It’s been a while since we last heard from Norwegian nine-piece instrumental band Jaga Jazzist, in fact it’s been five years since their last album, 2005’s What We Must, which showcased a significant stylistic shift for the band away from the intricate jazz of their preceding records, towards a more post-rock influenced sound. If What We Must was Jaga’s most outre rock effort to date however, this latest fourth album One-Armed Bandit sees the band taking yet another step forward in an entirely new direction. With the addition of a new keyboardist and guitarist into the band’s ranks, the nine expansive tracks gathered here in many sense represent Jaga’s most loose and free-flowing material to date, with the rock and jazz influences sitting more comfortably side to side here than perhaps ever before. Also gone are the meticulous digital edits and studio trickery that rose to the fore on ‘A Livingroom Hush’ and ‘The Stix’, in favour of aesthetic approach that’s dominated by instrumental performances rather than electronics.
It’s a shift that’s immediately evident on the opening title track, with its smooth fusion of ‘Golden Brown’-esque harpischords, swinging jazz-kissed drums and warm flute harmonies building to a climax that recalls one of Tortoise’s (it’s worth noting that John McEntire is responsible for mixing duties here) sudden drop-outs (complete with slide guitar and trilling glockenspiels), shortly before a mass of analogue keyboards sends things into a spinning outro section that certainly calls to mind the tumbling slot machines suggested in the title. Elsewhere, ‘220V / Spektral’ opens from trilling keys that almost sound like they’ve been lifted straight from Aphex Twin’s ‘On’, before smoky muted horns and driving rock drums push things forward into highly modal bass-lead territory that calls to mind one of Isotope 217’s extended wanders crashing head-on with ‘Sound Dust’-era Stereolab, while the nine-minute long ‘Toccata’ provides a spectacular centrepiece here that sends eerie Dario Argento-esque keyboard arpeggios and lurking strings spiraling out into a veritable galaxy of twinkling xylophones and rich, swirling jazz orchestration. Most immediately noticeable upon listening to ‘One-Armed Bandit’s is the amount of sheer ‘live’ band energy that Jaga Jazzist have brought to the table this time around – making this latest effort one of their strongest albums as well as another unpredictable shift sideways stylistically.
Chris Downton
