Tom Noble
Tom Noble
表演者: Tom Noble
专辑类型: Import
介质: Audio CD
发行时间: 2003-11-10
唱片数: 1
出版者: Laws of Motion
条形码: 5030094083325
专辑简介
Emanating from the Laws Of Motion stable, Tom Noble's rich debut album ranges freely across genres, finding a sense of unity in soul, reggae, jazz and Latin traditions in what would otherwise be disparate album.
Tom began his musical career playing drums in a blues band, so it isn't surprising that this heritage has begat a musician and producer with an ear for percussion arrangements and an unforced feeling for black and global lineage in his music.
The album opens with the conga pattering of a Nineties soft-shoe soul ballad, 'Moon and Stars', featuring Alice Russell, a trajectory that is soon diverted by the Bollywood hip hop of 'Bollywierd'.
'At Last' raises the tempo, keeping the Asian breaks feel and adding a tabla and bass flavour to what is essentially a flute centred samba jazz work out.
'Just another Daydream' takes dub references and adds Latin percussion licks, creating a mixture of hip hop, soul and reggae roots reminiscent of late Eighties Nineties cross cultural acts such as Soul II Soul, Smith and Mighty and Massive Attack.
To make the mood changes digestible the album is littered with incidental musical passages that herald shifts in genre and tempo.
'Keep It Slow' sounds like Gotan Project on Ketamin, adding a healthy dose of 'ruffage' to their polite euro-Latino tango arrangements.
With this and 'Ya Ya Dub' we begin to see more of a common element with Noble's stable mates at LoM, although, again, it's the surprises, such as the mid song dub break down in 'Ya Ya Dub' and the acidic attack on the downbeat of the excellent 'Two Sugars', that make this album all the more compelling.
And apart from all this production mastery, Nobel has a voice of his own, as amply illustrated in last year's 'Kind In The Night' single.
Which is not to say there couldn't have been some editing. There are a mammoth 18 tracks on the album, including a few inserts, and it's arguable whether the album gains from the brave, but sketchy up tempo crooner ballads such as 'You Are'.
But where this album works, in his interpretations of Asian influenced dub on 'Rajj Dub' and 'Midas Touch' for example, it works really well.
Not so much as the boy is gifted but could do more, as he could have done less and we'd have been more than happy.
曲目
Midas Touch