Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Jazoo
Label: Celinka
Released: 2011
Runtime: 70:18
Rating: 4/5
It’s unbelievable that you can’t find anything tangible about Jazoo anywhere. Not even on their official website! The band has been around for 16 years, hails from Slovenj Gradec, and has three studio albums in its pocket, four now. »Are You Still There?« is their first album released on a Slovenian label – Celinka! In early fall 2011 the new album was teased with a pre-release: a shortened, more radio-friendly version of the track Inside, with the verses sung in Slovenian, titled in translation »V sebi«. On the album it appears in the English version, a full three minutes longer, and as a treat, an extended Slovenian version of »V sebi« is tacked on as a »hidden« eighth track. It’s the only track where the band brings in vocals, and even that one is so instrumentally dynamic that the vocals never take center stage. In Catch The Wind the voice works merely as an extra instrument (intro).
Jazoo are an extremely seasoned, tight-knit crew who know exactly what they’re doing and what they want to achieve. Their first album came out in 2002, and ever since they’ve been diligently putting out studio albums at three-year intervals. »Are You Still There?« is a new story, a new face of Jazoo. A bold, progressive step forward, in tune with the times and with change. On it, Jazoo have kept their strong allure, marked by a provocatively experimental musical character – and the latter doesn’t tolerate any genre boundaries, since its basic mission is exactly the opposite. The language of Jazoo’s music brings together the seemingly incompatible, and the gulfs between genres melt into one unified, utterly their own musical adventure. Hard Break, for instance, would make a great closing theme for an early-seventies action movie (»Dirty Harry«) – a real jazz rock fusion beauty, with a chunky first solo led by keyboards with an inherited Hammond sound.
The album’s many-sided design is adorned by an exceptionally fluid wandering between the cues of classic jazz foundations, post rock (especially typical of Catch The Wind or Desart Sun), and ethnic elements, as shown in Morning After & Nigth Before, while the album sucks you effortlessly into a psychedelic whirlpool inside the progressive odyssey of Desart Sun.
Of course, these remarks are very rough and sparse. This is an album you’ll be discovering for quite a while. No need to even mention that it carries a strong character of spontaneity and unpredictability, which is just an added plus. The arrangements are tremendously dynamic. The jazz improvisation never runs dry, and it’s worth singling out above all the long piano solo inside the intimate, delicate, calm and serene What If… The band is so perfectly in sync that you could play it with your eyes closed, and most importantly, you have to hear Jazoo live. This album was definitely recorded in one go, with a few small cosmetic touch-ups added afterward. It has an exceptionally lively, genuine, authentic, warm organic sound, which such an adventurous and sharp-witted musical mosaic, the one that defines Jazoo’s music, richly deserves. Keep in mind throughout that Jazoo’s sonic backdrop is built on the strict use of acoustic instruments – the exceptions being the electric bass and the sampled female voices that define the neurotic mood in the first third of Desart Sun.
Jazoo are no copycats. This is a band with a clearly shaped character. »Are You Still There« is a new milestone in the band’s development. It’s hard to say it’s a better album than its predecessor »Detached« (2008) , but it’s definitely more mature, wiser. Jazoo are unique oddballs who will be especially pleasant surprise for demanding music gourmets, those of you looking for something out of the ordinary in musical expression and drawn to the unusual, different, fresh, challenging and above all, free-spirited! If nothing does it sooner, the extravagant progressive adventure of Desart Sun will win you over, surely the centerpiece of this excellent album!
Lineup
Nejc Habermann – bass guitar
Enos Kugler – drums
Matjaž Mlakar – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Tomaž Pačnik – piano, keyboards
Katja Stare – flute, vocals, tenor saxophone, percussion
Production
Jazoo
Tracklist
1. Inside
2. Hard Break
3. Catch the Wind
4. Morning After & Night Before
5. What If…
6. Desart Sun
7. Are You Still There?
