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Chances are good that when presented with the idea of combining jazz, funk and progressive rock, one\u2019s reaction will be either a cringe at what seems a gruesome prospect, or an intrigued, \u201ctell me more\u2026\u201d attitude. The space between those reactions is a yawning, desolate and unoccupied chasm.<\/p>\n
For those who lean toward the latter response, I offer Jack Magnet Science. The odd name is apparently a mangling of the actual<\/i> name of the project\u2019s leader, Jakob Magn\u00fasson. The Icelandic keyboardist has assembled a top-flight coterie of musicians to create and realize Future Forecast<\/em>. The set opens with \u201cWild Card,\u201d a funky foundation with bizarre and mannered vocals (Icelandic? Italian? Esperanto!?), effects-laden guitars, skittering and skeletal keyboard runs and haunting saxophone. It\u2019s dissonant and swirling yet oddly alluring. From there, \u201cSpace Pasadena\u201d is placid and otherworldly, existing in the space between a triangle, its three points being atmospheric krautrock, \u201980s King Crimson and cool jazz.<\/p>\n \u201cDream of Delphi\u201d begins with a similar character, but unfolds into something a bit like a hip rethink of what I like to call Weather Channel jazz: subtle and with a melodic underpinning, but leaning toward aural wallpaper. The hipness \u2013 helped along with some vaguely Toots Thielemans-styled harmonica and accordion (or samples thereof) \u2013 helps the track steer clear of insipidness. \u201cExtra Polation\u201d starts with blobs of bass (stringed or Mooged, I cannot quite discern) and more hauntingly exotic vocals with a North African feel. But a minute in, the tune heads in a very, very<\/i> different direction, doubling down on the African textures and churning out a polyrhythmic beat and some weirdly juxtaposed futuristic\/electronic textures. Oh, and what sounds like pan drums.<\/p>\n \u201cITSYAMO\u201d is more atmospherics, leading into urbane, sophisticated jazz. Flashes of melody flutter in and out of this abstract yet somehow accessible piece. \u201cReAct!\u201d is vaguely reminiscent of Jagga Jazzist, which is to say it\u2019s ambitious and catchy, with hints of funky trip-hop yet steering clear of convention. The seventh and final track, \u201cRupTures\u201d answers the unasked question, \u201cWhat would Kid A<\/em> sound like with one of Zero 7\u2019s singers and a more jazz-focused sensibility?\u201d<\/p>\n Put simply, Jack Magnet Science doesn\u2019t sound a whole lot like anything else on the musical landscape today. The album gets high marks for originality. It is most emphatically not most listeners\u2019 cup-o-tea, but for the musically adventurous, it\u2019s an intriguing and wild ride. And it\u2019s on vinyl, with eye-popping artwork.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chances are good that when presented with the idea of combining jazz, funk and progressive rock, one\u2019s reaction will be either a cringe at what seems a gruesome prospect, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7,32,42,49,65,72,73],"tags":[5484],"class_list":["post-27945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acid-jazz","category-ambient","category-avant-garde","category-fusion","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","category-trip-hop","category-vinyl","tag-jack-magnet-science","cat-2-id","cat-5-id","cat-7-id","cat-32-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-72-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27947,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27945\/revisions\/27947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}