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Related Reviews

Jazz Times
"Radio Silence...music that only increases in appeal upon repeated listens."
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DOWNBEAT Magazine
"wonderfully percussive and powerful...a great, creative piano trio that makes you bob your head and smile."
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All About Jazz
"Neil Cowley Trio works within a mode that harmoniously turns the tide on convention."
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Jazz Junkie
4½ Stars
"Neil Cowley Trio creates beautiful themes using their own vision"
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All About Jazz
"in the safe nostalgia of the twentieth century...Neil Cowley Trio continue to forge ahead into more challenging territory"
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Mainly Piano
"Radio Silence is a fascinating listening experience...music for the heart and feet"
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Audiophile Audition
4 Stars
"This is music with a hipster sophistication and new millennium accessibility"
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Downbeat Magazine
"a great, creative piano trio that makes you bob your head and smile"
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Critical Jazz
"Lush all most cinematic melodies that suddenly transform into bursts of controlled sonic fury"
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HiFi News
“precision and breath-catching dynamic contrasts, all of which are captured stunningly on this recording”
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Commercial Break
3½ Stars
"this is Cowley's reply to his critics. Perhaps Radio Silence will finally silence them"
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Limelight, Australia
"Cowleys intense, rythmic and richly decorated music is matched by the aggressive immediacy of his cohorts"
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Time Out
"Cowley gives the modern piano trio a distinctly English spin with danceable and daring results."
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Altsounds.com
"a talent which without effort links both the accessibility of "Stereoface" to more improvised tones of "Gerald".
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thesilentballet.com
3½ Stars
"Elegant and poetic..just damn beautiful."
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Bluesanssoul.com
"So summing up this talented threesome, I urge you to forget Viagra just get some NCT in your veins you'll soon be running around like a spring lamb. They are an inspirational spark that just continues to fly upwards bravo!"
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Les Inrockuptibles
"L'equation est simple: formation a la musique classique + jazz + culture pop anglaise = Neil Cowley Trio!"
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juslikemusic.com
"The Neil Cowley Trio continue to expand on the sub-genre of contemporary piano-trio jazz, with their high energy performances and beautifully crafted songs. The new album, Radio Silence, is a brilliant collection of nine songs, so give it a listen"
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Timesonline.co.uk
3 Stars
"nothing short of inspired...wonderfully refreshing...irresistible"
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Jazzwise
3 Stars
"Beautiful... elegiac, meditive even.. a band that seems to have found its voice... the sound of a band maturing fast, and in the process taking more chances. .. This is Cowley's best yet"
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The Word
"these tracks function like mad silent - movie accompaniments that lie just on the right side of chaos."
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Shout4Music.com
4 Stars
"Cowley produces genuinely exciting music compactly arranged into tight song structures."
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subba-cultcha.com
"The album is full of these harmonic diversions that are, great...trail-blazing"
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Manchester Evening News
4 Stars
"by turns explosive, exploratory and eccentric - and sounds much more modern than mouldy old modern jazz"
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heraldscotland.com
"like the late Esbjorn Svensson, he has a talent for tender, deceptively simple melodies"
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thelineofbestfit.com
"wonderfully fluid....emblematic of the best quality of Neil Cowley Trio"
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basic-Soul.co.uk
"sit back and enjoy listening to a trio that is clearly having fun here stretching songs in areas they haven't been before"
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The Scotsman
'Cowley has staked his own claim to a slot in contemporary jazz'
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The Sunday Post
"a great mix of meandering, gentle, lyrical phrases with the occasional virtuoso sprint"
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Inthenews.co.uk
"energetic, tuneful piano pieces that put a smile on your face"
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Sunday Mercury
'Packs a punch'
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BBC Music
"it’s the playfulness bursting from the piano ace’s fingers that should capture the imagination here – and prove he’s not scared of getting fresh".
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The Times
3 Stars
"Little wonder that he got invited to both Glastonbury and Ronnie Scott's...typically mesmerising"
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Entertainment-focus.com
'This album is full of jazz piano offerings that showcase Cowley's talents on the piano. Whether its jazz meanderings like A French Lesson, or the sprawling Vice Skating with Cowley showing his flair traversing up and down the piano....'
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The Independant
'lyrical,angular and seismic'
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The Guardian
"...a complex and subtle album...Cowley is refining his skills as a composer of striking motifs"
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Cigna Sight And Sound
"Enthralling, heart-warming and gripping as the very best in contemporary music...this restless drive pushes the Neil Cowley Trio towards greatness"
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The Jazz Mann
4 Stars
"An important step in the development of the trio. It's a more nuanced record with greater emotional depth than either of its predecessors and heralds a greater maturity in Cowley's writing style"
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Blues & Soul
4 Stars
"These boys are the masters of dynamics and the trio gel as one...breathtaking!"
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Music OMH
3½ Stars
"As the saying goes, many a good thing comes in threes and Neil Cowley's trio is a prime example"
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The Independent
"Pianism in the grand manner, catchy hooks and floaty ballads"
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Leeds Music Scene
"The production is floorless, and the performance as tight as your landlord's wallet...a continuation of the type of fusion that is driving jazz forwards"
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Contact Music
“The minimal, delicate percussion treatments and swirling piano laden tracks are accomplished”
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BBC Music Magazine
4 Stars
"The elegance of Brad Mehldau and the intensity of Nirvana"
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Bearded
"Their most complete and eloquent statement yet"
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Vanguard
"Whatever your prejudices about jazz, this is a bit special."
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Jazz UK
"Cowley’s Radio Silence increases the dynamic contrasts, classical delicacies and tone-poetic moods of his work without sacrificing the grooving that has bought him many fans outside jazz."
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The Telegraph
4 Stars
"Cowley is a true heir to the English romantic strain of musicians...wonderful"
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Tasty Fanzine
"They are very technically good, all three instruments have very clever parts to play, and all played with flare...it's a good mix"
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Mojo
3 Stars
"Bittersweet...intricate...a big step forward"
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Red Hot Velvet
5 Stars
"Neil and the gang combine crashing crescendos with romantic melodies that even the biggest Jazz novice can sink their teeth into"
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Die Shell Suit Die
3 Stars
"Talented"
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Properganda Blog
"If an album is simply a snapshot of a work in progress, then this is a perfect portrait"
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All Gigs
5 Stars
"Jazz may well be the genre, but this is music that lolls about in your head and gives you a different aural taste every time"
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Shakenstir
5 Stars
"An album that would fit comfortably in anyone's record collection...an emotional but exciting rollercoaster of a journey"
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The Record Collector
4 Stars
"EST on steroids with the attitude of Motorhead"
more >>

Radio Silence in Elsewhere NZ


01 August 2010
Elsewhere NZ
Graham Reid

British jazz pianist Cowley and his trio seem to blow hot and cold: their '06 album Displaced was terrific (see here), but on their Loud Louder Stop of last year (here) they resorted to repetitive rock-like riffery as if to distance themselves from the "jazz" world.

There is more hard hammering riffery on parts of this new album but here at least Cowley stretches out to show those real skills and exciting angularity which are doubtless best appreciated live.

Drama is Cowley's speciality: an energetic and repeated melodic progression of almost angry intensity, sudden shifts of emphasis and weight, the rhythm section driving behind him to create a power trio effect or sitting back during the (rare) contemplative passages . . .

There are still places where you wish Cowley would break free of his signature style of pounded chords leading to a rather obvious climax (crowd-pleasing no doubt) but this time out he (mostly) vindicates the praise heaped on him by younger British jazz writers.


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