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Spring Heel Jack

390
Album Review

Spring Heel Jack: Songs and Themes

Read "Songs and Themes" reviewed by James Taylor


Songs and Themes is a visionary fusion of jazz, electronica and chamber music. With its eighth contribution to the Thirsty Ear Records catalog, the production team of Ashley Wales and multi-instrumentalist John Coxon has truly outdone itself. Songs and Themes is ambient and atmospheric while still maintaining a link to the avant-garde. Songs and Themes is as much trumpeter Roy Campbell's record as it is Coxon and Wales.' Beginning with “Church Music," which marries the psychedlia of ...

225
Album Review

Spring Heel Jack: Songs and Themes

Read "Songs and Themes" reviewed by Lyn Horton


Sometimes, music is made to be pleasant without presenting audacious and extreme challenges to the ear. The key is for that music to remain engaging. How differentiated the instrumentation is, the more chances the umbrella of engagement can be opened. The slightest edge, the slightest off-centeredness will be heard and remembered, and will expand the music's integrity.

In this somewhat conventionally titled recording, Songs and Themes, sampler Ashley Wales and multi-instrumentalist John Coxon, the British duo Spring Heel Jack, have ...

255
Album Review

Spring Heel Jack: Songs and Themes

Read "Songs and Themes" reviewed by Troy Collins


Named after a character from Victorian folklore, Spring Heel Jack (the English electronic duo of John Coxon and Ashley Wales) has vaulted across stylistic divides with the same ease that witnesses attributed to the legendary figure. Undergoing a gradual aesthetic transformation over the past decade, they have expanded from experimental drum 'n bass duo to innovators in a genre of their own devising: free-ambient.

Since the turn of the Millennium, their recordings have featured appearances by such notable ...

322
Album Review

Spring Heel Jack: Songs And Themes

Read "Songs And Themes" reviewed by Mark Corroto


At the turn of this new century the duo of John Coxon and Ashley Wales, know as Spring Heel Jack took the words to heart of Jeffrey Lebowski, commonly known as “the dude" when he proclaimed, “this aggression will not stand, man!" The pair turned from their hyper-programmed drum 'n' bass origins to a ground breaking free jazz-meets-ambient style. With Songs And Themes their reputation as master organizers is articulated to near perfection.

While they have taken up ...

323
Album Review

Spring Heel Jack: Live

Read "Live" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


Spring Heel Jack Live is a result to SHJ's venture in the world of avant-jazz and improvised music. It all started with Masses, an album that was first in a project called “Blue Series Continuum," where avant musicians from the Thirsty Ear record label went to collaborate together. This duo has made a name for itself in the world of drum'n'bass and dance music and their decision to join another group of free jazz musicians (Evan Parker, Mathew Shepp, Tim ...

189
Album Review

Spring Heel Jack: The Sweetness of the Water

Read "The Sweetness of the Water" reviewed by James Taylor


After two successful group improv albums—one with American avant gardists and the other with their British counterparts—and a brilliant live album uniting the two, Spring Heel Jack offers creative music fans The Sweetness of the Water, the group's fourth on Matthew Shipp’s eclectic Blue Series imprint at Thirsty Ear. The latest release from IDM-cum-free jazz duo Spring Heel Jack brings esteemed trumpeter and vanguard composer Wadada Leo Smith to the mix, along with reedsman and longtime Spring ...

139
Album Review

Spring Heel Jack: The Sweetness of the Water

Read "The Sweetness of the Water" reviewed by Rex  Butters


Spring Heel Jack’s previous Thirsty Ear disc captured a live performance with Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Evan Parker, and others, creating dense grooves that some compared to the churning thickness of early ‘70s Miles. Their new release has them at times light as sunbeam lint, possibly a result of guest Wadada Leo Smith’s input—the structure is more like a Smith project, or even Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. Collaborators—in addition to Spring Heel Jack, comprised of John Coxon and Ashley Wales—also ...

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110

Event

Matthew Shipp and UK album collaborators Spring Heel jack tour the UK

Matthew Shipp and UK album collaborators Spring Heel jack tour the UK

Source: All About Jazz

An explosive series of live collaborations between the elite of the American and European improvisatory jazz scene and UK sampling and processing masters Spring Heel Jack land in the UK on January 22 for an 8 day tour.

The all-star line-up features artists who are celebrated in their respective fields. From the New York downtown scene come Matthew Shipp and his regular co-hort William Parker. They are joined by the inimitable British saxophonist Evan Parker, Spiritualized's frontman Jason Pierce and ...

"Amassed is going to shake up both electronica and jazz circles with its willful, uncompromising merging of elements of both musical forms." --PopMatters

"Oddities reveals a rich, dark seam of possibilities. It's dark, gorgeous music which makes me wonder how deep this seam penetrates; is there more, or is this it? It's difficult but accessible music (if that's not too much of an oxymoron for you). Don't pass this one by." --BBC

"A cut above 90% of today's electronica...neatly balancing amorphous tonal explorations with chamber-jazz and groovy spy-flick vibes..." --AP quote

"Stealthy innovation and breathless compendium of sounds, amounting to a kind of avant-garde 'musique concrete'" --NME magazine

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Mass

Creole Stream Music
2009

buy

Songs & Themes

Creole Stream Music
2008

buy

Songs And Themes

Thirsty Ear Recordings
2008

buy

Live

Thirsty Ear Recordings
2005

buy

The Sweetness Of The...

Thirsty Ear Recordings
2004

buy

AMaSSED

Thirsty Ear Recordings
2002

buy

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