Cube Orchestra: Cubest007

The Cube Orchestra has had a spate of really good sessions and I find myself struggling to keep up with the series, having considerable difficulty in making a selection, never mind the edits.

To be fair, there are only really five tracks here along with a couple of inter-track bursts, but Premonitions deserves to run the 14 minutes I've given it, so I have to accept defeat once again and turn my attention to the next compilation to attain my self-imposed holy grail of pop songs ...

This collection presents the usual wide gamut that is our trademark approach, no rules, just see what happens. Here are some 'sleeve notes' to accompany the tunes

Jump to Download link ... Back to Cubest series ...

Open Up

2015 02 04 - Sarai Costas: Piano, Percussion; Chema Gala: Sax; Ghoufran Warlow: Piano, Percussion, Clarinet; Jean-Michel Maheu: Guitar, Percussion; Ramon Sanchez: Trumpet, Percussion, Vocals; Keef Chemistry: Melodica, Vocals, Percussion, iPad; Jon Shepherd: Bass; Marcus Valentine: Keyboards

On the beat drumming from Ramon on this opening track, with some nice piano and guitar work, giving me space to blow on my melodica. I like the djembe near the end and it's a pretty good finish too

Spinning Plates

2015 02 11 - Kieran Gillick: Trumpet; Josie Gill: Piano, Vocals; Sammy Weaver: Flute, Vocals; Odysseas Pappas: Guitar; Sharleena Ray: Vocals, Melodica, Piano; Ghoufran Warlow: Piano, Percussion; David Insua-Cao: Percussion; Jean-Michel Maheu: Guitar, Percussion; Keef Chemistry: Melodica, Vocals, iPad; Marcus Valentine: Keyboards

A chaotic start soon launches into a driving beat thanks to Marcus leading the way. It finally takes shape about two minutes in, with Jon beginning a tour de force on bass, which continues throughout. David provides some incredible drumming, Sharleena's vocals are strong and the flute and sax stabs give the tune its identity. The drop outs and builds are impressive, but for me it's Jon who steals the show

Clanger

2015 01 28 - Kieran Gillick: Trumpet; Sharleena Ray: Vocals; Ghoufran Warlow: Piano, Percussion, Clarinet, Vocals; David Insua-Cao: Percussion, Piano; Jean-Michel Maheu: Guitar; Keef Chemistry: Melodica, Vocals, iPad; Jon Shepherd: Bass; Ollie Owen: Guitar; Marcus Valentine: Keyboards

David with one of the toys from his arsenal of goodies

No Signal

Quirky intro with Marcus and Jean-Michel playing around Ghoufran and Sarai's rumbling beat. Ramon provides the narrative. I try to do a Zeppelin-esque vocal to accompany Jean-Michel at one point, then a dubby line or two later. The tune evolves into a real groove, with melodica and strong sax lines from Chema

Outburst

One of my tediously regular bursts of feedback on the iPad, with a trail of flute and drums

Premonitions

2015 01 14 - Josie Gill: Piano, Vocals; Sharleena Ray: Vocals; David Insua-Cao: Percussion, Dulcimer; Jean-Michel Maheu: Guitar, Percussion; Keef Chemistry: Melodica, Vocals, Percussion, iPad; Jon Shepherd: Bass; Ollie Owen: Guitar; Marcus Valentine: Keyboards

This is the epic album track. Every progressive album has to have one. It begins dark and mysterious, with slide guitar, bluesy guitar, rumbling drums and wonderful bluesy vocals in a protracted intro that lasts for about three minutes, before Marcus leads us into the song proper. The tune drops out and builds several times, giving it dynamics. About five minutes in Sharleena gives the song its ID (or at least the one I took for the title). At 6:48 you might be forgiven for thinking the song has run its course, but no, we now enter a new phase, soft and drifting, with lovely contributions from everybody, be it piano, guitar, vocals or bass. I like the whistling and vocal responses and the really weird guitar bits, though David's wonderful dulcimer is not to be overlooked. It ends like the album closer it was intended to be, but there's more ...

Fairground Ride

We often burst into orchestral chaos in the hope something will emerge, but this piece has a real character of its own. Pure madness, swirling up and down, easing off, then slipping further down the tracks, coming almost to a stop, then off again. I love the whistle, Marcus' fairground organ and Sharleena's operatic outbursts. Monty Python meets The Beatles

I'm still a little off the mark with my 3-minute target, but Cubest 008 shouldn't be long in the making, so stay tuned ...
- keef chemistry

Download the zip file here (7 tracks @ 320kbps = 86mb):
https://orchestra.cubecinema.com/downloads/cubest007.zip
(The files need to be zipped before download. This may take a while, so please be patient ...)

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