You guys know that I love telling you about new music I’m listening to at the moment and today I really want to talk about Big Blue Mixtape, I’ve been playing this on a loop since I first heard it. I love the way it takes tracks from across Galen James’ career, it’s also pretty special because it’s recorded on analogue tape by Doug Messenger (the guitar player for Van Morrison).
I’ve had to do an absolute ridiculous amount of driving lately and this is exactly my kind of driving music. You know, everybody has their own taste in music that especially comes into play when they’re driving and my favourite is definitely Pop & Jazz Fusion, so this fits the bill nicely. I say it’s one for the car, as you’ll play it over and over!
Big Blue Mixtape shows us the ability of Galen James and his band Compendium. It’s really no wonder that they’ve won five Downbeat Awards. I enjoy the way he delivers his brilliant brand of sophisticated and different pop, what sets Mr Taylor’s compositions ahead of many other artists on planet pop is his ability to find soul amongst the machines and this has almost everything to do with his beautiful voice. If you listen closely, you’ll see that as the song progresses the production varies even more and that the instrumental arrangements are thematically complex but importantly, also economical.
Over time I’ve realised that there are a lot of artists out there who are only doing what they do to make money (wouldn’t you?). Galen James is one of the few TRUE artists out there who strives to perfect his god-given musical talents. The smooth, jazzy, soulful, rhythm and blues type of music found on this track is beautifully crafted together to create an all time classic. It’s just so deliciously smooth and soulful that I feel he really does connect emotionally to his songs, and i think in this day and age very few artists really do.
If you enjoy this track as much as I do, the I think you’ll love Galen’s newest album ‘Love & Bad News’ – It’s available at Amazon. You can also keep up to date with their latest offerings by following them on Twitter.
