Music Review for Amplify The Noise
Music Review
Translation by Brian Kingsland
2025
Classical Conversation
Classical Spanish guitar - Dios mío! Is there a sound more evocative, brooding and seductive as the plucking of a Spanish guitarist? I can categorically say there isn’t. Of all the genres throughout time, Spanish guitar has retained a singular sound, full of warmth, passion, musicianship and heritage. Artists who perform in this space need to approach it with great reverence and respect - guitarist Brian Kingsland is one such musician, with his album, Translation.
Translation is a selection of some of Kingsland’s favourite pieces by Spanish composers, performed solo on acoustic guitar. From the opening track, Capricho Arabe, (originally composed by Francisco Tárrega in 1892), Kingsland declares his intentions for this album and showcases his abilities as a guitarist and musician. His performance is delivered with emotion and gusto, instantly transporting listeners to sun-drenched Andalusian villages or the Basilicas of Barcelona.
As a guitarist, Kingsland understands the importance of light and shade in classical music, in order to create narrative and pacing. He does this throughout the album, shifting from heavy bravado to reserved and introspective as needed. The result is a performance that is conversational and intimate.
This conversational delivery is important when the album is an interpretation of existing compositions. Within his performance, Kingsland is saying, “I really love this piece of music, and this is what I want to say with it”. This is amplified, ironically, by the fact that it’s an acoustic solo performance. Kingsland stands alone, hiding behind no-one and no production, giving nothing but himself and his translation of each piece.These tracks aren’t shiny - they are textured. You can hear the physicality and mechanical nature of acoustic playing. Hands slide up and down the guitar, whilst fingers, not plectrums, pluck with rhythm and energy, bringing the tactility and texture of Spain to the performance.
I hesitate to call out any specific tracks, but rather encourage you to take a moment to experience the whole conversation with Kingsland. This is intimate musical storytelling with a technically and emotionally talented musician.
Released 2025
Performed and produced by Brian Kingsland
Mixed by Steve Wilson
Original mucic written by Francisco Tarrega, Agustín Barrios Mangoré, Antonio Lauro, Andrés Segovia, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Isaac Albéniz
Music Review for Amplify The Noise
Liquid Portraits by Clap! Clap!
June 12, 2020
Late to the party:
Music you may have missed
I’ve long enjoyed the concept of ‘beautiful chaos’, in art. When the seemingly disordered creates something whole and beautiful, I think this is one of the most thrilling expressions of art. Liquid Portraits by Clap! Clap! seems to inhabit this beautiful chaos, but everything is thoughtfully and deliberately placed, creating something special.
Like the name suggests, the album is a collection of sonic-paintings created by Italian producer and DJ, Cristiano Crisci, a.k.a. Clap! Clap! Though I hesitate to ‘genre’ this album, Crisci comfortably plays with contemporary jazz, afro-beats, traditional drums and instruments to create a complex electronic album, rich with colour.
As with all art, I don’t want to try and attach meaning to what Clap! Clap! has created, but rather breakdown how he made it, and why it makes it so compelling. Most striking about the album is how painterly it comes across. If you listen to it in the context of abstract paintings, you can hear the physicality, energy and colours of the musician at work. It’s the unpredictable markings of a Pollock. It’s the segmented moments in a Rothko. It’s the erratic storytelling of a Basquiat.
Crisci is an electronic musician that understands the best electronic music is filled with organic sounds. Liquid Portraits is not all 808’s and excessive house-synths. It has textural highs and lows that come from field recordings, traditional percussion, unique vocals performances, and yes, the sound of liquid. The track “Quietude”, my personal favourite, has one core sample that successfully flavours and drives the entire track; a squeaky hinge. This sound alone gives the track structure and direction whilst a jazz piano flutters beneath it and a series of polyrhythms pan from left to right. This is clever and deliberate beat making.
Arguably the most “conventional” track – massive air quotes required – is called “Moving On” and features vocalist Martha Da’ro. It sits comfortably in the middle of the album and creates a reset moment. As a listener, the first half of the album had my full attention, where I focused on the beat-making and various clever motifs. It was introductory and explorative. The track has just enough hooks and pop-sensibilities to allow me to settle back and just absorb the remainder of the album. To me, this is how I enjoy albums – fascinate me first, then allow me to relax and enjoy.
