''Aquamarine'' is the third studio album by the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based musician and DJ,

Ash Walker Ash Walker is a London-based musician, multi-instrumentalist and DJ, whose music spans a diverse range of genres, such as jazz, blues, soul, funk, reggae, dub, trip hop, acid jazz, and electronica, among others. He has released four studio alb ...

, released by

Night Time Stories Night Time Stories is an English independent record label founded by Paul Glancy in 2009. It is notable for releasing the ''Late Night Tales'' compilation series since 2009 by artists such as Trentemøller, Röyksopp, Bonobo, Jon Hopkins, Bill ...

on 19 July 2019. The album expands on Walker's established sound which includes

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, dub,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

, R&B,

neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contempo ...

, acid jazz, and

downtempo Downtempo (or downbeat) is a broad label for electronic music that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music. Closely related to ambient music but with greater emphasis on rhythm, the style may ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

Background

''Aquamarine'' is the first Ash Walker album released by the English

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

. It was the first album Walker recorded at home; he recorded his previous albums in

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

s. The album featured Marc Cyril on bass,

Yazz Ahmed Yazz Ahmed (born 1983) is a British- Bahraini trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer. Her music mixes Arabic and Western influences. She has worked with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Rufus Reid, John Zorn, Ash Walker, the London Jazz Orchestra, and also re ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

and

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

, Lord Laville on vocals, and Jonathan Shorten on

Rhodes piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

and

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

. Its sound has been called as "underwater jazz". The album included vinyl pops and hisses, as a part of what Walker calls an "anti-sound engineer" approach. His engineering approach was influenced by

King Tubby Osbourne Ruddock (28 January 1941 – 6 February 1989), better known as King Tubby, was a Jamaican sound engineer who greatly influenced the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s. Tubby's innovative studio work, which saw him elevate the ...

. Walker described the concept of the album:

Reception

''Aquamarine'' received favorable reviews. Ljubinko Zivkovic of ''Soundblab'' wrote, "I've no idea how many thousands of records Walker has in his collection, but ''Aquamarine'' sounds like he has thoroughly listened, well digested quite a few of them", and "Walker throws in elements literally from everywhere, without at any time sounding incompatible or incongruous. It is like a smooth ride in that submarine on the cover. All you need is

Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. They often contain themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Cited by so ...

and his captain

Steve Zissou ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

and his crew to take you for that ride." John-Paul Shiver of ''In Search of Media'' wrote, "Walker, with his audio spaceship, created in the hiss and pops of many vinyl albums, has put together a signature grouping of analog and digital oscillations that resembles NOTHING from this era." ''SonicBoom'' wrote, "Ash Walker’s sound is tailor made for the record-nerd. The grooves and influence-nods are all top notch. ''Aquamarine'' mysteriously manages to conjure some of the best elements of trip-hop and acid-jazz while being a new thing unto itself." ''Beat Caffeine'' wrote, "Ash Walker has successfully put together a great new forward-thinking and mesmerizing album, one that feels like your listening to soulful cosmic grooves at the bottom of the ocean … and you are absolutely happy to be there."

Track listing

# "Under The Sun" # "Time" # "Come With Us" # "Brave New World" # "Finishing Touch" # "Aquamarine" # "Sanity" # "I Need Money" # "Fat King Smoke" # "Ain't Got You" # "The Dagon's Cashmere Jumper"

References

{{reflist

External links

*
Aquamarine
' at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

*
Aquamarine
' at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Ash Walker albums 2019 albums Night Time Stories albums