Two items received from the Berlin label Tiger Moon Records, which is also home to the band Tru Cargo Service – which I mention as what we often tend to hear from this label is genre-bending instances of contemporary fun-loving jazz with lots of twists. Insomnia Brass Band are that broad-minded and musically wide-ranging trio we enjoyed on their debut album Late Night Kitchen with its wacky fish cover art…seems they’ve been taking the act on the road and playing live quite a bit since then, hence title of newie Road Works (TMR 011), although I think it’s still a studio record. The players Anke Lucks, Almut Schlichting and Christian Marien make the most of their basic instrumentation – trombone, baritone sax, and drums – wringing every ounce of juice and funk from the saucepans. Indeed “body-moving funk” is just one of the selling points on which they aim to deliver, with tunes like ‘Frog Rock’ and ‘Dreaming of South East London’ and other cuts where the rhythm section work like demons to emulate the electrifying effect of any given sharp funk act, doing so with simple baritone sax blasts and stickwork that relies on rimshots as much as the bass drum pedal. Nice the way that both brass instruments get their turn at playing the “lead” lines, and there are some strong melodies here along with the invention that’s required to deliver the max from this apparently limited set-up. Hugely enjoyable and the melodies and rhythms make this music very accessible, and abiding by the unofficial “not quite jazz” aesthetic of Tru Cargo only serves to increase the intrigue levels.
Even more minimal is the duo Subsytem with their album Drei (TMR 012) – just one baritone saxophone and a double bass! Almut Schlichting (again) picks up her baritone for nine new tunes with double bassist Sven Hinse, they’ve been playing for ten years, and this is their third release. Again it’s another record that seems jazz-like in the opening ten seconds, and then you quickly realise there’s something else going on here in the room, and it’s more than simply a European “take” on this most Afro-American of musics. I think the main takeaway from Drei is just how this duo have mastered rhythm. They make it very plain in the music, and in the press notes, pointing out their knowledge of waltz-time, West-African music, triple rhythms from Peru, samba, and other polyrhythmic methods. While much of this work is carried by the amazingly supple work of Hinse, also listen out for the way Schlichting weaves her way around the beat. They make it sound simple, but there’s much ingenuity and complexity going on here, a near-skeletal framework where the beat is sometimes almost implied, or they deliberately miss out bars as part of the elliptical approach. You can almost hear a percussionist in hear somewhere, and it’s not just the snap and click of Hinse’s playing, but the gaps in the music suggest sounds that aren’t there. In fine, we’ve got a duo doing the work of an entire band. On top of this innovation and skill, the pair elect to tell little narratives in their tunes – such as the one about a tarantula living with a toad in the Peruvian jungle, or the delightful fantasy of the penguins who leave their island in the Pacific on weekend, to listen to club music in the big city. I’m impressed…I haven’t heard such pared-down ingenuity since Dolphy’s 1960 date Out There, with Duvivier’s bass and Carter’s cello. 57 minutes of warmth, humour, and joyful music. Be sure to check out their previous releases for this label, Schneekönig and Unterholz.
Both from 12th October 2022.