Vol 3 – The Dark Jazz Project (reviewed by T. Bebedor)

At twenty songs, the new release from Dark Jazz Project is anything but subtle, this is submersive music. At time it sound as if Tom is chasing Jerry across the mixing, it can be wild, chaotic and – on the surface anyway – little more than bleeps, pulses, clack and clicks but somehow, from all of this traffic, comes something enjoyable.

Opening track ‘Jazz’ acts as an introduction to proceedings a hint at the mania to come, it’s relatively slow in comparison to the superbly named following tracks ‘Nob2’ and ‘Nink Nonk’ where the tempo and the ante is notched up.

I don’t think I’ve ever had to review an album like it, it’s so cold and removed from what music  generally is accepted as, there are no singers warbling a nice melody (although there are patched, distorted vocals on ‘The Great Ones’)  no traditional musicians as such pouring over sheet music and waiting for cues, this is futuristic-sounding (although this type of backdrop has been used since the explosion of synth bands from the early 1980’s) and explorative – maybe that’s the jazz link! Sorry, the penny has just dropped. Jazz, at its core was built from taking instruments associated with a certain style of music and then played in such a way that pushes, challenges and explores other uses, this is the same here. People like Depeche Mode, Human League and, are we allowed to say his name out loud? Gary Numan used this technology to produce pop songs, here the technology is used to convey mood.

Jazz.

It’s surprising how quickly you fall under it’s spell and the music becomes the norm. At times it’s positive, enthralling but also downbeat and depressing because it acts as a soundtrack to a movie of little hope, industry replacing nature, sickness replacing hope – get Stanley Kubrick on the phone, I’ve got some music for his next film, we drift from 2001 Space Odyssey to the last 20 seconds of ‘The Great Ones’ sounding like a scene from Full Metal Jacket!

Ok, to summarise, it’s a big meal but a rewarding one. Plug in, strap in and enjoy the ride because it’s a rewarding, if not a challenging one.