Brazilian Wax by U.H.O.

9 tracks with that all important latin twist – compiled here on UHOs 3rd long-player. Each production stars guest vocalists and featured performers from Londons nu jazz scene.

Rebecca Carrington leads the outings two cover versions, both from the A C Jobim songbook – Ah Insensetaz (So Insensitive) and Oh Amour Em Paz (Once I loved) . Rebecca Carrington is a much in demand session vocalist and cellist having worked most recently with London based nu jazz luminaries 4Hero, Ty and Zero 7

Next up, Alex Chance, who has previously recorded as Alex MacLaine for Talkin’ Loud, EMI France and Yellow Recordings – has toured in Brazil, France and Spain and now joins forces with UHO writer/ producer Simon Christophers in south Lambeth. Together they form a versatile songwriting/ production duo. Latin inspired soul jazz stanza Keep Smilin’ is the result.

Centred around the ‘Little Portugal’ area of Lambeth, UHO’s compositions reflect the street sounds of his locality and the escapism of his mentality. Arrangements, orchestration and melody rule the day – with each production unfolding mystery and depth on each play.

Maeg will be exploiting an extensive back catalogue of singles and EPs (both instrumental and vocal) which host a weight of featured artists and timeless production.

Previous press for UHO:

“I love the music comin’ outta the UHO” – Teddy D (Basement Boys)

“Deep production and strictly jazzy vibes with that all important latin twist” – Phil Cheeseman (Strictly Rhythm)

“Too, too deep” – DJ Alex from Tokyo

“A future classic from Recreation Records (UK), English eccentricity flavours the new world sunshine of ‘Miami Flight’. ‘Strange Lines’ on the flip picks up the laidback thread while adding some subtle d&b action.” – IDJ Magazine

“Live sounds come to the fore on this strong, slice of Latin-flavoured dance. Breakbeats and acoustic guitar give a haunting sun-kissed quality to the b-side, Strange Lines.” – Music Week

“Downbeat recommended: UHO’s Miami Flight a strange, soulfully chilled trip.” – XLR8R Magazine

“UHO make beautifully different music. Two tunes with a jazz edge that defy categorisation. It’s the atmosphere that gets you.” – www.tunes.co.uk

“Technojazzmusik for spy kids!” – www.musicmarkt.de

“This is simply intelligent, tuneful electronica.” – Technics Dance Update

Kindred Spirits by U.H.O. feat Carlton and Rob Lavers

Centred around the ‘Little Portugal’ area of Lambeth, UHO’s compositions reflect the street sounds of his locality and the escapism of his mentality. Arrangements, orchestration and melody rule the day – with each production unfolding mystery and depth on each play.

Maeg will be exploiting an extensive back catalogue of singles and EPs (both instrumental and vocal) which host a weight of featured artists and timeless production.

Previous press for UHO:

“I love the music comin’ outta the UHO” – Teddy D (Basement Boys)

“Deep production and strictly jazzy vibes with that all important latin twist” – Phil Cheeseman (Essence Records)

“Too, too deep” – DJ Alex from Tokyo

“A future classic from Recreation Records (UK), English eccentricity flavours the new world sunshine of ‘Miami Flight’. ‘Strange Lines’ on the flip picks up the laidback thread while adding some subtle d&b action.” – IDJ Magazine

“Live sounds come to the fore on this strong, slice of Latin-flavoured dance. Breakbeats and acoustic guitar give a haunting sun-kissed quality to the b-side, Strange Lines.” – Music Week

“Downbeat recommended: UHO’s Miami Flight a strange, soulfully chilled trip.” – XLR8R Magazine

“UHO make beautifully different music. Two tunes with a jazz edge that defy categorisation. It’s the atmosphere that gets you.” – www.tunes.co.uk

“Technojazzmusik for spy kids!” – www.musicmarkt.de

“This is simply intelligent, tuneful electronica.” – Technics Dance Update

Something Different by UHO feat Andy Willyams

Centred around the ‘Little Portugal’ area of Lambeth, UHO’s compositions reflect the street sounds of his locality and the escapism of his mentality. Arrangements, orchestration and melody rule the day – with each production unfolding mystery and depth on each play.

