{"id":7114,"date":"2015-01-26T05:30:44","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T10:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7114"},"modified":"2015-01-26T05:30:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T10:30:44","slug":"hundred-word-reviews-january-2015-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/26\/hundred-word-reviews-january-2015-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-word Reviews: January 2015, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a never-ending stream of new music, so it&#8217;s time once again for some hundred-worders to work off some of my backlog. As always, these all deserve full reviews, but with limited time and resources, 100 words will have to do. I&#8217;ll cut to the chase. Today it&#8217;s five acts nominally in the jazz\/fusion\/prog genres, all with names that will sound odd to American ears.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/tohpati.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"float: right; padding: 10px;width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=ss_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B00IZ7ZDHA&#038;asins=B00IZ7ZDHA&#038;linkId=Z2VR5RZTDKOTC4AR&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tohpati \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Tribal Dance<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nIf you dig melodic guitar shredding that mixes jazz fusion and rock, do check out this album from Indonesian guitarist <strong>Tohpati<\/strong>. In places his clean chording and single-note runs are reminiscent of <strong>Eric Johnson<\/strong>, but with a heavier bottom end. That heaviness is thanks to his rhythm section on <em>Tribal Dance<\/em>: bassist <strong>Jimmy Haslip<\/strong> and former <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=856\"><strong>Frank Zappa<\/strong><\/a> drummer <strong>Chad Wackerman<\/strong>. Tohpati also sometimes sounds like <strong>Jeff Beck<\/strong> \u2013 especially the latter&#8217;s mid 70s material \u2013 but the album&#8217;s overall sound is imbued with an Eastern sensibility that certainly adds interest. Mainstream enough for rock fans, adventurous enough for jazzers.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/xavi_reija.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"float: right; padding: 10px;width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=ss_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B00I9BU2AU&#038;asins=B00I9BU2AU&#038;linkId=G2SF7TJSTF2TGPV4&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Xavi Reija \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Resolution<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Leonardo Pavkovic<\/strong>&#8216;s MoonJune label is responsible for a surprisingly high volume of new music, and the label&#8217;s quality standard is quite high overall. Here&#8217;s yet another. Catalan (Spain) drummer <strong>Xavi Reija<\/strong> is nominally the session&#8217;s leader, but musical cohorts <strong>Bernat Hernandez<\/strong> and guitarists <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=5254\"><strong>Dusan Jevtovic<\/strong><\/a> do plenty of heavy lifting as well. Jazz sensibility applied to thickly chorded rock riffage, engagingly busy basswork and expressive, precise percussion are the hallmarks of this eleven-track instrumental album. Several tracks push the eight-minute mark, taking their time to develop. In turns forceful and contemplative, <em>Resolution<\/em> is a deeply textured collection of post-rock tunes.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/mole_rgb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=ss_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B00OTLFEGG&#038;asins=B00OTLFEGG&#038;linkId=PP5PJOXPHQB3S3ZV&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mol\u00e9 \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>RGB<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nEverything from ECM-styled atmospheric jazz to funky, uptempo workouts is explored on this trio album. Featuring keyboardist <strong>Mark Aanderud<\/strong>, electric bassist <strong>Stomu Takeshi<\/strong>, and <strong>Hernan Hecht<\/strong> on drums, RGB is delightfully varied for a piano trio. At times \u2013 as on \u201cTrichromatic\u201d \u2013 the melody is buried in a flurry of notes, but the musicians don&#8217;t seem to be improvising: they give a real sense of knowing where they&#8217;re going on each track. The cuts are occasionally punctuated by some strange sound effects, but that other-worldliness is offset by the impressionistic, pastoral textures of \u201cWinip,\u201d and the surprisingly melodic \u201cFreelance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/ju_moster.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"float: right; padding: 10px;  width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=ss_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B00OTLFE84&#038;asins=B00OTLFE84&#038;linkId=OPR7ZZJKLK62OWNU&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>J\u00fc and Kjetil M\u00f8ster \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>J\u00fc Meets M\u00f8ster<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nThe cover art on this disc is reminiscent of <strong>Lasse Hoile<\/strong>&#8216;s nightmarish, dreamscape-like photography work for <strong>Porcupine Tree<\/strong> and <strong>Steven Wilson<\/strong>. Musically, it&#8217;s something else altogether. Guest saxophonist <strong>Kjetil M\u00f8ster <\/strong>starts things off out front, leading the listener away from anticipation of the skronky, fleet-fingered distorted guitar work of <strong>\u00c0d\u00e0m M\u00e9z\u00e1ros<\/strong> that is to follow. At times, the group sounds like an unholy amalgam of punk, prog and jazz. But it works, and well. At times, M\u00f8ster&#8217;s sax sounds like an electric violin. This album is crazy, weird, and worthwhile, but probably not designed for the less adventurously inclined listener.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/trio3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=ss_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B00LEZP5HI&#038;asins=B00LEZP5HI&#038;linkId=VCCLQD6FUD27AOSI&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Trio 3 + <\/strong><strong>Vijay Iyer \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Wiring<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nThis release is neither fusion nor post-rock; instead, it&#8217;s nearly seventy minutes of modern jazz. All eleven tracks are originals, variously composed by the participants: alto saxophonist <strong>Oliver Lake<\/strong>, pianist <strong>Vijay Iyer<\/strong>, <strong>Reggie Workman<\/strong> on bass, and drummer <strong>Andrew Cyrille<\/strong>. Lake and Iyer tend to be out front on these compositions that range from tuneful, <strong>MJQ<\/strong>-styled pieces to weedy, atonal skronk like Workman&#8217;s \u201cSynapse II.\u201d Though the English-language presskit doesn&#8217;t mention it (the German translation does), \u201cguest pianist\u201d Iyer was a 2013 recipient of one of those MacArthur Foundation \u201cgenius grants.\u201d His lovely \u201cWillow Song\u201d is almost <strong>Gershwin<\/strong>esque in places.<\/p>\n<p>More capsule reviews to come.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\">Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/icon_twitter_small.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"18\" height=\"18\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"1\" vspace=\"0\" \/> Twitter<\/a> and get notified<br \/>\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a never-ending stream of new music, so it&#8217;s time once again for some hundred-worders to work off some of my backlog. As always, these all deserve full reviews, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,49,65],"tags":[1215,1503,1518,1554,2229,2268,2325,2406],"class_list":["post-7114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","tag-ju","tag-mole","tag-moonjune","tag-moster","tag-tohpati","tag-trio-3","tag-vijay-iyer","tag-xavi-reija","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7114","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=7114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}