ALBUM REVIEW: Jahcoustix
- Posted on July 30, 2007 3:36 PM
- 0 comments
JAHCOUSTIX
Grounded
Four Records (Modern Soul) Release 30 July 2007
Review by Peter Coulston
Jahcoustix is a singer/songwriter in the Reggae and Soul mode who was influenced heavily by his childhood in Kenya. He is now based in Germany and has performed all over Europe including the Montreux Jazz Festival. His influences are the likes of Bob Marley and Burning Spear and this album was mixed and mastered by Californian reggae producer, Jim Fox, who also produced the reggae tracks. The other tracks were produced by Peter Hoppe.
While a lot of this album is dedicated to reggae, there are some excellent ballad and soul tracks to be enjoyed. There are two acoustic reggae tracks, “Somebody” and “Appreciation”, with the rest using a range of instruments and influences. “Hot Stone” has some nice jazz piano, “Musical Soldier” makes good use of trumpet and saxophone and “Salaam Aleikum” has a North African feel about it. There are some excellent acoustic ballads such as “Vision Of A Lady”, “Special Place” and, a personal favourite, “Afreeca”. I also loved the bluesy ballad “The Truth About It All” and enjoyed the trumpet on “Wishful Thinking”.
This is an album that creeps up on you after a few listens, so do not be put off if you are not very into reggae. There is some great material in other styles here and the reggae tunes are all very melodic with good lyrics. A nice one to add to your collection
Post a comment
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.seatwaveblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1099
