Victor Malloy

With older brother Lee Jones having enjoyed a warm reception to his debut album as Hefner for respected West London imprint Inertia, Russ Jones certainly had his work cut out in making a splash with his own full-length for the same label. The opening "Trying," from his Musings of Monsieur Malloy debut, typified his sound -- taking influences as diverse as Duke Ellington to Joni Mitchell to conjure soundtracks for the millennial beatnik -- where beats found themselves hung seamlessly from panoramic atmospheres as touches of strings tethered loosely defined instrumentation to the groove. ~ Kingsley Marshall