love this album!

Eighteen months in the making, producers from Belfast, Mark Bell and Paul McMahon, have produced a debut album for jazz hipsters everywhere. It’s a set that covers their jazz, funk and Latin music influences. The opener ‘Open Minded’ sets the scene for the album, a funky Average White Bank type groove with a spoken laid back rap. ‘Full of Music’ uses a sample of [ouch.. sounds like?] Ursula Rucker and funks along at a pace. ‘White Jazz’ is very 60’s Blue Note (save for the spaceship noises) and the class track on the album together with the furious batucada percussion of next track, ‘Flute and Mouth’. Their 2001 hit ‘Coalition’ is also included and fits in well along with ‘Conman’, which has some nice jazz-funky sax and more latin percussion. However, there’s some odd ones, ‘Losing Gamble’ is nu-disco-jazz with vocoder vocals that Herbie would have been proud off; but you can’t resist the organ and trumpet interchanges. ‘Des Etoile’ is a very summery tune with harmonica whisperings and echo’s of a laid back The Faces or even, Van Morrison. The last track is a down-tempo finish with the Horace Silver/Steely Dan bass-riff-rip profoundly entitled ‘Man Can Never Know’. All in all, hopefully this CD will get a good reception and will bring sunshine to ears throughout the forthcoming summer. And as you were wondering, ‘Suzume Park‘ is named after the place characters go to chill out in the Sega Dreamcast console game Shenmue. Yeah!