The Vampires Meet Lionel Loueke - Earshift Music (Ear 017)

Historical article recovered from a Wayback capture dated 2018-02-24.

Celebrating ten years as a band The Vampires have released their fifth recording in collaboration with the acclaimed Benin-born Blue Note recording artist guitarist Lionel Loueke. On this outing, they have added new musical influences of Ethio-jazz to dub, Afro -Cuban to Indonesian Gamelan to their already successful repertoire style of reggae inspired jazz resulting in a truly expansive album that justly serves the various creative forces within the band and the producer -musician/composer Lloyd Swanton from the award winning ambient ensemble The Necks. The line-up of players has changed with the addition of Danny Fisher on several tracks in the drum chair and a new double bassist Jonothan Zwartz on all.The horn players are the same, Nick Garbett on trumpet and Jeremy Rose on alto and tenor sax as well as bass clarinet, with the other original Vampire drummer Alex Masso returning for two of the ten tracks on drums and percussion.Loueke’s electric and acoustic contributions, as well as his vocals, are at the core of it all. His creativity overflows in every track and you can easily feel his passion to his own music. He is also flexible with the band, brewing unique flavors with his razor-sharp guitar skills generating a sound that is at all times relaxing and comfortable to the senses.This is a highly successful first-time collaboration featuring standout tracks Green, Green, Green and the very laid back Ubud Bubble with composer Rose’s soulful playing on bass clarinet being a major highlight of the musical invention

Barry O’Sullivan