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Tag: Music Review

  • Review: UB40 featuring Ali, Astro and Mickey – Unplugged

    Review: UB40 featuring Ali, Astro and Mickey – Unplugged

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    Ali Campbell left UB40 in 2008. He was later joined by Astro and Mickey. They all got together in 2014 to release ‘Silhouette’ under Ali’s moniker, ‘The Legendary voice of UB40 reunited with Astro and Mickey.’ As has happened other bands, legal reasons has prevented them using the original band name so “UB40 featuring..’ is the trios way out of this.

    As well as featuring covers, this ‘Unplugged’ album is the first time that UB40’s catalogue has been stripped back and given the acoustic treatment. The collection opens with ‘Kingston Town’ which features a beautiful Hawaiian sounding acoustic guitar while Ali’s vocals are awash with reverb.

    The tracks we expect to hear from UB40 are there, ‘Red Red Wine’ with a new talk/rap over it, ‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love’ and ‘I Got You Babe’ which features Ali’s daughter, Kaya Campbell on vocals. Sidebar: She’s got a great tone to her voice.

    Pato Banton also makes an appearance on ‘Come Back’. This version of the track has the tempo slowed, which is this album’s greatest downfall. Many of the tracks are too similar in tempo which could easily lead it to fall into background music territory. I just want Pato to get that 1994 original tempo going. This crosses over to ‘Purple Rain’, here, it’s reggae tempo is speeded up.

    ub40 featuring ali astro and mickey unplugged nessymon.comThat’s not saying it’s a bad album. One of the standouts, the trio’s version of ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ features great musical arrangements. Perhaps, with the re-workings the problem is that we are too accustomed to the original versions.

    This makes the decision to include a second disc of all the original UB40 versions slightly baffling. But, with all legal things in the music industry, this may have been part of a deal to use the ‘UB40 featuring’ name. It could also be something to do with another ‘Essential UB40’ album being released earlier this year.

    Back to Disc 1, the ‘Unplugged’ side of things. It’s not a bad collection, though it continues at a steady pace without many hills and troughs. It would be perfect for a long hot day in Summer, with a barbecue going in the garden. There are places where the arrangements flirt with genius, like the drum and bass-esque opening for ‘One in Ten’. I’d love to see this revisited for a full DnB treatment. ‘Rat in Mi Kitchen’ a la 2016 is refreshing and when stripped down could be rebuilt for 2016’s EDM world.

    No doubt, Ali Campbell’s reggae delivers what the UB40 fanbase will love. What they really need is some new material under the ‘UB40 feat’ moniker. I just wish that they hadn’t touched Purple Rain.

    ali campbell ub40 featuring ali astro and mickey unplugged nessymon.com

  • Shura: Live at Electric, Brixton // Review

    Shura: Live at Electric, Brixton // Review

    Shura, Live at Electric Brixton

    Shura, Live at Electric, Brixton, September 17 2015

    It’s been a little over three months since I headed to Brighton to see Shura. In that time, Aleksandra Denton and her band have been honing their set, with a never ending string of dates and festivals. In front of the 1400 punters at Electric Brixton, it’s paying dividends.

    The night was opened by Roseau and Clean Cut Kid. If my information is correct, Roseau hasn’t done that many gigs, but her electronic soul vibes fit in beautifully and Roseau proves herself to be an artist to watch. Onstage, Roseau and her band are visually striking and her use on an old style Shure 55SH microphone, (like the one Elvis used) adds a timeless edge to her set. Check out her album, it’s out now.

    Next up where Clean Cut Kid, known for ‘Vitamin C’. The Liverpool quartet play a solid set, with some great guitar work from the lead singer, who also possesses one of the finest beards I’ve seen this year. Clean Cut Kid are really good at what they do, they have a good rock grounding, layered with melodic instrumentation and vocal lines. At times, it does seem like it could be a slightly odd choice for an opener for the more electronic, Shura but they work well and your scribe would definitely go see them again.

