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Can This Even Be Called Music? September Edition

Wake Me Up When September Ends Bokanté is a group led by Michael League of world-renowned fusion band Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest is a Dutch symphonic jazz ensemble. The

5 years ago

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Bokanté is a group led by Michael League of world-renowned fusion band Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest is a Dutch symphonic jazz ensemble. The union of these two, to serve the vision of Bokanté, is, to put it mildly, pure fire. What Heat is a fusion of jazz, folk, and world music along with elements of soul and the delicate harmonization of a symphonic orchestra. It’s full of African beats, including some of those tasty, tasty microrhythms, which is something I am particularly fond of. The collision of world music and the orchestra is a rare sight, but it’s so rewarding! Not only is the album fiery in its composition and execution, but also in the topics that it covers: social injustice (of many kinds). What Heat is an amazing creole jazz release.


A Cue from the Past

Originally released in 2011 via Rude Awakening, Sylvain Darrifourcq‘s Q project is a jazz-rock fusion album that still sounds very modern. So much so that I didn’t question its 2018 release date on Bandcamp until I went on to search for more information about it. On this full-length, the quartet plows through three massive multipartite compositions that range from relatively pure jazz to heavy rock approaching metal to more ambient parts or noise passages. Q is a great album to get, even after seven years.


An Upcoming Shift of Paradigm

Mumbai-based Paradigm Shift are set to release their first album in six years on October 12. The band, which successfully interweaves elements of Indian classical music to their progressive metal roots, made an impression with their previous album Coalesce. I have high hopes that Sammukh—सम्मुख in Hindi—will meet the expectations of many as an honourable sequel (actually, the album is a prequel to Coalesce). The album is available right now exclusively via Itunes and Apple Music.

Dave Tremblay

Published 5 years ago