When punting pays off…

I don’t often punt with CDs, less-so with those at full price, but the last three punts have absolutely paid off more than their prices.

Firstly was the Shrift album, Lost in a moment. That I paid full price for, ringing in at $27. Two things sold me on it, firstly that it was published by Six Degrees records, the same record company that distributes dZihan & Kamien in the ‘States, and secondly the quite descriptive synopsis of their sound on the paper dust-cover over the Europak. Oh yeah, at this point I should probably point out that I love Europaks, especially when they’re actually from Europe. When browsing through the electronic music racks, I’m always drawn to the Europaks first. Shrift are a very mellow chillout duo consisting of goddess-vocalist Nina Miranda and musician/producer Dennis Wheatley. Ultra-cool Brazilian, Portuguese, French influenced and generally awesome chills abound.

The other two were also Europaks, and I got them for $5 each – bargain! Both are signed to Italian label Schema, another name of which I knew nothing, but the Europaks were cool, so too the art-design and track names, so for $5 I was well prepared to take a punt on each of them.

The first is a very cool jazz band called Cabaret Noir, specialising in ultra-smooth jazz with a lovely female vocalist. Vibraphones abound, as well as piano, upright bass and plenty of organic sounds.

The second was a really great find – Fragmentorchestra. These guys are an electro-jazz outfit with a very groovy sound indeed, in some ways similar to the great dZihan & Kamien themselves, though different enough of-course to assert their own sound.

Aside from Shrift being signed to Six Degrees, I knew absolutely nothing about these three artists, but taking a punt on them has given me some of the best music in my collection to date. I always love it when taking chances like that pay off so well.