This post originally appeared at Hypnagogue

According to his website, what flugelhorn player Jeff Oster offers up on his latest album, Next, is “New Age Ambient Funk.” In fact, he says he’s created it. I think that’s a pretty fair claim, but let’s also give a nod to the killer lineup he’s pulled into the studio to make it happen. We’re talking folks such add Nile Rodgers, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Chuck Rainey, Michael Manring, Ricky Kej, Tony Levin, Todd Boston, and Philip Aaberg, among others—and also got Will Ackerman to man the production helm. With that checklist of style squarely in place, Oster proceeds to get his smooth on and just seduce his listeners with gorgeous jazz stylings for the next hour. (more…)

This review originally appeared at Something Else!

Jeff Oster is a New Age artist of a different sort, as his brand of downtempo had long brandished chugging groove while maintaining that airy, celestial feel.next, out April 14, 2015 on Retso Records, does more of the same for the flugelhorn player. And then some. (more…)

This review originally appeared at vice.com

One good thing about 2015 is that nothing means anything anymore. Music is completely amorphous—hip teens from Omaha slow down elevator music and invent vaporwave. Fat little white kids appropriate the hip-hop vernacular and end up on World Star. Even the indie rock wimps make black metal now. You can pretty much do whatever you want. When Mac Demarco rips off Barry Manilow and bros mosh to it in sold-out venues, you know that the concept of “Cool Music” is gone. (more…)