This is not to say that the second half of the album calms down. Across all 12 tracks you are continuously met with polyrhythms, new sounds and stonking-big bass drops that audibly shoves you from one space to another. This is what drives the work as a whole. Clap! Clap! seemingly never runs out of flavours and colours to paint with, giving you more and more across the album. Never stale, never samey.
It would be remiss of me to not mention the actual visual art of the album. Artist RUFFMERCY has a style that perfectly reflects this album. His painterly-collages pair with what Clap! Clap!’ has created, adding to the album’s narrative and tone. This is thoughtful and considered album-craft.
All this culminates in an electronic album that is full of energy, colour and craftsmanship. Clap! Clap! has the confidence and ability to mix endless layers of sound into cohesive pieces of music. He uses every minute of every track to throw as many things at the listener as he can, without ever letting the music slip into slop. The album retains momentum, clarity and engrossing songwriting.
I’m late to the party, but Liquid Portraits by Clap! Clap! is a brilliant album of musical portraiture, created by an artist, embracing beautiful chaos. Put it in the Louvre!
Released June 12, 2020
Produced by Clap! Clap!
Additional musicians: Domenico Candellori, Niccolò Giordano, Kety Fusco, Piero Spitilli
Mixed at Patchany Studio except ‘Moving On’ Mixed by Tom Forrest
Mastering & Vinyl cut by Arnold Kasar, Calyx Mastering Berlin
Artwork by RUFFMERCY
Released on Black Acre Records
Music Review for Amplify The Noise
Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar
by Sam Gendel
and Sam Wilkes
June 15, 2018
Late to the party:
Music you may have missed
Music is magic by another name. A well constructed musical motif can instantly materialise you into a different plain of existence. Its influence over us can cause us to literally pause life, as it pulls all focus on itself. This is what happened when I first heard Music For Saxofone & Bass Guitar by Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes.
Heavy words, but true.
This short 7 track album is a meditative contemporary jazz masterclass, demonstrating what musicians can do when they are in full control of their instruments. The LA duo took the opportunity to make their album a tasteful sandpit of organic and electronic experimentation that never feels like a raucous jam session. With flourishes of hip hop, traditional jazz and sweeping soundscapes, this is a cohesive piece of work with clever musical editing and tasteful production. The result is an album with the aforementioned magic.
Key to the magic is the artist's abilities as both players and editors.
Saxophonist Sam Gendel makes his ‘saxofone’ speak in different languages (and yes, that is how they spell it on the album). At times it is breathy and timid. At others it’s creating loop motifs that give momentum and drive to the music. Sometimes the sax doesnt even sound like a sax. Sam balances all this with more traditional melodic passages that drift and meander around his fellow player. This continuous morphing from technique to technique keeps the saxophone fresh and in focus across the whole album.
Bassist Sam Wilkes is also a chameleon, making his bass perform several functions throughout the album. Each track has thick, lush chords that come across like a synthesizer. Then he’ll take a moment to step centre stage with short outburst of plucky syncopated solos and counter rhythms. The constant shifting of the bass in the composition fills each track with sound, so the absence of other instruments is never truly felt.
The duos technical skills are grounded with gentle electronic production. The correct measure of reverb, looping and foreign sounds mean each track is neither jazz nor electronic, but rather a divine mix of both. The track GREETINGS TO IDRIS is an excellent demonstration of the electric/organic mix, by starting with simple beatboxing which is slowly layered on itself, forming a hypnotic loop that continuously tumbles through the track. The result is a beat that sounds increasingly complex and synthetic. This is the closest the album comes to having drums, and it’s the better for it.
All this is not to say that it is a passive and easy listen. An interesting album should always challenge, but not completely alienate. The Sams manage to walk this line perfectly, providing both risk and reward. At very specific points in the album such as the track THEEM AND VARIATIONS, there are motifs that offer some friction and dissonance, but it never outstays its welcome. As a listener, this means the album is always providing me points of interest along the way, pulling my attention. It reminds the audience this is not an album of cafe music - it wants you to be present with the music.
Gendel and Wilkes wanted to create an album with a different musical vocabulary. Undoubtedly, they have done so. I’m late to the party, but Music For Saxofone & Bass Guitar is a contemporary jazz classic, filled with whimsy, experimentation and craftsmanship, all of which transport you somewhere else entirely, and back again.
Released June 15, 2018
Sam Gendel plays Alto Saxofone and electronics
Sam Wilkes plays Bass Guitar and electronics
Performed, recorded, mixed and produced by Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes
Mastered by Matthew McQueen