Seaming To, Dust Gatherers, O SingAtMe ***1/2

Reviewed by Stephen Graham The most relevant jazz track here is a highly individual version of the Walter Gross and Jack Lawrence standard ‘Tenderly’ sung by Sarah Vaughan in 1947 when the song was new. But singer Seaming To hovers beyond any …

Published: 29 Mar 2023. Updated: 12 months.

  • Reviewed by Stephen Graham

The most relevant jazz track here is a highly individual version of the Walter Gross and Jack Lawrence standard ‘Tenderly’ sung by Sarah Vaughan in 1947 when the song was new. But singer Seaming To hovers beyond any definable genre and even this fine cover does not really represent this extraordinarily spectral album as much as some of the originals. They have an even eerier but compelling quality and engage both your clue solving instincts intellectually given how unearthly the sound is but also there is a winning personality that comes through. It's ages since I heard Seaming To live - back in 2011 at a frankly frustrating Bishopsgate Institute showing partly because it was only a support slot within a very different project.

This is far better than what I remember. Classical and jazz-influenced you gain a maverick operatic quality on a track like 'Look Away' or an almost fairy story gothic creepiness eased out on 'Brave'. Seaming To dubs in piano, synths and clarinets on the recording with collaborators, often strings players, sizing up the canopy of the sound a little. A collection of stories gathering dust inside - thank goodness the dust has magically sprung to life and how. 'Water Flows' with its wobbly spookiness as the protagonists go sailing is just one delight among many. A world, a galaxy, away from Sarah Vaughan and the 1940s but no less valid for all that. Seaming To, photo: Bandcamp

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Mark Trounson's Disquiet, Malus and Clawback ***1/2

The writing is so strong from Cornwall, now Leicester, bassist Mark Trounson. Flicking through the tunes they all work. If you like Daniel Casimir's sound when the erstwhile Brum scene don goes more retro bop then this isn't far away and just as …

Published: 29 Mar 2023. Updated: 12 months.

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The writing is so strong from Cornwall, now Leicester, bassist Mark Trounson. Flicking through the tunes they all work. If you like Daniel Casimir's sound when the erstwhile Brum scene don goes more retro bop then this isn't far away and just as good in its own right. The arranging involving very woody textures on 'Eagle' the blend of reedist Ronan Perrett and saxist Rob Griffin against modern-ish Rhodes type electric piano from Jacky Naylor.

Rod Oughton - remember OK Aurora - on drums takes a Jeff Williams approach on 'Keyboard Warriors'. 'Half Irish' begins with a rhumba type drum part and then lonesome clarinet sliding into a leisurely reupholstered reel-type figure.

A peculiar name for a record Malus and Clawback - probably barking up the wrong tree but it can be understood as a legal term involved with, according to Lexisnexis, ''withholding or even recovering value from executives if a material adverse event occurs following the award of performance-related pay is now viewed as best market practice.''

Clear as mud then m'lud. The piece whether anything to do with the law or not has a wistful Dankworthian sense that is very appealing ruling the roost. Lapping piano and savoury flatted notes in the horns move into the mystic and the new melodic. The sound is not at all glossy and trounces all sense of the clinical. The band eventually grooves on 'Butterflies' (from the 2''30' mark) - and that's the added value when that happens out of the blue.

Get Malus and Clawback on download and streaming formats via this link