gramophone's reivew

Yussef Kamaal has said that he sees the piano as a drum, and The Return drops the piano trio format into an abstract landscape of rhythm and texture. The introductory greeting of ‘Salaam’ is languid and loping, till Joshua McKenzie (aka McKNasty) triggers the jittery drums which have typified London since jungle’s inception a quarter-century ago when, with their echoes of bebop understood, they quickly migrated into British jazz. ‘Medina’ befits its namesake Saudi oasis town where Mohammed is buried, clearing a space for reverberating keyboard chimes and genial rhythms. ‘LDN Shuffle’ then tellingly contrasts hometown to holy site, its claustrophobia deepened by Mansur Brown’s guitar squall. The harp-like strums of Williams’ keyboard on ‘Broken Theme’ and tough funk of ‘Rhythm Commission’ have roots in fusion’s spiritual end. Mostly, though, this resembles a minor Peckham Picasso, compressing jazz and hip hop into alien forms. Nick Hasted