Video clip: quasimode - Relight My Fire

A cover of Dan Hartman's dance classic Relight My Fire is the choice for the first single from quasimode's forthcoming album Daylight. With the band now signed to Blue Note/EMI Japan, the video clip features some mock classic Blue Note album cover graphics and it's quite a stylish affair. Unfortunately, EMI Japan in their wisdom have requested that embedding be disabled on YouTube, so I can't post the video here directly, but it can be viewed by following this link.

As for the single itself, it may not be the greatest track they have recorded, and I'm hoping that the rest of the album will be more in keeping with the high standards of their output to date, but it may serve well to introduce the band to a wider audience.

laidbook - laidbook 03 THE COSMIC ISSUE

Label: Origami Productions
Released: November 2009

The third release in the laidbook series offers another seven new tracks coupled with ten art cards from the crew at Origami Productions. With the CD being titled The Cosmic Issue, it's not really surprising that the tunes have a distinct spacey feel to them.

Proceedings open with a cover of Gnarls Barkley's mega hit Crazy, featuring Nicholas Ryan Gant on vocals, in what is a considerably different arrangement of the tune that works pretty well. layyoudown is a wonderful soul-funk number with some retro spacey synths written and produced by keyboard player 45 a.k.a. SWING-O, who has the knack of being able to reproduce the production sounds of the seventies soul scene with amazing accuracy. This track, together with the cosmic reggae vibe of cross talk (reminiscent of Comfort Woman-era Me'Shell N'Degeocello) are, for me, the strongest tracks on this album. Also worth a mention is Raum, a solid instrumental hip-hop number that is up there with the best, and proof that  drummer/producer mabanua is a top beat maker.

With the exception of the well-known opener, this selection isn't perhaps as instantly catchy as the previous two releases, but is a definite grower and a worthy addition to the series.

Video clip: Timo Lassy - Round Two album promo video

Timo Lassy - Round Two from Ricky-Tick Records on Vimeo.

More New Stuff From Jabberloop

Having just seen their debut release in the US, which has also been released in Japan, Jabberloop will next week be releasing another album. This time around it's a live album with recording made at Motion Blue in Yokohama featuring thirteen tracks from their albums to date, and following on from Check This Out!!, OOparts and Revenge of The Space Monster (albeit a compilation), that makes no fewer than four album releases since April. The boys have certainly been busy.

quasimode Vinyl EP Release

Jazz fans who favour vinyl over other formats will be pleased to hear that quasimode have just released a four track EP featuring songs from their forthcoming album.

The Daybreak EP features the following tunes:

1. Relight My Fire
2. Happy Few feat. Wouter Hamel
3. Rules of the Blood feat. Fabrizio Bosso
4. Afro Blue feat. China Moses

The EP is out on Blue Note Japan/EMI and the catalogue number is PLPZ-0006

The EP can be ordered at this site (in Japanese only, I'm afraid) and some RealPlayer audio clips are also available there.

Some gigs for December

December 3rd

Re-Trick

@ Strings, Kichijoji

December 6th

Yasumasa Kumagai Trio

@ Jiyugaoka Studio, Jiyugaoka

December 6th

Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro

@ Family, Shibuya

December 10th
native (featuring Noon on vocals)
@ Motion Blue, Yokohama

December 10th
"Close to Jazz"

Masayasu Tzboguchi Quartet

Shinpei Ruike 4 Piece Band

Informel 8

@ Haretara Sora Ni Mamemaite, Daiakanyama

December 12th

Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro

DosMoccos

Root Soul

@ Loop, Daikanyama

December 13th
"SoulGarden Records 2nd Anniversary"

Jaribu Afrobeat Arkestra

Q.A.S.B.

Tatsuto Shiina

... plus DJs
@ JZ'Brat, Shibuya

December 14th

Kei Akagi Trio

@ Motion Blue, Yokohama

December 14th

F.I.B Journal

@ Nora, Omotesando

December 15th

Thirdiq

@ Unit, Daikanyama

December 17th-20th

Nicola Conte Jazz Combo

DJ: Tatsuo Sunaga (17th & 18th), Shuya Okino (19th & 20th)
@ Blue Note, Tokyo

December 20th
"JZ'Brat Xmas Special Piano Duo"
Josei (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions) x Shikou (Shima & Shikou Duo)

December 28th

Shinpei Ruike 4 Piece Band

@ Cochi, Koiwa

December 29th

J.A.M

@ Motion Blue, Yokohama

Q.A.S.B. - Q.A.S.B.

Label: SoulGarden Records

Released: October 2009

The likes of Osaka Monaurail and Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro are well established on the funk scene both in Japan and overseas, and now Q.A.S.B. are the latest Japanese funk band to try to follow in their mighty footsteps. A ten-piece band with a female vocalist, amy-A, Q.A.S.B. have already released a couple of 45s, with The Key getting released on the UK Jazzman label. Their self-titled debut album is now out, though there is no hint as to what the initials of the band's name actually stand for, so it invites imaginative guesses unless, of course, you're already in the know.

The album kicks off with The Key, the lead track in more ways than one with some punchy brass that has an almost Speedometer-like sound to it. amy-A belts out the vocals like any self-respecting funk diva should, though there's the age-old problem that generally speaking, non-Americans can't quite achieve the real funk or soul sound when singing.  Funk With Me is another dancer, though not quite as instant, but the heavy bass-driven mid-pace groove of Touch is a winner. Closing out the first half of the album is We Need The Funk, a fairly standard funk-by-numbers instrumental.

On the second half of the album, with the exception of the funky No! the band explore a more soulful sound, with Eternally a sweet pop-soul tune and All Right, a very catchy tune that is no doubt used late in their live sets. The album closes out with the ballad One Love Song, which allows amy-A to show off her vocal range, but it's not one of the high points of the album.

Not as strong as the material released by Osaka Monaurail or Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro, though they show some promise. If I have any criticisms, it's that with just eight tracks the album comes in at just 36 minutes, which is not overly long considering it's priced as a full-length album and half of the tracks have already featured on the singles.

Quite a sound beginning, that hopefully hints at better things to come. Out on CD in Japan and on iTunes worldwide.