Jerry Leake – Cubist
Reviewed by Sadie O., 2/5/10
Complex percussion based and jazz-influenced world fusion (whew!). There’s an explanation of why the artist figures everything works so well together that would be a lot easier to understand if I were on acid, but sadly, I’m not – but I’m willing to forgive that bit of over-intellectualizing, because the music is really good, and really interesting. No FCCs. I like 4, 8, 10, 15 best.
1. 6:16 **random tones, chimes, bells… turns into a relaxed rain-foresty groove after a minute, with percussion and violin.
2. 4:51 ***upbeat and uptempo percussion with a galloping feel. Chanting in Ewe. Builds – adds layers of keyboards and speed.
3. 6:09 ***mellow electric guitars with a bit of an air of foreboding… Gets a real nice funky beat after a minute and a half.
4. 5:35 ****Turkish instrumentation – ney and big drums. Rather disjointed and complex, but way cool.
5. 2:00 **slinky solo vibes. Wonder why vibes always sound jazzy?
6. 5:53 ***groovy, relaxed midtempo syncopation with electric guitar and bass, vibes, and a bit of Indian tikki-ti-ta-ta.
7. 5:25 **flamenco hand claps, jazzy bits of guitar, cool and both relaxed and urgent. Dagomba chants.
8. 5:00 ****downtempo bass, guitar and percussion – a bit of spy movie feel almost, but dangerously bitchen.
9. 5:55 **percussion and horns with a be-bop feel. The horns are a bit scary at times, but pretty fun overall.
10. 5:19 ****goofy spoken intro, then funky uptempo something with scratching and gongs and series of spoken numbers. Huh!
11. 0:51 *pretty floaty guitar and hand chimes/percussion.
12. 6:14 ***funky percussion, in a soul makossa sort of way. Then there’s Americo-funky guitar and tikki-ti-ta-ta.
13. 6:23 **very slow and slinky crawl, bluesy yet also Southeast Asian… Seems to crawl off in different directions midway through, or it would have had more stars…
14. 5:18 **hyperspeed multilayered percussion. Ewe chanting, flute.
15. 2:58 ****rather downtempo tikki-ti-ta-ta, chimes, groovy sway. Chanting in English about modern life.
16. 4:14 **relaxed chimes, guitars (with a bit of Santana to em). Something nice to go to sleep to.