945-2009), one of the most original stylists on his instrument, is mourned. Hopper is best known for his tenure in Soft Machine (part of the Canterbury scene, lumped in with progressive rockers like King Crimson and Frank Zappa, and part of the British jazz fusion world) from 1968-72, as well as later tributes such as Soft Bounds, Softworks and Soft Machine Legacy. But ...

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Album Review

Isotope: Golden Section

Read "Golden Section" reviewed by Nic Jones

by Nic Jones
January 12, 2009

Cuneiform have done it again in terms of restoring one of the perhaps hidden corners of British fusion to a contemporary audience. The band's relatively conventional take on the genre is happily tempered by compositional variety and a level of interplay that went beyond what was the norm, making for music that holds the attention. Captured for posterity on two different live dates from 1975, this is also music that shows an independence of mind even while it stays within ...

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Album Review

Isotope: Golden Section

Read "Golden Section" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 11, 2008

While it's generally accepted that Miles Davis fired the first fusion shots with In a Silent Way (Columbia, 1969) and Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969), plenty was going on, at the same time, to explore the fusion of jazz and rock. In England, Ian Carr's Nucleus and Soft Machine were finding their own nexus points. And as Miles spawned a second wave in North American groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, England became fertile ground for Hatfield and the North ...