Every Time A Jezebell Rings...

Jezebell aka Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell release a full-length compilation today, Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1. 

And by 'full-length' I mean full-length: 20 tracks with a running time of 140 minutes; in old money, a generous 2CD collection. And by 'money' and 'generous', I mean after a week on pre-release at £5.00, by the time you read this, the album will be fully available as a Name Your Price download. For long-time fans, there is the further incentive - if any needed - of four new and exclusive tracks. More on those later.

Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1's cover is a homage to Balearic Beats The Album Vol. 1, updated by Rick Oliver and endorsed by original artist Dave Little. That 1988 album encapsulated the Balearic scene and brought it to the UK and Jezebell truly embody that spirit of celebrating the past whilst looking to the future, their evolution since debut single Thrill Me in November 2021 (included here) illustrating a reverence for and confidence in the legacy that they have inherited. Less a homage, the collection is a natural successor to the original album.

 

So, what of the album itself? Well, for starters, despite it's weight of music this is not an exhaustive compilation but you get the majority of Jezebell's 'singles' from the last couple of years: the aforementioned Thrill Me and the original 11+ minute widescreen version of Jezebelle Et Moi, their epic re-imagining of Max Berlin's 1978 song. The mighty Concurrence, which samples Sheila Chandra and came with a slew of top notch remixes, and (kind of) title track Jezebellearic, both from the summer of 2022, are also here. Trading Places appears twice, one each from the simultaneous Daytime and Nighttime Versions EPs released earlier this year. And then of course their most recent release, the 11+ minute soundtrack to this summer Jezeblue, which took notes and cues from their previous work and elevated it to another level. 

 

If you still need persuading, sidestep here, here, here and here for a few previous Dubhed reviews that stop just short of being completely gushing. I'm know I'm biased but really, Jezebell are that good.

They're also a dab hand at the remix and re-edit, both evidenced on this collection. The former is represented by a brace of belters from last year, MAN2.0's Red Shift and Pedestal by D:Ream. The latter covers a breathtakingly diverse range of artists: Tullio De Piscopo, Laurie Anderson, The Notorious B.I.G., Kajagoogoo, Herb Alpert and Julian Cope; less re-edits than re-inventions that take the song somewhere else without forgetting where it started.

And the new songs? Rest assured, they're more than up to the standard of the company they keep on this album. David Byrne gets a look-in twice, Burning Bush sampling his seminal 1981 collaboration with Brian Eno, whilst Swamp Shuffle is built around the "high, high high!" refrain from it's (almost) namesake on Talking Heads' classic Speaking In Tongues album. Wisdom samples a reflective moment from Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty to ear-pleasing effect. Barothers gives a nod to the compilation which inspired this collection, the first half of the song title should give a big hint as to which one but it'll be immediately apparent once the vocal sample kicks in.

I'm not a BPM counter, so my layperson's description is that the collection maintains a steady mid-tempo throughout but with plenty of surprises to keep you moving and not cruising. The non-chronological sequencing works well and a special mention for Rich Lane's mastering (and re-mastering on a handful of tracks), which is sublime.

It's a long (bank holiday) weekend in the UK, either the start of a late summer or it's last gasp, hard to tell which at the moment. What I do know is that you'll be hard pressed to find a better soundtrack than Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1. Buy now!