ELECTRONICA

Latest releases reviewed.

The Heritage Orchestra, The Heritage Orchestra, Brownswood
****

Behold the very big music. Originally put together for a series of club nights at London venue Cargo by Chris Wheeler and Jules Buckley, The Heritage Orchestra in their current incarnation are a 45- to 60-strong gathering of young players keen to cross as many genres as possible in pursuit of new-school symphonies. What began as a means of orchestrating Buckley's jazz-funk compositions in a club setting has become a daring adventure in reshaping electronica, jazz, soul and broken-beat with enthusiasm and verve. Now signed to Gilles Peterson's new Brownswood label, the Orchestra on record produce one blue-chip classical, cinematic soundscape after another, as if Ennio Morricone had spent a night on the rip with various jazz-dance DJs. Yet, as evidenced on Mothers and Daughters Now Mothers and especially Tell Me Stories, there's enough class here to ensure that this is more about the music than the audacious backstory. www.theheritageorchestra.com - Jim Carroll