| Jaga Jazzist - The Stix |
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Norwegian Nu-Jazz Band, Jaga Jazzist
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tracklisting The Stix Kitty Wu (4:36) Day (3:07) Another Day (3:30) Suomi Finland (7:29) Aerial Bright Dark Round (5:08) Reminders (6:44) Toxic Dart (5:20) I Coould Have Killed Him In The Sauna (5:33) Doppleganger (4:46) The Stix (6:56) --- Total: 53:16  |
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Jaga Jazzist release their new album The Stix through Ninja Tune on the 3th of May. The Stix combines the digital-dancefloor-jiggery-pokery of their debut with the exuberance, warmth and fluidity of their live shows. With their stylish productions, their infectious live shows and their Hoxton/Oslo/Berlin good looks they are rapidly becoming one of the most eligible bands on the block. In the year since their UK debut Jaga Jazzist have made a big impression. Debut single, Going Down, was made 12 of the week in the NME, was tipped by Gilles Peterson, The Blue Room, and Mixing It and went on to be one of Muzik's Singles Of The Year. It promptly sold out. Jaga Jazzists first live appearance, at the Spitz in E1 was sold-out and they repeated the trick when they headlined the Fertilizer Festival at 93 Feet East. Debut album A Livingroom Hush was released to great acclaim on uber-cool Smalltown Supersound - see below. Now Ninja Tune (in collaboration with Smalltown Supersound) release the eagerly awaited follow-up. you wanna hear the album? - The Stix is released on the 26th of April. ------------------- Early this year remarkable reviews began to appear in the British music press for the latest sensations to come out of Scandinavia. There was a difference to many of the other acts earning Norway its reputation at the time, though. Jaga Jazzist is what can only be described as a supergroup. The ten members of the band are also active participants in, Kim Hiorthoy's group, Bobby Hughes Experience, Bugges Wesseltoft, Motorpsycho, Big Bang, Euroboys, Jazzkammer, Biosphere, Supersilent, Alog and Lasse Marhaug, covering every type of music from electronica, nu-jazz and rock. Jaga Jazzist are well known in Norway for contributing to almost every quality Norwegian record released in recent times. The comparisons reached for by the press were as broad as they get - from Talk Talk, Soft Machine, Eric Satie, John Coltrane and Don Cherry to acts like Aphex Twin, Stereolab, Squarepusher, Isotope 217 and Tortoise. This range sums up the breadth and originality of the group's sound. Jaga Jazzist are indeed a musical one off who痴 arsenal includes trumpets, trombone, electric guitar, bass, tuba, two bass clarinets, Fender Rhodes and vibraphone, and it is the mixture of these instruments with a sometimes harsh electronic edge that really makes the music stand out. It is melodic, delicate and subtle but a million miles from wallpaper music. It is music that demands and rewards attention, further proof that you don't have to shout to avoid being lazy chill-out-by-numbers. The group came to the attention of Ninja Tune who will be releasing their work outside of Norway from now on .It's a journey into sounds and moods that manages to sound both classic and contemporary and is an oasis to anyone interested in music which combines iconoclasm with beauty, melody with avant gardism and, in general, a complete lack of interest in anything other than good music. ------------------- "This is a brilliant record reminscent on Tortoise in their evening wear, all echoing phrases and fiery electronic bursts" NME "Like Charles Mingus with Aphex Twin up his arse" Sleaze Nation "Having already been compared to everyone from Soft Machine and Stereolab to John Coltrane and Talk Talk... if you've been moved by the post rock infused work of Tortoise or Isotope 217 then waste no time in adding this great LP to your collection" DJ "This is the best example of Norwegian Jazz - a delightful, delirious rush of restless electronica, brass, woodwind, vibes, Stereolab style keyboards, disco strings and guitar, all kept in some semblance of order by Martin Hornveth's virtuoso percussion. If that all sounds disturbingly 'fusion', well, thats because it is. But never fear, because its all done with the energy of techno and subtlety of post-rock boffins Tortoise, touching on familiar styles but never descending into cliche or cap-doffing jazz-buff reverence. Sheer pleasure from beginning to end - it's a fjord fiesta!" ('Vital Release' 5/5) Muzik "Irrepressible debut from Oslo's 10-piece 'post-jazz' collective - there's never a dull moment on this absorbing, uplifting and astonishingly accomplished debut album" Mojo "This intriguing meld of woodwind and static, brass and beats is subtle, inventive and oddly charming" Observer "I confidently predict that this cohesive mixture of Herbie Hancock's 1970s keyboard excursions, Tortoise and Stereolab's post-rock guitar blues, Squarepusher's lunatic jazz electronica and mangled rhythms will race to the top of the charts. Or listening to too much Jaga Jazzist has scrambled my mind and you shouldn't believe anything i write" Independent on Sunday "This exhilarating ensemble pull of the trick of keeping the crowd's feet moving while playing music that is all over the shop. Snake-like tunes repeated, unwinding into grooves, the band suddenly ramped up to boiling point, sweeping the melody up from behind and running with it, euphoric unisons ringing out out between vibes and electric guitar. And just when you couldn't smile any harder, it plunged down to a little marauding cabaret vamp, or to a dramatic dead-stop that, after a second, sped off into hard breakbeats at double the previous speed, fizzing with with electronic noise." The Guardian (live review) |
-> Jaga Jazzist website
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