Album Review: Terry Callier – ‘Hidden Conversations’

On paper this should be sublime: jazz legend Terry Callier’s smooth-as-silk voice coupled with production duties from Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja. 

But despite a beguiling, heavily filtered smoky vibe throughout, the production sounds surprisingly thin.

It’s all a bit sub-Rebirth of Cool circa 1995, with low-key trip hop beats and wispy synths.

Callier’s versatile voice is pushed to the fore, as it should be, but he has an irritating habit of scatting as a song peaks (see the otherwise hypnotic ‘Once I Dreamed of Heaven’).

Average songs and below-par production make this a missed opportunity.