Three on a Thursday #171

First for a while, as, well, life isn’t it.

Got a couple of gig announcements up on the page up there if you’re interested as well.

First up this week is properly on the zeitgeist. I stumbled across Raleigh Ritchie whilst perusing music reddit subs the other day, and it’s a cracking little tune. Time in a Tree is a mellow little poppy dream-hop number, which I can just imagine being the soundtrack for summer afternoons in a park, like some sort of wholesome lifestyle brand advert.

(And yes, Raleigh Ritchie is an alias for Jacob Anderson, better known as the Greyworm, leader of the Unsullied from Game of Thrones rapping. Talented chap eh?)

Next new tune is on trend too. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years, you’ll have spotted there’s been a bit of a resurgence in Jazz, especially coming out of London.

This isn’t the mint julep swigging Dixie of your great-grandfathers day, nor the heroin-fuelled Hard Bop that your odd Uncle listened to, but another iteration which takes threads from dubstep, breakbeat, grime, funk, soul and hiphop and chucks it all into the melting pot. Bands like The Comet is Coming and the Sons Of Kemet are at the forefront of this new wave, as are Ezra Collective who’ve just dropped their debut album You Can’t Steal my Joy, following up on the rapturously received EPs, Juan Pablo: The Philosopher and Chapter 7.

Been listening to it a fair bit this week, and the standout track for me is What Am I to Do? (feat. Loyle Carner), which just oozes class. Loyle’s flow fits perfectly over the crossstick snare, with the horns and keys weaving in and out of his words.

(There was a wonderful takedown of this latest hipster obsession over on Vice, but a lot of the music is right up my street. Guess I’d better buy myself “a weird small beanie that sits at the top of my head, leaving my ears exposed and thus performing no real function”)

Last track is a bit more upbeat I guess. Moontricks track, Space Oasis from their recent Backwoods Bass EP does pretty much what you’d expect, allpulsing synths, balaeric guitar glissando, all underpinned by some serious bassline chug and an incessant kick. A wind-down track but so nicely put together it hurts.