Album review by Neil Hobkirk Reviewing Yelena Eckemoff’s exquisite Everblue (2015) for Wall of Sound a few years ago, I considered it a compelling answer […]
Make It a Double: “I Long to See You” by Charles Lloyd & the Marvels (Blue Note, 2016)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Remember those Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups TV ads from the ‘70s? Varied in their particulars, they shared one premise: a […]
Double Rainbow: Yelena Eckemoff Quartet, “Everblue” (L&H, 2015); Mike Nock/Laurence Pike, “Beginning and End of Knowing” (FWM, 2015)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk When is an ECM album not an ECM album? Two new releases from, respectively, Yelena Eckemoff and Mike Nock/Laurence Pike […]
Haunting the Metropolis: “Hand. Cannot. Erase.” by Steven Wilson (Kscope, 2015)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk The drama unfolds in Metropolis, a major Montreal venue. After ninety minutes’ worth of scene-setting recorded ambient music, the five […]
Science Fiction Double Feature: “Black Noise” (reissue) and “Transformation” by FM (2014, 2015; Convexe)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Part One: Maple Leaf Escape Craft For me, Part One of the FM story unfolded over FM radio. In 1980 […]
Marco Polo’s Film Music Discoveries
Album review by Neil Hobkirk We all have favourite film music. Whether absorbed during a movie or savoured separately as an isolated score, the music […]
New Tricks Revisited: Deep Purple’s “Purpendicular” (reissue; HNE, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Purpendicular opens with a sound unfamiliar from previous Deep Purple albums: a buzzing, harmonics-drunk note frenzy lasting just a few […]
Serene Footfalls: “La vie commence ici” by Marianne Trudel (Justin Time, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk The three times I’ve seen Marianne Trudel perform in person, she’s radiated rapture. Alert at the piano, she looked possessed […]
Ongoing Adventure: Ranee Lee’s “What’s Going On” (Justin Time, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Just a few seconds in, the strings are what strike you. They’re in fact the masterstroke that invests Ranee Lee’s […]
Kingston Kong: “Bite My Blues” by Peter van Huffel’s Gorilla Mask (Clean Feed, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Raised in a city readily stigmatized as an alternate take—an other London (Ontario), as opposed to the London (England)—I’m heartened […]