jazz / experimental / drone
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After three gruelling days of stoner rock, doom metal, hardcore thrash metal and more heavy psychedelic music at DesertFest, I really needed something calm and relaxing. I searched through my heap of albums to be reviewed, looking for that one album that was presented as a jazz and experimental one. I fed the disc to my cd player, ready to submerge myself in the soothing sounds of jazz music.
That relaxation session lasted exactly forty-four seconds, then the distortion came in and shortly after I found myself in a whirlpool of drums, guitars, saxophone and noise that reminded me a lot more of some sludge metal bands I had seen in the past few days than it reminded me of people like Miles Davis or Dave Brubeck. From then on, Danish quartet Svin threw surprise after surprise in my face, taking experimental jazz to a whole new level.
Perhaps it might be interesting to mention that the album was recorded in the legendary Sundlaugin Studio, established by Sigur Ros. Inspired by recordings of the majestic nature of Iceland, including gushing waterfalls but also by the harsh noise of the industrial surroundings, like repetitive machines, Svin improvised and recorded for ten days, and the result is a strange but epic masterpiece.
I already mentioned that opener 'Dodskontainer' has an atmosphere and sound quite similar to doom and sludge metal. Well, 'Faergen Ellen' drives on an industrial overtone while 'V' beautifully blends post-rock with jazz. Yes, real jazz. This track is the first one I would categorize as such, and I definitely like it. I'm not sure if it's my favorite one on this album, but definitely one worth checking out. So is 'Japser', which throws some ambient influences into the mix as well. I'll leave the other two tracks up to you, but rest assured, they're equally brilliant and surprising.
Because why the hell not? After all, music is meant to be explored and that is exactly what these guys are so damn good at. It seems like they want to explore every single possibility, every single aspect of their instruments, as well as their cooperation as a band. On this album, their fourth one to be exact, they certainly succeeded in creating something glorious, mystifying and epic, something I would recommend to...
Yeah, who? That's a tough one. I mean, most jazz fans are stubborn elitists who might frown on the distortion and the eerie soundscapes. So doomers, sludgers and stoners maybe? Well, they might be open to it but this stuff might still be a bit to odd. Perhaps it would be best to push the album towards fans of Dead Neanderthals, Zu, Naked City (or anything by Zorn for that matter). Fact remains that this is one damn interesting piece of work, one that you need to check out, whatever stuff you usually listen to.
Serge
That relaxation session lasted exactly forty-four seconds, then the distortion came in and shortly after I found myself in a whirlpool of drums, guitars, saxophone and noise that reminded me a lot more of some sludge metal bands I had seen in the past few days than it reminded me of people like Miles Davis or Dave Brubeck. From then on, Danish quartet Svin threw surprise after surprise in my face, taking experimental jazz to a whole new level.
Perhaps it might be interesting to mention that the album was recorded in the legendary Sundlaugin Studio, established by Sigur Ros. Inspired by recordings of the majestic nature of Iceland, including gushing waterfalls but also by the harsh noise of the industrial surroundings, like repetitive machines, Svin improvised and recorded for ten days, and the result is a strange but epic masterpiece.
I already mentioned that opener 'Dodskontainer' has an atmosphere and sound quite similar to doom and sludge metal. Well, 'Faergen Ellen' drives on an industrial overtone while 'V' beautifully blends post-rock with jazz. Yes, real jazz. This track is the first one I would categorize as such, and I definitely like it. I'm not sure if it's my favorite one on this album, but definitely one worth checking out. So is 'Japser', which throws some ambient influences into the mix as well. I'll leave the other two tracks up to you, but rest assured, they're equally brilliant and surprising.
Because why the hell not? After all, music is meant to be explored and that is exactly what these guys are so damn good at. It seems like they want to explore every single possibility, every single aspect of their instruments, as well as their cooperation as a band. On this album, their fourth one to be exact, they certainly succeeded in creating something glorious, mystifying and epic, something I would recommend to...
Yeah, who? That's a tough one. I mean, most jazz fans are stubborn elitists who might frown on the distortion and the eerie soundscapes. So doomers, sludgers and stoners maybe? Well, they might be open to it but this stuff might still be a bit to odd. Perhaps it would be best to push the album towards fans of Dead Neanderthals, Zu, Naked City (or anything by Zorn for that matter). Fact remains that this is one damn interesting piece of work, one that you need to check out, whatever stuff you usually listen to.
Serge
