REVELATIONS
LEYLA McCALLA
On a personal musical journey to understand Haiti
LARGE PLANTS
The Carrier GHOST BOX
7/10
Folk-rock gone spookily psych in Wolf person’s ’70s dream
Large Plants, the solo project of Wolf People’s Jack Sharp, announced itself last year with a cover of Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita”, finding a weird psychsploitation heart beating at the core of Madame Ciccone’s Latino dream. On The Carrier, he follows through on that single’s psych-pop promise, though the surprise here is the distinctly folk-rock lilt of Sharp’s voice and melodies. It’s a compelling conundrum – T2 and Fairport Convention collaborating on an album for the Fading Yellow series, perhaps – but even that doesn’t account for a song like “Wreckers”, which pivots on a seesawing riff that’s pure Groundhogs.
JON DALE
AZAR LAWRENCE
New Sky TRAZAR
7/10
Sax veteran mixes Coltrane-ish intensity with smooth jazz
This Californian saxophonist is best known for playing the John Coltrane role in 1970s bands led by McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, and also for playing on Miles Davis’s Dark Magus, but he’s also recorded a clutch of muchsampled R&B albums. His latest LP lurches between those worlds, with Lawrence switching between soprano and tenor sax. “Let It Go” is a piece of Headhunters-style jazz-funk; “New Sky” a Stevie Wonder-ish soul ballad sung by Lynne Fiddmont; “From The Point Of Love” is Alice Coltraneinspired astral jazz put through a Brazilian filter; while “Birds Are Singing” is a propulsive, swinging hard-bop waltz.