When it comes to dancing, I don’t get around much any more. I had the option of going out last weekend, but I opted to stay in and watch a movie instead. Honestly, it’s like the lockdown—throughout which I bemoaned the prohibition of public partner dancing and what it was doing to my social life—never even happened…
If I’d listened to the latest album by Carolina Reapers Swing instead of watching telly, I might have been prompted to get off my couch and go Lindy hopping after all. For, Built Different is a dancing disc the likes of which I haven’t reviewed for ages.
Released in August, the record is an eight-track riot of small-combo swing, by seven jazzmen from Montpellier, France. Before popping it on, I noticed that its liner notes describe the project as “part of a somewhat experimental series of recordings in which [the band] used, almost exclusively, a single central microphone.”
Now, this is usually something of a red flag for me, as it often signals that the listening experience has been sidelined in the service of some vintage vibe. But, you know what? If the band hadn’t ’fessed up, I wouldn’t have been any the wiser: whether I ran it through my hi-fi or my headphones, the sound quality was A-OK.
I can only assume that the guys employed a modern mic in this audio experiment, rather than some retro relic. Through headphones I was sure I coul
