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MUSIC
by Neil Atherton  Nouvelle Vague “Nouvelle Vague” means many things to many people. For Brazilians it means “Bossa Nova” and represents the ’60s pop tones of Gilberto Gil. For the English it means the post-punk “New Wave” movement of the late 1970s and its struggling underclass of counter-culture youths. For the French it means an uncompromising and revolutionary style of cinematography. For Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, two Paris-based multi-instrumentalists, it means all these things together. Taking the cornerstones of the English post-punk sound, making them over with a Brazilian pop-style production and inviting eight female singers — themselves born in the same new-wave era — Nouvelle Vague is a celebration of universal understanding that leaps from genre to genre and from generation to generation. Not only is the style of each song changed (there isn’t one single electronic synth blip on the cover of Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough”), they succeed in displacing the suicidal tension of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” the aggression of The Dead Kennedy’s “Too Drunk To Fuck,” and the adolescent abandon of The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks” into carefree and largely detached harmonies. PIL’s “(This Is Not A) Love Song” is even made to sound half romantic thanks to Melanie Pain’s sultry vocal. Sir Alice’s tormenting delivery on Killing Joke’s “Psyche” on the other hand, transforms the original into a haunting psychological wilderness, as does Alex’s voice on Sisters of Mercy’s hypnotic “Marian.” The fact that some of the 13 tracks risk sounding a little gimmicky is no reason to ignore the duo’s tight grip on the polished stylistic direction. Out June 1 Gilles Peterson Acid-jazz kingpin, world music revivalist, all-round taste-maker and self-confessed vinyl addict. If there’s one DJ you can count on to deliver the goods when it comes to laying down a quality selection of funky, jazzy Latin-flavored tunes, it’s Gilles Peterson. Spreading his musical word through the Worldwide radio show (hear it in Paris on Radio Nova), his is a style that encompasses all tastes and pricks the ears of all aficionados — from house heads to jazz enthusiasts. His sets span the spectrum of old and new and this collection highlights perfectly his love of Brazilian music. The first of this double CD consists of “Clássico” songs, most notably those of Wilson Simonal, Os Originais do Samba, Os Cobras and O Povo Canta. The second, “Da Hora,” is the inevitable modern mix-up of the old stuff, with takes from Mitchell & Dewbury, Patricia Marx & 4Hero, Oto, Spritual South and Drumajik. More energetic and perhaps even more uplifting, CD2 is a faithful complement to the first, but ultimately lacks the authenticity and sheer old-fashioned coolness of the classics. Still, a slice of anything Brazilian is always nice to hear when it’s been pulled from Mr Peterson’s box. Out June 8 Jazzanova Opening with Jill Scott’s ridiculously funky “A Long Walk,” this compilation of Jazzanova’s favorite flavors and current cuts acts as a kind of résumé for their signature deep digital soul. It sounds like a mix-tape thoughtfully compiled for one of their best friends, dropping in a personal track or two to re-live an old moment shared in some distant but mutual memory. Specially recorded and re-edited versions of the group’s own club-jazz hits like “Dance The Dance” and “Let Your Heart Be Free” sit next to the slow-burning dub of Attica Blues and the classic ’80s groove of Carol Williams. Then there’s Bugge Wesseltoft’s electric piano melodies, accompanied by Sidsel Endresen’s mesmerizing vocal on “Try,” before the mix reaches its zenith with Georg Levin’s serene “Let There Be Love.” All summer-long listening guaranteed. Out June 7 Joseph Malik Like his music, Joseph Malik’s career is a blur of influences and chance encounters. Soul, R&B, folk, country, jazz and dance... Club promoter, DJ, producer, singer-songwriter... Whatever, teaming up with producer David Donnelly as MF Outa National — their track “Miles Out Of Time” appeared on the Mo’Wax label’s seminal “Headz” compilation in the early 1990s — was a first step toward a musical sensibility only his kind of experiences could have formed. Featuring an acclaimed cover version of the Bill Withers tune “Take It All In And Check It Out,” the first Joseph Malik album, “Diverse,” was a chilled-out foray into organically fused electronica. On this second long-player for Compost, Malik’s acoustic music again brings together an extended range of string, wind and percussion instruments, only this time with a more upbeat measure for the post-dancefloor generation. Geographical variation as much as musical diversification make their mark on his distinctly worldly aural presence: from Africa and America to Cuba and the UK. The results are “Diablo,” a dark Spanish tango break-beat track, the racy Afrobeat-style “Silent Fools,” and the New York garage tribute, “Believe & See,” all of which amount to open-minded music by an artist who expresses truth and reality through all their natural and organic forms. Out June 14 PLUS… Modern blues records, no matter how far they go to incorporate contemporary influences, always sound like they were made by a toothless 90-year-old sat on a stoop in downtown Chicago, in between taking long slugs from a bottle of bourbon. Far from being a purist though, and only in his mid-30s, the harmonica-playing guitarist Lee Sankey turns traditional blues, funk and roots arrangements into urban symphonies, thanks to a swinging cast of musicians and an indomitable desire to kick the blues out of its creative rut. Out now V/A Marching to a different beat, the Leaf label is an experimental outpost where each of its artists share only one common trait: individuality. The playfulness of A Hawk And A Hacksaw’s “Maremaillette” and the quirky psychedelic electronica of Manitoba’s “Crayon,” are both so different that this compilation almost doesn’t make sense. The madness of Japanese tabla guru Asa-Chang on “Parlor” and the spliced-up abstract hip hop of Riow Arai, are as far apart as the blissful Colleen is from the iconoclastic Clue To Kalo. It all makes for essential listening. Out June 21 Mara Carlyle A somber tapestry of singer’s songs on a singer’s album with quite a dark surface, this debut is heavy listening. “Alive” casts the one-time Plaid vocalist in the same black light as Portishead’s Beth Gibbons and on the rest of the 11 pseudo-personal tracks she’s in a weird world of her own. Out June 28
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