    Shura and her three piece band take to the stage and the growth in confidence is easily seen. Shura is now also playing guitar and seems to like rocking out a bit, duelling with her guitarist. She also seems like she’s now really enjoying what she’s doing and that’s rubbing off on the crowd. For these ears though, I’d cut back on the rubbling bass a little and bring Shura’s voice a little more to the fore in the front of house music mix.

    For a hot sweaty crowd, a reworked down tempo 2Shy, provides a breather. All the tracks we know from Shura are included in tonight’s set, Kids n Stuff, Indecision, Touch, and an epic set ending ‘White Light’. It’s pretty awesome to see an artist grow in stature, and throughout the night, Shura reaffirms her importance on the music scene. The sold out Electric crowd also bear witness to rather awesome, sometimes blindly beautiful lighting.

    Shura is obviously still working on different mixes and structure of songs, which versions make it to an album and which stay only in a live format remains to be seen. Shura, herself, is now playing guitar and dancing around the stage. Her set has grown at an immense rate since last time. This bodes extremely well for the future. I wonder what size venue she’ll play next?

  • Review // Hannah Schneider // Live at St Pancras Old Church, London

    Review // Hannah Schneider // Live at St Pancras Old Church, London

    HannahSchneider-StPancrasOldChurch - nessymon.com

    Hannah Schneider, St Pancras Old Church, London, June 11 2015

    St Pancras Old Church always looks beautiful, whether it be in the depths of winter and you’re lining up in the cold outside or, if like today, it’s a beautiful summer’s evening. But the fading orange light during the summer gives a very different vibe to the full darkness illuminated only with street lamps of winter.

    Inside, the light spills across the empty floor. All the chairs have been removed except for some placed along the walls and some lit candles add to the vibe. People are chatting and smoking outside in the sunshine but when Hannah Schneider takes to the stage / altar, they quickly pile in.

    Hannah is on tour in support of her third album, ‘Red Lines‘, her first to get a proper release in the UK and this is final date of her tour. Red Lines is a well produced album, with full sounding pop songs. Tonight, however, Hannah is playing solo using 2 vocal microphones, a keyboard and enough loop and effects pedals that many guitarists would kill for.

    When an album sounds as lush as Red Lines, it can be hard to even come close to that sound. Schneider cleverly builds each song with layers of samples and vocals, giving new life to the songs. Watching Hannah piece each song together is hypnotic and by the end of the opening track ‘For The Trees’, there are murmurs from the attentive audience noting just how good Schneider is.

    Schneider easily makes friends with the crowd with her in between song banter. She describes ‘Dreaming Kind’ as a football anthem for sensitive types. She claims that she’s touring solo due to the economic crisis. Then as she produces an electric ukulele to play ‘Life is Easy’, she tells of how her friends asked why she couldn’t just play a guitar ‘like a normal person’, which raises a laugh.

    She finishes off her set with two tracks from her self titled first album. When the bass kicks in in ‘This is Goodbye’, it makes a security light rattle in the fourth century church. ‘Raindrops’, the final song of the evening fills the holy place with beats, bass sounds and layered harmonised vocals, everything perfectly in place, finished off with the addition of a stylophone.

    A really good performance from Hannah, a nice introduction to her catalogue of music and going on the audience reaction, new fans gained. If anything, she should have had a longer set. But you know the saying ‘Leave them wanting more’, yeap, she did that.

  • The Saw Doctors: Indian Summer Review

    The Saw Doctors: Indian Summer Review

    Saw Doctors Indian SummerThe institution that is known as The Saw Doctors, always seem to have a story for every occasion. Following their Christmas smash, Downtown, with Petula Clark where they came close to swiping the Christmas Number One from The Cowell Factor, they return with Indian Summer.

    You know what you’re going to get with The Saw Doctors, they’ve created a genre of music just for themselves. This mid tempo track features some subtle string arrangements which lift the track beautifully. Again as with their previous releases, the observations and story telling that The Saw Doctors manage to capture in musical form is something quite unique to them.

    This is a re-release but if we do happen to get some good weather in our little rock, this could be the soundtrack to the summer.