Nu Jazz - Un Jazz (Orange Milk) [Experimental]
*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's September 9th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***
There’s a ton of very knowledgeable, extremely accomplished musos making all sorts of intricate, technically impressive music, yet the overthinking largely seems to leave the heart, balls and soul behind. A few artists nail it though, and despite Nu Jazz, being rather worryingly made up of jazz and experimental electronic musicians: Dan Orlowski on vocals, Ryan Easter on trumpet, Ben Shirken on modular synth and electronics, Adam Turay on guitar, Kevin Eichenberge on bass and John Bemis on drums to be precise, they never forget that there’s plenty to scream about these days, whilst also making some dizzying, complex, obviously crafted music.
The album sets the tone with the “Return of the Rant” opener, but this is no mindless online opining. The distorted vocals and spoken word samples are somewhat lost in the growling, screeching, sirens and general cacophony, although I did catch the word “billionaire” at one stage, but the message is loud and clear — punk just got a free jazz, experimental-noise makeover, making the ensuing motorik meets space rock meets jazz metal of “In My City” sound tame by comparison, although everything is relative.
The cable-plugging knob twiddlers then take the reins on “Sublimation”, well, before the lads get a serious groove on amidst the free electronica squeals and drop in a death metal finale for laughs. I guess you’ve got the message by now, this is not Sunday morning music, well, unless you’ve been up all night, are nowhere near being able to sleep and need to burn off some energy; although saying that “Vaporisation” then provides an ambient-jazz interlude of sorts so you can catch your breath for the urgent, glitching, pummelling, out-there jazz fusion of “Rearview”. I’m not sure if soft metal with a bit of squealing is a genre, but “Who Do You Work For?”, even with its unexpected speed jazz breakdown, says it is. It also means I’ll give them a pass for the chin stroking man vs machine free-jazztronic noodling of “Recombination”. The lads get a lolloping, free-spirited nu-jazz groove on next, but it’s not long before that too spirals off into all the right sort of noisier realms, and tees up album-closing, hard-swinging, Afro-guitar infused, agitated yet grooving, noise-injected jazz punk of “Civil War”.
What a banging LP. It threads mind, heart and balls together, then lassos the guts as well for good measure, before pulling the rope tight. Turn it up, I’m sure your neighbours probably want to let out a few screams too.
If you're feeling this uncompromising vibe then you might well like Waldo's Gift's Malcolm's Law album.
Playlist Companion
Find Nu Jazz in the Slow Jazz Playlist.
