Sly5thAve – Monoxide feat. MonoNeon, MacKenzie & Peter Knudsen
Similar artists: MonoNeon, MacKenzie, The ClubCasa Chamber Orchestra, Abstract Orchestra
Genre: Jazz Fusion
Poetry and jazz are two forms of artistic expression that, we like to think, that the world cannot do without. They’re kept on life support. Because the market’s interest isn’t large enough, various cultural groups will do their best to once in a while draw awareness that they still exist. Festivals are created, kids enrol in programs that teach them in universities, and new teachers of these disciplines are created.
Both involve a fair deal of skill. Both require that the people who want to be involved spend a great deal studying them. But, unfortunately, while busy cracking the books, the greatest artists also forget that these artistic avenues ought to lead them to truths about the world in which they’re living right now. Poetry and jazz need vitality. But who’s going to give them that?
Sly5thAve’s “Monoxide” is an attempt to treat poetic jazz music as a modern necessity, as sounds that could create a hit single. It does this by blending it with modern production, hip-hop sounds and a fair dose of psychedelia. It also does it by mentioning nothing of the past or of the hours required to make this kind of music. It’s a slice up of ideas that, just like the world, come together to offer something that is both thrilling and, occasionally, overwhelming.
Kula Shaker – Natural Magick
Similar artists: Supergrass, Blur
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Alternative Rock
Who knows if any of the hippies ever found what they were looking for? One thing is for sure: they certainly went out looking for it in some wild places. And because of this, many of us still feel a kinship with them today. In fact some of the brightest artists of the past few decades set back on the road that 60s kids headed out on.
Retro rock is a real business. But it shouldn’t confused with music that genuinely attempts to take the spirit and the most meaningful ideas of older music and transfer it to a modern context. The latter simply dares to ask: “Why should this music just disappear?” You wouldn’t expect jazz or rumba to go away just because they’ve been played for a long time, right?
Of all the 90s rock groups that set on a path to reconnect with the Mystical 60s, none were more determined than Kula Shaker. Oasis may have wanted to copy the early Beatles sound, but singer Crispian Mills was interested in the 1967 George Harison sound aesthetic. “Natural Magick” is the band’s return and proves that the dream of ecstatic, spiritual rock n’ roll wasn’t just a phase through which they went. Mills is in for the long haul and is still out there searching.
