Two very different album highlights of the year got great accompanying releases providing alternative takes on their music.
I actually could have extended this review to three releases, since there's also the longer "Plus" version of Clipping.'s AOTY contender "Dead Channel Sky", but even though I love the result it still bothered me to putchase the whole digital album twice, so I'm not feeling like dedicating a review to it yet. And of course it would be too much of a stretch to sell that one as Jazz.
Not a problem for the artist of our first EP here, because who could possibly be more Jazz then Yazz?
I actually could have extended this review to three releases, since there's also the longer "Plus" version of Clipping.'s AOTY contender "Dead Channel Sky", but even though I love the result it still bothered me to putchase the whole digital album twice, so I'm not feeling like dedicating a review to it yet. And of course it would be too much of a stretch to sell that one as Jazz.
Not a problem for the artist of our first EP here, because who could possibly be more Jazz then Yazz?
YAZZ AHMED - A Paradise In The Hold (Remixed) (download) (2025)
There were two indicators to be confident that this EP by the British-Bahraini trumpet player and composer would be worthwhile:
1. Very few releases of 2025 come close to Yazz Ahmed's stunningly beautiful Jazz Fusion collection and interpretation of Persian tales on "A Paradise In A Hold".
2. Her choice of artists to rework her material traditionally is also strong, so remixed tracks of hers are not just a forgettable gimmick mostly entertaining for those who make them.
The rLr remix of the album closer "Waiting For The Dawn" is sped up to an instrumental rollercoaster of Break Beats and Oriental Disco. Very energetic.
With five minutes the Khalab remix of the title track has only half the length of the original version, but also compensates with a fast-paced danceable rhythmic approach. While the beauty of Ahmed's brass stays untouched, a powerful electronic bass pumps below it, while Afro-Arabic drums and handclaps irresistably drive it forward.
A slower, bass-heavy and a bit glitchy groove finally carries the Ahmed/Langley/Singh remix of "Mermaid's Tears", which also leaves fragments of the original's vocals floating around.
If you subtract the original album versions, which are also featured on the EP, this only adds up to a total of slightly over thirteen minutes. If you can dig a creative, vivid Jazz/Dance Music crossover however, those are still definitely worth it.
1. Very few releases of 2025 come close to Yazz Ahmed's stunningly beautiful Jazz Fusion collection and interpretation of Persian tales on "A Paradise In A Hold".
2. Her choice of artists to rework her material traditionally is also strong, so remixed tracks of hers are not just a forgettable gimmick mostly entertaining for those who make them.
The rLr remix of the album closer "Waiting For The Dawn" is sped up to an instrumental rollercoaster of Break Beats and Oriental Disco. Very energetic.
With five minutes the Khalab remix of the title track has only half the length of the original version, but also compensates with a fast-paced danceable rhythmic approach. While the beauty of Ahmed's brass stays untouched, a powerful electronic bass pumps below it, while Afro-Arabic drums and handclaps irresistably drive it forward.
A slower, bass-heavy and a bit glitchy groove finally carries the Ahmed/Langley/Singh remix of "Mermaid's Tears", which also leaves fragments of the original's vocals floating around.
If you subtract the original album versions, which are also featured on the EP, this only adds up to a total of slightly over thirteen minutes. If you can dig a creative, vivid Jazz/Dance Music crossover however, those are still definitely worth it.
STEVE BLANCO - Imprints of Man - Steve Blanco Plays the Music of Imperial Triumphant (download) (2025)
The New York-themed Dissonant Avantgarde Black/Death Metal band Imperial Triumphant of course approaches Jazz from a completely different angle than Ahmed. Even if Metal fans with a narrower horizon might miss it, their brutal sound actually is deeply rooted in Jazz skills and knowledge. And as if that needed further proof, the trio's bass player Steve Blanco has recorded this solo piano album with new interpretations of material from "Goldstar" and also older albums like "Spirit Of Ecstasy", "Alphaville", "Vile Luxury" all the way back to "Abyssal Gods".
So it's a pretty comprehensive representation of the band's discography, all transformed into virtuoso piano pieces between Jazz and Contemporary Classical Music.
The only track which isn't a dramatic story of six to nine minutes length - and also the only one not reinterpreting Imperial Triumphant - is the seventh and final piece, the "F# Minor Fugue" by Johann Sebastian Bach, which calmly closes an album that should easily speak not only to fans of Blanco's nonconform Extreme Metal, but also to friends of Keith Jarrett and congeneric Piano Jazz. Remarkably good!
Of course it would be nice to add one of the limited vinyl copies of "Imprints of Man" to my collection, but unfortunately it wasn't out yet when Imperial Triumphant were playing in Hamburg in October, and transatlantic shipping, you know... So I guess the digital version must do this time.
So it's a pretty comprehensive representation of the band's discography, all transformed into virtuoso piano pieces between Jazz and Contemporary Classical Music.
The only track which isn't a dramatic story of six to nine minutes length - and also the only one not reinterpreting Imperial Triumphant - is the seventh and final piece, the "F# Minor Fugue" by Johann Sebastian Bach, which calmly closes an album that should easily speak not only to fans of Blanco's nonconform Extreme Metal, but also to friends of Keith Jarrett and congeneric Piano Jazz. Remarkably good!
Of course it would be nice to add one of the limited vinyl copies of "Imprints of Man" to my collection, but unfortunately it wasn't out yet when Imperial Triumphant were playing in Hamburg in October, and transatlantic shipping, you know... So I guess the digital version must do this time.
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