SOUND NT JUDGEME

THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED

JOHN COLTRANE – BOTH DIRECTIONS AT ONCE: THE LOST ALBUM

★★★★ ★ A NEW Coltrane album? The prospect provokes reverence – but this has too much life in it to be a sacred relic. The product of one 1963 session, this collection would be worthwhile for Untitled Original 11383 alone an urbane 12-bar transfigured by Coltrane’s modal melody – his nightingale flourishes – and the sheer freshness of this quartet’s chemistry.

The clarity and punch of these unreleased recordings situates us right in the studio. Though a couple of standards feel inessential, this collection is a welcome window on to a magisterial quartet and the liberality of its leader’s genius.

JOHNNY JEWEL – THEMES FOR TELEVISION

★★★★ ★ THEMES For Television is a partially ironic title for this collection of previously unreleased music from the prolific Johnny Jewel. Although they were not commissioned for the TV show, his peculiar brand of quirky, atmospheric and faintly creepy electronica proved a perfect fit for last year’s revival of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

Windswept And Shadow, alternative versions of which appear here, will be particularly familiar to fans of that series as being a major part of its distinctive sonic landscape.

Although Ruth Radelet of The Chromatics provides vocals on the melancholy Saturday (Evening), most of the tracks are instrumentals with a distinctively 1980s, synthheavy sound.

All 21 tracks are compelling. It would be no bad thing if one day all television shows sounded like this.

GORILLAZ - THE NOW NOW

★★★★ ★

THE Now Now is a mellow mix of midpaced electronica, house, disco and funk and sees the return of Damon Albarn to front and central position throughout.

The album certainly hangs together as a collection of songs. That’s not to say it isn’t eclectic: Idaho is an understated weirdocountry ballad, and it’s a mark of Albarn’s virtuosity and songwriting prowess that the sun-kissed house of Lake Zurich sits perfectly alongside it. Closer Souk Eye is perhaps the highlight – starting with a simple calypso beat and gentle guitar refrain and slowly building to a burning ball of pop that makes it impossible not to hit repeat.