The Late Night Tales series maybe took a gamble getting members of Artic Monkeys and Snow Patrol to come up with back-to-mine selections for their last two volumes but both rose to the occasion, even venturing into the esoteric. The Cinematic Orchestra’s Jason Swinscoe might be drenched in music of a soundtrack persuasion but turns in one of the most diversely intoxicating excursions yet as the series reaches its 23rd release. Although the set features Bjork and Thom Yorke, these seem incongruous alongside obscurities like Shuggie Otis’ spaced ‘Aht Uh Mi Hed’ or Sun Ra acolyte Eddie Gale’s ‘The Rain’ from 1968’s seminal Ghetto Music album [Unfortunately clipped to two minutes]. The way this segues out of Nick Drake’s ‘Three Hours’ and into Terry Callier’s tough ‘You’re Gonna Miss Your Candyman’ is a good illustration of Swinscoe’s way with the late-night flow; a lot of care and planning has obviously gone into this. Elsewhere, the session manages to swing between Steve Reich, Burt Bacharach, the Freedom Sounds featuring Wayne Henderson, Songstress, DJ Food, Imogen Heap, Sebastian Tellier, Burial and the cool jazz-house of St Germain’s ‘Rose Rouge’, finishing off with Will Self reading Part 3 of The Happy Detective.
4 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs