FFWD Weekly
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| MUSIC REVIEWS JAZ KLASH · Jaz Klash are a drum 'n' bass supergroup comprised of Brooklyn-born, LA-based producer/composer/remixer The Angel and Bristol's deep dub and jungle duo, More Rockers. · A cross-Atlantic collaboration recorded in both LA and Bristol, with guest appearances from funky keyboardists extraordinaire Brian Auger and Jacky Terrason. Right from the seamy opener of Jaz Klash's set "Off The Edge," you're transported to a time and place where jazz music lives in the burnt-out back alley speakeasies of ghetto streets. Where muggles mist sits thick in the air like fog and you can barely see the hopped-up horn player hittin' the notes he sold his soul for through the haze. Where the drummer feeds a frantic dancefloor with his frenzied flailing and the fingers of the keyboardist bleed sorrow and joy, tickling and pounding the ivories, keeping their promises of pleasure and pain. It's not that these sound like old jazz tunes. They're drum 'n' bass, from jump-up to rollers to hard-step. It's just that they evoke that feeling, and feeling is what this album is all about. Richly textured layers of flutes, wahwah guitars, electric pianos, horns and lots of double bass interweave to produce some real funkjazz, a combination of the Bristol sound with a cool West Coast jazz flavor spiced up with some funky licks from blaxploitation flix. Since The Angel has written movie scores (Gridlock'd, among others), it's no surprise that these songs have a cinematic sound to them, especially the theme-in-search-of-a-chase-scene fury of "The Finale." Other standouts include vein-melting jazzfunk with a Squarepusher vs. Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters vibe on "Traffic," the floating flutes and cascading keyboards that caress you through "'67" and the sweet voice of The Angel tellin' you she's "gonna make your light shine/down for whatever/make you feel better" so that you believe it on "Intrigue (Down For Whatever)." If you're a fan of Roni Size or like your stuff on the jazzier end of the spectrum, you should definitely be down for this. 4/5 Red Eye |