Favourite Five Recent Releases

Five of the best albums from the recent postings at Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you're looking for a quick fix.

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Jane Weaver: Flock (Fire/Southbound/digital outlets)

1 Mar 2021  |  1 min read

Britain's Jane Weaver has appeared a few times at Elsewhere, once for the recommended Modern Kosmology of 2017 about which we said, “Across this album, which seems to stand outside of time, Weaver has pulled some fascinating and seemingly disparate threads together to create something her own”. And we pointed to her again for the '18 reissue of her '14 The Silver... > Read more

THE WEATHER STATION, AN OVERVIEW (2021): Long distance outlook, fine

26 Feb 2021  |  3 min read

As if to telegraph a new beginning, the 2017 album by the Weather Station out of Toronto was simply titled, The Weather Station. By that point however the Weather Station – the vehicle for singer and songwriter Tamara Lindeman – had already released four albums and two EPs. However, you always had the sense Lindeman was on a journey from the folk of her early days to... > Read more

RECOMMENDED RECORD: The Besnard Lakes: Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings (Fat Cat/digital outlets)

22 Feb 2021  |  2 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes as double vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with a lyric sheet . . . Every now and again a 21stcentury psychedelic rock band emerges with its roots in the classic late Sixties/early Seventies sound of mind-expanding music with a widescreen delivery. Elsewhere has long had an... > Read more

MPT Trio: Volume 1 (577 Records/digital outlets)

2 Feb 2021  |  1 min read

Those who have read Elsewhere's previous reviews of albums on New York's 577 Records will be aware that the labels release can often be challenging free jazz. This debut by the MPT Trio – drummer Francisco Mela, tenor player Hery Paz and guitarist Juanma Trujillo – is certainly in that zone, but . . . The buoyant opener Calipso (sic) has the kind of bounce and warm... > Read more

Whisper

Keith Jarrett: Budapest Concert (ECM/digital outlets)

15 Dec 2020  |  1 min read

At 75, the man whom some would say was among the top five improvising pianists in the last quarter of the 20th century (and the first decade of this) has faced terrible health issues in the past. More than 20 years ago he started suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome and was forced to radically rethink his career and approach to his instrument. It lead to his beautiful, spare The... > Read more