Brain Damage Meets Big Youth - Beyond The Blue (2 LP)

As if we are delighted to hear the elder’s shape and inventiveness, Martin Nathan is definitely not outdone and overhauls his style once again for the occasion. Always more musical, his compositions integrate diverse influences, hitherto untapped by him, like jazz, blues, ska, rock-steady … enhanced by the wonderful and smooth horn arrangements signed by Franck Boyron and his sidekicks, Baptiste Sarat and Fred Roudet. The whole, drawing on a production that left nothing to chance, surely is a new cornerstone of Brain Damage rich discography that keeps us wondering how far it will take us a new. Samuel Clayton Jr, however, will be deeply missed. If one can hear him regularly and clearly as samples, throughout what will remain the last album he worked on, it is above all his mindset that Martin Nathan strove to respect with that new musical and human adventure. The emotion is audible, tangible.