One-Armed Bandit

Just amazing music! I dont normally give out 5 star reviews, but this is worth every star, it is a masterpiece. I found this band on spotify, recommended by fans of a band called 'Tortoise'. I have now finally found the eclectic mix of genres that i adore in one form of music. You hear a lot of genres in this album. Goes from Frank Zappa Hot Rats era to post rock, to prog with an electronic slant. There is not one track on the album that is bad and the melodies that jaga produce are outstanding- if you like melodic music then get this!

The words progressive jazz would normally have me running for the hills so fast ( not that I need to as I live on them ) that I would leave Ussain Bolt by the kerb clutching the stitch in his side . Yet Jaga Jazzist,s new album , their first in five years by all accounts , is great. Yet their Myspace page lists them as" Progressive / Alternative / Jazz" which in my experience usually involves a number of people playing wildly different pieces of music at various tempo's none of which has a recognisable tune .....while someone else hit's a radiator with a wrench . Not good then ,unless you love clanging radiators which I don't .
But One Armed Bandit is something else. It is wildly experimental and freeform yet still retains structure , compositional flow and rhythmic arrangements and .......wait for it ...melody. That might sound oxymoronic and quite possibly is yet it does sum up what this band's ethos seems to be.
Jaga Jazzist (also known as Jaga) is a ten piece jazz band from Norway that first rose to prominence when the BBC named their first album, A Livingroom Hush the best jazz album of 2002 which is something I missed at the time. The band utilises trumpets, trombone, electric guitar, bass, tuba, bass clarinets, Fender Rhodes, vibraphone and a plethora of electronics but their music is never over fussy or constitutionally dense .There is light and air in the songs , a sense of space and freedom yet also a refusal to play by any particular set of rules while not forgetting that other people have to listen to this too. it's a ballet of contradictions that ends up making perfect sense. Unlike this review it must be said.
So the music can be funky, playful , cinematic ( it often sounds like the soundtrack to a 1960,s spy saga -the title track is a horn led case in point ) sleek and futuristic , wilful and muscular and at times i just plain barmy. "Touch of Evil "gallops along frantically like an flamboyant version of rave with cosmic touches of strangulated metal and flourishes of Middle Eastern music. It's preposterous yet fantastic. Which pretty much sums up One Armed Bandit .It's progressive jazz for those who would not normally like progressive jazz which I suppose means you must like it after all. Prog jazz for those who don't normally like prog jazz ...like far out man . I've got to go ...my heads started hurting .

There is a probably a masters thesis lurking in the dark corner of a university library on why the music of Frank Zappa has never been quite as influential than the great mans less talented contemporaries. And yet listening to the new album from the Norwegian nine-piece Jaga Jazzist it did strike me that the ghost of "Hot Rats" was lurking in the recording studio particularly when the wonderful title track of this album was recorded, indeed all that is missing is Captain Beefheart. Thus we have horns, keyboards, ragging guitars and a jazzy arrangement which explores a few creative tangents along the way and the sort of bewildering musical high jinks which Zappa so loved.

Jaga Jazzist are led by band ringleader Lars Horntveth who has been a creative dynamo since the age of 14 and all other band members are multi instrumentalists. Horntveth has talent to spare and in 2009 recorded "Kaleidoscopic" a thirty-seven minute composition recorded with forty-one members of the Latvian National Orchestra (obviously a side project!)

The description of "Fela Kuiti meets Wagner" is not mine but the bands and it does come close to explaining the sheer variety and bewildering range of influences to be found on "One Armed Bandit". While the basic template is a mix of jazz and progressive rock this is by no means located in the school of po-faced Brand X style endless riffing and frenetic drums. Like Zappa at his most commercial or the best of Weather Report this album is huge fun and full of movement. It is also very listenable. Check out the lovely "Bananfluer Overalt" one of the albums highlights which ranges far and wide over a space jazz wig out but never loses a sense of purpose. "Prognissekongen" despite its title has a slightly African feel and is packed with weird horn solos and glockenspiels. The band are so together on this you swear they were related. "Touch Of Evil" has a pounding kick drum, dub bass, heavy metal overtones and some middle eastern sounds thrown in for good measure. It is typical of the sheer eclecticism displayed throughout the album which sometimes is so diverse its a real feat "to stay on the bus". Clearly many will feel that you have to love instrumentals with a heavy jazz overtone to get into this album, but if you also love wildly inventive and celebratory music played by a truly gifted but increasingly mad bunch of Scandinavians this will be right up your street. Its well worth parting with your krone's on "One Armed Bandit".