Maeg will be exploiting an extensive back catalogue of singles and EPs (both instrumental and vocal) which host a weight of featured artists and timeless production.

Previous press for UHO:

“I love the music comin’ outta the UHO” – Teddy D (Basement Boys)

“Deep production and strictly jazzy vibes with that all important latin twist” – Phil Cheeseman (Essence Records)

“Too, too deep” – DJ Alex from Tokyo

“A future classic from Recreation Records (UK), English eccentricity flavours the new world sunshine of ‘Miami Flight’. ‘Strange Lines’ on the flip picks up the laidback thread while adding some subtle d&b action.” – IDJ Magazine

“Live sounds come to the fore on this strong, slice of Latin-flavoured dance. Breakbeats and acoustic guitar give a haunting sun-kissed quality to the b-side, Strange Lines.” – Music Week

“Downbeat recommended: UHO’s Miami Flight a strange, soulfully chilled trip.” – XLR8R Magazine

“UHO make beautifully different music. Two tunes with a jazz edge that defy categorisation. It’s the atmosphere that gets you.” – www.tunes.co.uk

“Technojazzmusik for spy kids!” – www.musicmarkt.de

“This is simply intelligent, tuneful electronica.” – Technics Dance Update

Ah Insensatez by U.H.O. feat Rebecca Carrington

Centred around the ‘Little Portugal’ area of Lambeth, UHO’s compositions reflect the street sounds of his locality and the escapism of his mentality. Arrangements, orchestration and melody rule the day – with each production unfolding mystery and depth on each play.

Maeg will be exploiting an extensive back catalogue of singles and EPs (both instrumental and vocal) which host a weight of featured artists and timeless production.

Previous press for UHO:

“I love the music comin’ outta the UHO” – Teddy D (Basement Boys)

“Deep production and strictly jazzy vibes with that all important latin twist” – Phil Cheeseman (Essence Records)

“Too, too deep” – DJ Alex from Tokyo

“A future classic from Recreation Records (UK), English eccentricity flavours the new world sunshine of ‘Miami Flight’. ‘Strange Lines’ on the flip picks up the laidback thread while adding some subtle d&b action.” – IDJ Magazine

“Live sounds come to the fore on this strong, slice of Latin-flavoured dance. Breakbeats and acoustic guitar give a haunting sun-kissed quality to the b-side, Strange Lines.” – Music Week

“Downbeat recommended: UHO’s Miami Flight a strange, soulfully chilled trip.” – XLR8R Magazine

“UHO make beautifully different music. Two tunes with a jazz edge that defy categorisation. It’s the atmosphere that gets you.” – www.tunes.co.uk

“Technojazzmusik for spy kids!” – www.musicmarkt.de

“This is simply intelligent, tuneful electronica.” – Technics Dance Update

A nice review from la dea bicefala website

29th April 2016

GUILO – “Incline Thine Ears” (Maeg Music)

Are you feeling so down that you don’t want to leave the house? From the window does Cremona seem to be a district of Gotham City? Has drizzle and damp entered your soul?

Well, if you want an antidote there is one. Insert into the CD player the EP Guilo, a London-based duo debut that consists only of instrumental tracks with acoustic guitar, programming (Simon Christophers ) and clarinet (Alice Westlake). A risk, you think. Certainly a challenge,nowadays. A little madness of genius.

Because the music does work, and how. It bewitches. Eight songs are under three minutes which are many micro scores for journeys of the mind, the primary source of inspiration the never quite appreciated Penguin Cafe Orchestra by the legendary Simon Jeffes (five albums between ’76 and ’88 which have shown that a single path, on the edge of ‘popular music ‘, where the genres crumble and are reborn in a new form, unclassifiable).

The charm of ” Incline Thine Ears ” ( title taken from the Bible ?) is in the taste with which electronic and acoustic sound come together defining a balance really rare: and it captures the ancestry of Christophers for the classic sounds, even tempered and modified by a clear propensity for electronic experimentation, inspired by American minimalism (repeated cellular sounds) with obvious references to the compositions of René Aubry (one album above all: the magnificent “Invités sur la terre ” from 2001) and the scores of Yann Tiersen or, in brief instances, even to the Third Ear Band from the Italian reunion  (listen to the initial “Arctic Sound” to believe it) .

