NEW JAZZ / AVANT GARDE : CAMISETAS, COLLECTIF SLANG
Tuesday, 17. July 2007, 12:36:30
CAMISETAS
S/T (2007)
320 KBPS
Pulled from the “what the hell was that?” files, the latest project from drummer Jim Black spins out of the digital information center. Jazz/rock doesn’t begin to describe this music, nor does prog/rock, grunge, fusion, or fission. The American drummer teams up with a French cast to create music that patently rejects fusion for the tastier: collision.
Black—whose quirky percussion skills have been called upon in bands by Cuong Vu, Ben Monder, Satoko Fujii and Laurie Anderson— was a defining role in the development of the NY sounds of Tim Berne’s Bloodcount, Dave Douglas’ Tiny Bell Trio and Ellery Eskelin’s bands. His musical vision came to fruition in his band AlasNoAxis with Chris Speed, Hilmar Jensson, and Skúli Sverrisson.
Like AlasNoAxis, Camisetas is not interested in ‘the tradition,’ as much they are musical bandits, lifting sounds from jazz, noise, and rock. The metallic feedback intro to “La Meinau” gives way to the rock’d out drumming of Black before Médéric Collignon delivers a Mike Patton-like scream chorus. Elsewhere, they borrow a synthesizer intro from a Devo record circa 1980 for the track “Sheep, Sheep, Sheep,” followed by a very simple machine-melody. The same beat is employed on “No Radio” with guitar and more wordless chanting. The pulse here and throughout this recording is quite infectious. They stay at 1980 for “Mime Marcel,” Arnaud Roulin’s clavier playing some lines lifter from a Joe Zawinul Weather Report concert, but twisted and dragged forward into a sluggish electronic future.
In this future of music, where everything is permitted, Camisetas’ music is at once strange and quite familiar. The spacey “La Shoe de Sue” accented by the electronics and the randomness of static plays off the very blue cornet playing of Médéric Collignon. These improvised flights are juxtaposed against the rock tinged track “Baeckeoffe” and the organic Bill Frisell-meets-Chicago Underground Trio mix of “Legend Of The Dangerous Bean.”
Camisetas are the confusing mix of being quite “out”’ yet very accessibly “in.”
1 House of the sleeping dwarfs
2 La shoe de sue
3 Baeckeoffe
4 Legende of the dangerous bean
5 Week end à Laval
6 Mime Marcel
7 Sheep, sheep, sheep
8 La meinau
9 Pneu lisse
10 No radio
11 Si fait ico?
LINK
COLLECTIF SLANG
SLANGUISTIC (2003)
320 KBPS
Here's the first album of the very good french jazz collective: Collectif Slang, a tribe of jazzmen, with, among others, Médéric Collignon (one of the new big names of french jazz), great cornet's player/multi-instrumentist and holding proudly the banner of a jazz that has got rid of most past references.
"Slanguistic" is a nice surprise with its varied ambiences and peculiar sounds sometimes bordering on free jazz without ever being too harsh on the ear or too hermetic
The album gives us long experimental songs and shorter, more focused and accessible themes. There's even a few turntables and electronic beats (courtesy of DJ Semi) on three songs driving the Collectif Slang close to down-tempo or jungle electronica with success and grace.
All and all, if this album requires several spins before you really get it, it also demonstrates the great creativity and freedom of this collective and its very promising label (Chief Inspector, already mentionned here on the Besson / Rifflet debut album "Rocking Chair"). A nice catch for every modern jazz lover!
1 Cutting contest
2 Lux hotel
3 Basic indien
4 Let's sink
5 Walkin on the eggs
6 Hey! Nick ….super
7 Slang collector
8 Périf, fais moi peur
9 Payes ta flûte
10 Tri zoo en 3 parties
11 The flying drum
LINK #1
LINK #2
COLLECTIF SLANG
ADDICT (2006)
320 KBPS
Second album of the collective. Since their first album, most of the musicians have had solo experiences and personal projects but you can feel, throughout the album,the joy it has been for them to get back together. "Addict" biggest change compared to "Slanguistic" is shown on real compositions replacing the first albums's improvisations.
It gives us a playful fusion of contemporary jazz, rock, alternative hip-hop and electronic music with a groovy bass, a voluntarily bruitist guitar and twisted beats and horns. This collective plays on constructing sonic landscapes and does it well! Some songs display the surreal scat vocals of Médéric Collignon, others the urban poetic flow of Mc Mike Ladd. If you like Tortoise, Ursus Minor, John Zorn or Spontane (among other referEnces that can be found on this one of a kind opus), you'll sure enjoy the trip!1 No bises no chaud
2 The King of Minneapolis
3 Tuning machine
4 Darwin (intro)
5 Darwin
6 Tastycake
7 Guy de Boogie
8 Burn
LINK
password: MOODSWINGSmusic
By ayah gagöhn, # 18. July 2007, 05:39:33
By STEFANfromPARIS, # 18. July 2007, 12:20:17