| Issue #002 (December 2002) |
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| Jaga Jazzist – A Livingroom Hush (Smalltown Supersound/Ninja Tune) |
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A couple of years ago an elite bunch of people outside of Norway became aware of, and distinctly enamoured of, a CD called Hei by one Kim Hiorthøy, featuring home-made breakbeats mixed with organic found sounds in an undefinably fun fashion. The CD was distributed here by Synaesthesia down in Melbourne, and through Synaesthesia we have been able to enjoy later releases on the same label.
Jaga Jazzist is a ten-member Norwegian supergroup, combining stalwarts of the jazz improv, rock and electronica scenes. A preview 12” from this album featured an irresistibly funky 15½-minute post-rock remix by Hiorthøy and an insanely chopped-up digi-funk one by Jazzist drummer Martin Horntveth. It’s something of a shock to find those elements not just co-existing with the live jazz on the album, but prominent in the mix: there’s a lot of digital studio trickery on this album, and a lot of post-rock elements in the guitars and production, not to mention the fascination with living room jazz that Tortoise surely share. If a glib generalisation could be made about their sound, it’s a sort of live-big-band Squarepusher. But to me the most slippery and fascinating thing about this album is how the songs sound so live, and yet almost as soon as the first track has started, the drums start glitching and everything breaks down. A heady mix of just about every element you could think of in progressive contemporary music, first-rate musicianship combining with first-rate production.
Peter Hollo |
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