Blue-in-Green:RADIO

Friday 11 January 2013

'Kaleidoscope' by [re:jazz] [Album review]


I can’t think of a time where I’ve felt so compelled as to start an album review with a grovelling apology, but in this case, it feels like the only way I should start it...  It’s purely down to bad timing on my part that the new album by [re:jazz] hasn’t been included amongst this blog’s top 5 albums of 2012, and that none of its songs made it on to our ‘best of’ playlists.

Let me tell you friends, it would’ve ranked highly.  Very highly, as it’s a pretty fantastic record and one I’m thrilled to have my hands on regardless of the year it was eventually discovered.

‘Kaleidoscope’ marks a new and vibrant musical direction for the band, guided expertly by Jazzanova’s Axel Reinemer and marking the inclusion of the group’s brand new vocalist, Mediha Rustempasic, who genuinely excels on her contributions including the exquisite ‘At First Glance’.  Mediha features with a handful of additional vocalists including Natalie Schaffer and Andrew Herbertson along with the woman whose Midas touch has blessed compositions by DJ Spinna, Shuya Okino, Guru, The Brand New Heavies (obviously!) – N’Dea Davenport – surely one of the most bankable artists you could choose to feature on your album!

I could actually go on about this for some time but I figure I should just get right down to how I'm going to make amends here, how can I make it up to you...? how can I make it up to them...? how can I make it up to myself?

Well, firstly, here's a live performance from the group as they perform 'Don't Push Your Luck', with Ms Mediha filling in for N'Dea, and secondly, it was only fair that we catch up with the group to say hi...


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