With well-crafted music, generally the risk is to slip into sickly, caressing melodies of ‘ muzak ‘or in the monotonous marshes of the so-called new age which since the eighties corrupts the sound of space by spreading the idea of a world clean and clear, virginal, untouched, for the exclusive use of the middle classes in search of relaxation from the stress of modern life .

Here, on the contrary, we are in a universe which is restless and passionate, it makes you fall in love and divide, indicating horizons which change while the mind believes to have seized  them : in ” Incline Thine Ears “, for example, the beating drums in 2 / 4 overlaps an arpeggio iterated of extraction folk on which the clarinet circles with free improvisation in the background. The climax is initially relaxed, joyful, then in the chorus looks threatening, and the listener, convinced that they had embarked on a path that leads to a flowery meadow, find themself suddenly in a steaming mound of toxic vapors. Just as in certain experiences of every day life …

Incline Thine Ears by Guilo

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Guitarra by Guilo

Guilo (Si Christophers) continues his foray into the world of modern classical meets folktronica with Guitarra, his second album. The set comprises the last three singles, Family, Falaise Pocket (b side Mulberry Harbour) and Light and Weight (b side Ruby of Cocundo) with 3 new tracks. 

The three new tracks feature ambient flautist and sound-smith Katie English aka Isnaj Dui – who conveys a minimalist sound using flutes, home-made dulcimers and electronics – and who here casts a bewitching air over the pieces. Alchemising Guilos gentle, naturalised electronica into a twisted folktronica. 

After opening with a haunting piped refrain, evocative of a late night ferry, Terminal is shackled and tethered (rather than driven) by a rumbling  and foreboding prepared zither played by Christophers, the notes ebbing and flowing like the eddies of a malevolent marina. Emmie Wards haunting vocals twist with Isnaj Dui’s electro-acoustic drones, ride cymbal splashes conjure ghost ships moored.

The mood warms somewhat on the improvised Incompleteness Theorems with some nice interplay between Si Christophers zither playing and Katie English’s flute – whilst some Arlet and North Sea Radio Orchestra influences creep in, it is still very much an idiosyncratic sound. Dominated by a modern minimalist stance. Overall Incompleteness Theorems sounds strangely familiar – even homely, however incomplete the theorem maybe.

The disjointed unease of  sharp and natural notes vibrating (laconically), stuttering and stammering at the outset, set out the stall on Financial Collapse – gradually aligning to form some semblance of a sequence or sentence. And what a depressing sentence its likely to translate to… for when a trio of voices finally appear and build a choral wail over the proceedings, you know we are being led to the inevitable, aforementioned Financial Collapse. Somehow we are denied this (darn it!). Failing to fall over that precipice.. instead the listener is cast ashore to a kind-of–calm, just marooned in a quietness. A quietness that does little to truly soothe, just mask some of the pain.

It the uneasiest easy listening this side of Easter

Good luck!

What others have said:

“Reflective soundscapes for the thinker”

And:

London based artist Guilo presents an instrumental set of modern classical folktronica. Inspired by a road trip through French Normandy, this is a pastoral, demi-orchestral reflection of war mementos encountered along the way.

Mulberry Harbour, like its namesake in Arromanches, is timeless and almost magical. Guitar chords are wrapped in enchanted percussion and brass, set against waves of warm familiarity. Falaise Pocket weaves a mood of urgent trepidation with guitar, French horn and chimes. Oscillating between strength and weakness, confidence and fear, we are left somewhat afloat, without a sense of resolution or closure.

 The two sides burst with pastoral and sacred sounds performed with a host of friends from the more-cultured music scene in London.

Of note, Light and Weight culminates in an anthemic, triumphant fanfare, while Ruby of Cocundo pulses with cinematic aplomb to a climax of peals of trumpets and French horn.

And even!

Beautifully mastered by Mark Beazley (Rothko), the 8 pieces are mixed expertly for hi-fi or headphone listening. Introspective, weird modern/medieval music. You could call it Mead Hop. Or maybe not.

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