review – A New Wave Of Jazz

UK’s Musique Machine just reviewed two of our latest releases with a 4 out of 5 stars rating for the LEMADI TRIO album. Both albums are of course available from our shop on bandcamp.

“4 out of 5 stars rating ! Canonical Discourse is a four-track journey into taut, tense, and largely angular improv. It’s a release that wonderful shifts and awkwardly shambles along- through the jarring, discordant, noisy and intense. The CD/ digital release appears on New Wave Of Jazz, and features two of the label’s key players- Dirk Serries who curates/ runs the label, and his wife Martina Verhoeven- he plays archtop guitar and she plays the grand piano. They are joined on alto sax by José Lencastre. Each of the four tracks has runtimes between eleven and fifteen-minute mark- with each of them having a fair bit of rewarding shift/ movement within their length. We open with the track “Detached Mode” which moves from taut maps of fluttering hisses, bounding piano hits, and guitar scarp ‘n’ manic pick. Onto slowly churning hazes of steadily horn fork ‘n’ boil, gloomy piano clunk, and broodingly guitar jangle/ clutter. As we move through the album we come to the longest track “Disjunction”. It opens with a jagged trail of manic neck picks, squawking horn tone, and bass-bound piano clunk ‘n’ dart. As we move on we shift into rapid string scrubs, speeding key runs, and cheeky to seared horn tone trailing. The album plays out with “Little Emphasis” which moves from hushed and drowsy blends of guitar pick drifts, compressed horn wonders, and steady-if-wavering key-clattering. Later on moving into mixes of darting-yet-gloom key shift, steady horn flirt, and baying to moodily rolling guitar tone detail. It’s fair to say I enjoy most of New Wave Of Jazz’s output- but Canonical Discourse really stood as something rather special to me. It’s down to its blend of engaging annularity, the feel of tense gloominess, and the constant shift/ development of each of the tracks here. As with all of this labels releases the CD has a pressing of just 200 copies- so I’d act sooner than later, if you enjoy where angularly and broodingly gloomy improv meets….”

“Indicator Light is a forty-three-minute improv/ free jazz recording which moves from briefly dwelling in the unease and gloomy. Before shifting gear to the pacey and angular, through to the woozy and careering. It’s a recording from a 2023 live show- with the whole set captured in an up-close, yet crystal-clear manner. The Martina Verhoeven Quintet brings together- Gonçalo Almeida – double bass. Onno Govaert -drums. Dirk Serries – guitar. Martina Verhoeven – grand pianoand Colin Webster – alto sax.The single 43. 32 track opens up grim and uneasy with lumbering bass stumbles, moody guitar strums ‘n’ simmers, percussive slides, and driftingly forlorn sax trails. As we move on we go through intense runs of rapidly bounding keys, manic sax bays and wails, crashing drum lines, and untamed guitar strums. Though to cascading paino runs, pumped-up horn wail ‘n’ screams, searing cymbal rush, and guitar hiss ‘n’ clutter. As we move into the second half of the set we move from a bounding/ slight jarring groove, cut with baying horn rapidity, swirling piano key chaos. Though to manic bass run, key clunk, guitar buzz ‘n’ purr, and percussive sear ‘n’ shift. Indicator Light is a great pulse-pumping and mind-racing drive into the improv form. If you are in the mood for something largely firey, unforgiving, but eventful- this is a good fit.” Musique Machine – UK

UK’s MUSIQUE MACHINE just reviewed two of our 4 new albums. TONUS’ Analog Deviation proves to be a difficult album, although one of our faves over here at the office, but luckily compensated with the 4 out of 5 stars rated review of TRANSITION UNIT’s debut album ‘Face Value’. Both albums are available here.

“4 out of 5 stars rating! Face Value is an improv album that rewardingly shifts between darting angularity, glum moodiness, and pulse-pumping manic-ness. Transition Unit is a three-piece project- bringing together two Portuguese musicians saxophonist José Lencastre and pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro, with Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries. The CD release appears on New Wave Of Jazz- a label focusing on the more difficult/ noisy/ experimental side of the improv/ modern composition/ jazz genres. The CD comes presented in a four-panel mini monochrome gatefold- on its front cover, we have a photo of a twisted & turned mosque with a dense shadow beneath, and on the back cover minimal text. This release is Ltd to 200 physical copies and can be purchased directly from here. The album takes in six tracks in all- which have runtimes between four and ten minutes. We open with “Idea Assumption” which brings together long grating bows & jarring neck picks, tip-taping to cascading keywork, and piping-at-points- almost sassily harmonic horn work. The tracks start things off in a rewardingly off-centre tone. As we move through the record we have the tinkling key darts, manic horn honks, and jagged strum ‘n’ bay of “A Western Decorative Pattern”- a great breathtaking, and heart-pounding track- which is akin to a massive caffeine, while trying to tap-dance. There’s the title track- which is a mix of creaking & atmospheric pick/ twang, moodily baying horn tones, and taunt/ fraught key cascading. With the album playing out with the nearing eleven minutes of “The Utopian Dadaist”. It opens with a tautly woven sound mat of rapidly darting keys, busy neck picks, and this sort of semi-galloping horn piping. As the track progresses the whole thing takes off in a wonderful manic/ speeding manner, before shifting through slowing deconstruction, and moody pipes, flirts, and bounds. As far as I can gather Face Value is the first release from Transition Unit – though of course all of the members have been active within the European improv/avant-jazz movement. And I must say it’s both a wonderful engaging album, which marvellously darts, twists, and broods… Let’s hope there is more to come from Transition Unit!.” Musique Machine – UK

“Analog Deviation takes in two twenty-five-to-thirty-minute examples of wandering, sparse, at times abstract or noisy improv. Tonus is a three-piece collective bringing together Dirk Serries- Archtop guitar, Benedict Taylor- Viola, and Martina Verhoeven- grand piano. On the front cover of this CD album, we find a monochrome picture of what looks like the stone archway/ crude flint celling of a crypt, and there most certainly is a feeling of grim tone/ mood here, though equally, we get a feeling of discord/ lo-fi noise sourness too. The two tracks featured are simply titled “Inbound” and “Outbound”. The first tack slips into awkward audio existence with a pared-back/ lose mix of angular sting fork, guitar neck grate, and inside piano pick ‘n’ knock. By the eight-half-minute mark, we’ve certainly moved into gloomier realms- as we find bleak key hits, eerie creaks, brooding twangs, and sinister plucks. Before later on shifting into starker/pared-back mixes of grates, sears, knocks and sudden baying fumbles/bounds/ discordant scrabs. The second track is the longest of the two at nearly half an hour mark. We open with a decidedly loose/spaced-out mix of key plucks, drags ‘n’ creaks, and brooding key strikes/slides. By the ten-and-a-half-minute mark, we find a sparse/stretched-out flow of string scrab/ bay, crude textual bang ‘n’ knock, and circling creak ‘n’ death bed twang. Before later shifting into crude key descend, neck scuttle, and dense fiddle ‘n’ grate. Analog Deviation very much sits at the more sparse, loose, and abstract side of the improv genre. I can certainly appreciate both the player’s talents, and what they are trying to do here- but more often than not it felt just a bit too pared-back/ awkward for my tastes.” Musique Machine – UK

A New Wave Of Jazz

Tag: review

LEMADI TRIO / MARTINA VERHOEVEN QUINTET

MUSIQUE MACHINE