Incognito. Music, Magic, Ironic

It’s About Time; Running Away; Can’t Be A Fool; Lost Until I Want To Be Found; Reasons to Love; Can’t Give Up On This Feeling; In Time We’ll Love Again; This Is Your World; Changes in Me; Like Fire in the Rain; (Your Love is) Everywhere; Zahra Smiles; Strangers Become Friends; Sweet Enough; Rain on a Hot Tin Roof; Late Night on the Subway; Music, Magic, Ironic.
(Bandcamp)

The cool, soulful, jazz-infused sounds of Incognito are always a perfect soundtrack to a hot summer day spent under a blue sky as a welcoming summer breeze cools the air.

Conversely, the band has decided to release their twentieth album in winter; since the release occurred on Christmas Day, this sublime set of songs serves as a gift to both old and new fans, warming hearts and souls throughout the winter months.

With seventeen tracks across the double album, there are hardly any bumps along the long road the band has travelled.

The mainstay of the group remains Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick, who has remained captain of the ship since the band first floated in 1981, with Incognito always being a fluid collective.

Some familiar voices permeate the songs here; Tony Momrelle, Maysa and Natalie Duncan are ever present, and they all add a soulful and at times emotional edge to the tracks.

Opening up with It’s About Time, the track is classic Incognito: a bubbling acid jazz groove with a horn section that is topped off with the soulful vocals of Joy Rose. Over the years the band have covered tracks from Stevie Wonder, The Jones Girls and Earth, Wind and Fire. Jazz funk legend Roy Ayers gets his track Running Away given the Incognito makeover here; rather than sounding like a straight cover, the band have added their own stamp on the track.

Can’t Be a Fool could easily be mistaken for a track from Basia; anyone wishing for new material from the Polish pop/jazz singer who began her career in Matt Bianco will have their patience rewarded with this breezy number where Natalie Duncan warms the soul with her outstanding vocal.

Other gems waiting to be discovered here are Lost Until I Want to be Found, with Maysa offering her trademark honey-toned vocal, adding the finishing touch and catching the essence of the song. Reasons to Love is a timeless Incognito number that could have come off any of their last few albums – why break a successful template when the result is as intoxicating as this?

The band has always included a few instrumentals on their albums; in this case, Zahra Smiles and, in particular, In Time We’ll Love Aain, provide warm summer sun vibes that remind us of better days ahead.

The album closes with the title track off the album, where Bluey narrates that music is the power, the message is the key and how he mistakenly called music 'magic' when he was five years old. Sixty-three years later the magic rises yet again on this fine album.