WAILING SOULS
Live On
Zoo
LEAD VOALIST WINSTON "Pipes" Matthews learned how to sing from Joe Higgs, the same man who taught Bob Marley. The influence is clear in Matthews' passionate phrasings.
The new songs aren't as compelling as some of their earlier work, although "Rejection" is a tuff jam with a nasty buzz of guitars from Gitzy and Rusty Anderson and tight harmonies by Matthews and long-time partner Lloyd "Bread" McDonald.
A couple of uninspired covers weaken the album: "Nah, Nah, Hey, Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" and "Mother And Child Reunion." But a remake of the Souls' own "Jah Jah" is unimpeachable testimony to the group's brilliant past. Maybe next time around they'll recapture the light completely.
--Michael Metzger
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Rising High Futurescape
Instinct
NEW YORK'S INSTINCT Records keeps issuing these affordable compilations (average double disc cost: $14.99), each spotlighting a veritable who's who of electronic artists. This twofer offers hard trance/ambient sounds that have a decidedly sexually diverse feel, ranging from the low, slinky insinuations of the aptly-named Electronic Dub; to the Baghdad-in-outer-space psychedelia of The Irresistible Force (whose "Waveform" is surely the result of some fine weed); to the eerie, subsea explorations of James Bernard; to the more straightforward electropop disco of Syzygy. Most tracks clock in at over 10 minutes each, so there are also plenty of mixing opportunities contained in the laser grooves.
--Fred Mills
TOM & SUSAN WASINGER
Many Moons
Silver Wave
PREVIOUSLY, TOM WASINGER made recordings using Australian aboriginal instruments and resonating stones; last year he issued a disc of lullabies from around the world sung by native singers. Here, with his wife, he brings a seeker's approach to a set of reflective mood pieces featuring acoustic guitars, treated drums and percussion, ceramic flute and subtle keyboard effects.But you can call it Susan's show. She sings in several languages, and her voice reminds me not of a female icon's, but of David Crosby's, steeped in a rich, almost operatic, boundlessness that can simultaneously calm and thrill you.
--Fred Mills
JERI BROWN/JIMMY ROWLES
A Timeless Place
Justin Time (Koch)
NOT SURPRISINGLY, WITH just voice, piano and bass, this collection of all-Rowles compositions turns out a most intimate effort. Rowles, a longtime collaborator with lyricist Johnny Mercer, occupies his own quirky niche in the genre of jazz-informed songs that paint small, personal vignettes. Like the tunes of David Frishberg and Bob Dorough, the lyrics are clever, the melodies oddly shaped, the changes sophisticated, and the ambiance more than suggests that stereotypical late night jazz/lounge hang. Then there's Brown's clear, articulate voice and delicate sensibilities that are sweetly reminiscent of Cleo Laine and Morgana King. For the sensitive and the specialist.
--Janice Jarrett
