Wandering Souls
The Oldians
LP - 2012
The Oldians make a step forward with the release of their third full-lenght album entitled Wandering Souls. The band has become a true force within the Spanish state’s Jamaican scene with their unique blend of rocksteady, ska and jazz flavours, as well as the most prolific combo in terms of studio recording stuff.
After the warm reception of their acclaimed second LP ‘Arts of Seduction’ (Liquidator Music – 2010), a conceptual album in which The Oldians revised jazz classics inna Jamaican key, ‘Wandering Souls’ is a new surprise: a perfect bunch of original tracks, most of them leaded by the sweet vocals skills of Leire Etxarri.
Wandering Souls gives up to 11 new and original sounds that show the versatility of a combo, now expanded to septet, with an excellent progress both in its musical proposal and in its line-up and stylistic balance. Including songs such as “The Rich Life of a Poor Man”, “The Fighter”, “Fire”, “Wandering Souls” or “Blue Marbles”, ‘Wandering Souls’ shows the maturing of the project and the style of its compositions, always in line with the unmistakable sound that you can find in their previous two albums.
For this new record the riddim section has been recorded live at Kay Studios (Manresa), while all the overdubs have been made at Kinkylab (Barcelona). The Oldians line-up in Wandering Souls is made by Xavi Angulo (drums), Álvaro Taborda (bass), Eduard Fernàndez (piano), Ricard Vinyets (tenor sax), Pol Omedes (trumpet and flugelhorn) and Leire Etxarri (lead vocals). The LP also features the following guests: Tommy Tornado and David Carrasco (tenor sax), Ramon Fossati (trombone), Àlex Climent (piano) and Alejo Peloche (trombone).
Musical production of the whole album’s been carried out by the guitarist Javier García, who has taken care and supervised every detail from composition, arranging and recording, to mixing and mastering.
This is definitely the best album by The Oldians: if you have not been delighted yet, let them catch you!