MOTORPSYCHO & JAGA JAZZIST HORNS: IN THE FISHTANK

The "In the Fishtank" collection is comprised of a series of EPs that were produced by independent music distributor Konkurrent from the Netherlands. These EPs were each done by different bands that were invited to participate. The bands would record original music for these EPs and were given 2 days worth of studio time to come up with the material for each EP. Most of the EPs were either recorded by one or two individual bands. Some of the bands that were invited to participate in the project were "Tortoise", "Sonic Youth", "June of 44", "Motorpsycho", "Jaga Jazzist" and "Isis" among many others.

In the Fishtank 10 consists of a collaboration with Motorpsycho and the Jaga Jazzist Horns section. Both bands actually did a series of gigs together in 2002 and decided to take advantage of their collaboration by recording this In the Fishtank episode. This collaboration sees both band stepping out from their comfort zones to produce a record that consists of a jazz fusion style with little snippets of their usual sound, some free jazz and some experimental jams. The album actually clocks in at over 46 minutes, but is still considered an EP since it only has 5 tracks (one being a remake, one being a cover and one being a long, drawn out jam).

Motorpsycho consists of their usual trio line-up of the time, but also includes a guest Baard Slagsvold helping out with piano, vocals and some other instruments. The Jaga Jazzist Horns consists of 3 members of the Jaga Jazzist experimental project namely Mathias Eick, Lars Horntveth and Jogen Munkeby, each one playing quite an array of instruments mostly in the brass family, but also flute, clarinet, marimbas, vibraphones and percussion.

Bombay Brassiere - Begins with an ambient, floating groove with sparse percussion and a smooth bass line. The horns finally come in playing in a sexy and improvised manner, but staying quite level. After the halfway mark, the tempo picks up a little becoming more direct and the horns harmonize in a strange, discordant way. The guitars create a drone deep in the background while percussion drives the horns forward.

Pills, Powders and Passion Plays - Another smooth groove begins and the horns establish themselves early, but this time vocals soon come in. The feel stays quite laid back even with the directness of the lyrics. In the long instrumental break, the guitar takes over a melody with a cool bass line and the horns keeping it soft letting the guitar have the limelight this time. It's a very cool, jazz groove that reminds you of a city night. The sound can put you into a nice spell especially when the mellow trumpet takes charge. The vocals come back quite a while later and retain the dreamy atmosphere. This track is actually a reworking of the song of the same title from Motorpsycho's "Angels and Daemons at Play"

Doffen Ah Um - This track is a bit more free-form and experimental. Wandering brass and meandering guitar play for a while, but then is suddenly interrupted by a much heavier brass notes, chunky guitar chords and uneven drums. The jazz style becomes a bit more traditional sounding in the 2nd half of the track, but it all doesn't pare together well making it sound a bit clumsy.

Theme de Yoyo - This one is actually a cover of a song originally done by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. This starts with a cool, bass groove which is soon mimicked by a low sax and joined by the trumpet before blasting off with some nice hits from the guitar and occasional dissonant outbursts. Some interesting vocals come in that give it a humorous tone. Vocals and instrumental sections trade off before it slips into a nice sax solo while the cool groove continues. As it goes along, the sax gets wilder and wilder. After a while, the lead gets passed over to a loud guitar solo. It's a nice combination of stoner fusion, if you can just imagine that. The over-the-top vocals come back at the last section. It's quite a cool combination of both straightforward and bizarre.

Tristano - Ambient at first, this one builds slowly off of a trance-like bass line, meandering along with twinkling guitar, keys, clunky percussion and sometimes noisy feedback. You start to hear some of the flutes and brass play around in the background from time to time. It's mostly quiet with occasional high drones building in volume and then suddenly dropping off. This meandering goes on for over 10 minutes before it sounds like it might be going somewhere, but it all levels off to more wandering, staying a bit subdued except for the occasional builds and drop offs. After all is said and done, you get 20 minutes of this improvisation that does at least build up consistently in the last 5-6 minutes, but you have to wait a long time for the payoff, which it does come eventually.

So this is mostly a fairly decent record with 3 excellent tracks, one shorter mediocre track ("Doffen Ah Um") and a long 20 minute track that overstays it's welcome, which if it was cut down to 10 minutes, it would have been just as effective as the final payoff is quite excellent. But the long track actually takes away from the overall enjoyment of the album, unfortunately, cutting this down to a 3 star album. That's really too bad because it would otherwise be a strong 4 star album.