Reviews

Danny Keane
Album: Kinesis
Label: MVKA
Tracks: 6
Website: https://dannyiskeane.bandcamp.com/

Kinesis is the movement of an organism in response to stimulus, a biological term. The album Kinesis by composer, arranger, producer and musician Danny Keane showcases six tracks that ooze or overflow with movement. Having collaborated with Ethopian master musician Mulatu Astatke, Damon Alban, Nitin Sawhney Anoushka Shankar and others equally diverse it's a given that Keane's music is a shapeshifting blend of Cinematic, atmospheric and noir soundscapes. Danny's cello, keyboard playing are at the core of his thoughtful arrangements with an orchestra of sympathetic musicians swelling the sound. Kinesis is most rooted in Jazz, but it's the monochrome noir film soundtrack jazz of ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHAFAUD and ANATOMY OF A MURDER. Miles Davis and Duke Ellington respectively would applaud his create his use of atmosphere and ability to blend elements into a cohesive whole.

"Running" does exactly what it's title suggests with electronic textures and Aref Duresh's tabla playing setting up a funky visceral drive. Not since Roy Budd's GET CARTER theme has Indian percussion sounded so tense. Dry brass wafts from James Arben break the chase and keep the arrangement interesting. Keane himself contributes some beautiful electric Rhodes runs and then we are back in a period Spy theme with spiky playing from Arben and Byron Wallen's cool school trumpet. The pulse in "Passing Time" is persistent but distant like a train or the helicopter blades in Apocalypse Now. Brass, Danny Keane's piano and tasteful strings over more interesting percussion are just beautiful.

"Cathartic Chaos" opens with keyboard sounds straight from Jon Pertwee's Dr Who and some incredible manipulated cello. If BITCHES BREW era Miles Davis had travelled in the Tardis it might have sounded like this. Keane twists the arrangement with eerie cello bowing sparring with Adnan Jordan's Oud and Sarathy Korwar's muscular drumming. The intro to "Somnolent Stomp" builds an atmosphere slowly with percussion and Ed Ashby's Tuba resonating your diaphragm like The Jaws Theme. James and Byron lock in with noir Saxophone and Trumpet while Keane's piano channels Monk and Tracey. There is beauty throughout this album but often its a tense or sinister beauty like the savage Saxophone and Bass Clarinet sparring that ends this majestic track.

There is old school straight ahead beauty in the piano, brass and drums playing on "A Major Minor Waltz", it's full of a classic Van Gelder Blue Note subtlety and pizzazz. Danny and Double Bass player Jon Thorne duet on some fine analog jazz with Arben's Saxophone nodding a little to Bobby Wellins' "Starless And Bible Black". "Time To Go" is a simply divine conversation between the rhythm section and Keane's piano. Without the almost loop like percussion and bass it would drift into Bill Evans and Flamenco Sketches" territory. The atmospheric pulse, part heartbeat part train track stops early leaving the piano bringing an atmospheric finality to the title.

Kinesis is an album of two interesting halves, with the first four tracks drawing wide on Film Music to create atmospheric rich soundtracks around a very urban pulse. While the second half luxuriates in simply sublime classic piano led jazz. Both Kinesis and Danny Keane's previous album ROAMIN' which I bought online between listens of the album I was reviewing are highly recommended.

Marc Higgins

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