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The term "One-Armed Bandit" is another way to call the Slot Machine - hence the meaning of the cover - and nothing seems more fitting to describe the new work of this badass Norwegian brass-based ensemble, which boasts in its curriculum the collaboration with fellow countrymen Motorpsycho from "Let Them Eat Cake" to that experimental marvel known as "In The Fishtank" of 2003, thanks to which I got to know them.
The sound of "What We Must" from 2005 had us enchanted, sure, but, while it's still difficult for me to explain the music of this group of crazies with open minds, here we go beyond, in the sense that, just as when we operate a slot machine we will never know the combination that will appear, the construction of the tracks in this album also seems random, challenging, and more than ever surreal. On the beautiful title track, it almost feels like we’ve landed on a quiz show, later a helicopter pops up, noises taken from the slots needless to say, varied electronics, many rhythm changes, even too many, something that resembles the golden era of Metheny-Mays ("Toccata"), some nice funky cop show tunes, and then Philip Glass, but also Frank Zappa, and that's just part of it!
Maybe we really are in Las Vegas, the most "fake" place in the universe, the fact is that this time we are not in Norway, and if we try to close our eyes perhaps we are just on roller coasters wasting an hour in a magical amusement park. I would define it all in one word: GENIUS, because genius is the way this band managed to fit all the ideas (or maybe not even one!?) and once again create a work of great freshness.
In this album, Lars Horntveth and co. have stopped looking for the catchy melody to stick everywhere, but must have said to themselves: let's see how much stuff we can put in the oven without burning everything, or better yet, how many combinations (of sounds, of genres, of rhythms) can come out of a slot without winning a thing... and in my opinion, they succeeded.
Maybe it won't be the best way to make jazz in this crazy third millennium, but in that case, we could blame the Jaga for everything, except for NOT having tried in a big way!
For Fanz Only - with cotton candy in hand - the others start from "The Stix".
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