ISAAC BIRITURO & THE RAIL ABANDON | HEROES ARE GANG LEADERS | AVANTDALE BOWLING CLUB | ATHLETIC PROGRESSION | BRYCE DESSNER, KATIA & MARIELLE LABÈQUE AND DAVID CHALMIN

Hello again friends, freaks and fans of the kind of nu-jazz music that would litter its music videos with shots of Olivia and Meredith if only it could.

It appears to be the week where size undeniably matters. All our featured artists have names in excess of 20 characters long (if you include spaces). Meanwhile, three tracks over the 7-minute mark mean your bang for buck (40 minutes of music in total) is considerable. Lucky you.

Leading the line for loquacious band names, with a staggering 57 characters, is Bryce Dessner, Katia & Marielle Labèque and David Chalmin. The quartet’s undeniably beautiful Haven is a mix of guitars and pianos playing in hypnotising near-harmony and it provides this week’s Quiet Riot.

Providing a worthy challenge in the protracted name stakes is Isaac Birituro & The Rail Abandon. However, the two tracks could hardly be less alike in tone with the latter’s afrobeat rhythms providing a warm ‘welcome’ to the playlist as this week’s Charm Offensive.

When it comes to duration, tracks by Heroes are Gang Leaders (15 mins) – pictured – and Avantdale Bowling Club (7 mins) both take their time but both are well worth the wait. Similar in style, the pair feature rap / spoken word vocals over modal jazz instrumentation and provide this week’s Military Coup and Peaceful Protest offerings respectively.

And so, finally, we’re left with Athletic Progression’s Guerrilla Warfare selection, which – true to its billing – is the one that throws a curve-ball. The Danish trio are the smallest band reviewed, they offer up the shortest song (4 mins) and have the fewest letters in their name… but make up for it all by having great big dollops of personality… so much so that they nearly tricked me into writing about wizard’s sleeves (which, as any Urban Dictionary reader / 15 year old boy will tell you, is ill-advised.)

So, before I start making any ill-advised sexual innuendos (I’m trying to give them up but it’s hard. So hard), why don’t you slide on in…

ISAAC BIRITURO & THE RAIL ABANDON: YESU YAN YAN
HEROES ARE GANG LEADERS: LAND BACK
AVANTDALE BOWLING CLUB: YEARS GONE BY
ATHLETIC PROGRESSION: CLUB BERLIN
BRYCE DESSNER, KATIA & MARIELLE LABÈQUE AND DAVID CHALMIN: HAVEN

You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –