THE LIGHTS IN THE AISLE WILL GUIDE YOU

Four roomy instrumental tracks. These very capable musicians from Malmo, Sweden have made a big impression with fans of hot playing with that certain sound of 70s instrumentation. I heard their previous album but although you gotta love the sound of Rhodes, organ and the warm vibes, I wasn't captivated by their writing, and that hasn't changed here. One stretch of groove gives way to another unrelated stretch of groove. So tracks start out very intriguing but become an unremarkable musical tundra before too long, ambling in the background as the mind has wandered to bills and politics. I should blame myself and not them I guess. Some nice atmospheres and pleasant relaxed soloing by collaborating wind players. There's more Latin flavor here than I remember from the previous album, but it's been a while. They're really a quality outfit, so your mileage may very dramatically from mine.

3.5 stars. On their 2015 debut this Swedish band were a six piece with two guest horn players. Album number two from 2019 shows the band dropping to a four piece but with four guests adding trumpet, trombone, sax, percussion and violin. The two members who left were the AGUSA and ORESUND COLLECTIVE guys who were the extra guitarist and keyboardist on the debut. The music very much pays homage to 70's Jazz for the most part mixed with 70's Prog. The debut had two long suites while here it's four long pieces.

The coolest thing about this release for me is the cover art and a re-staging of that cover art with the four guys from HOOFFOOT in the picture of the re-do inside. The picture on the cover was done by a Swedish artist and is called "Malmo Noir" and it took him three years to create and is of a street in Malmo, Sweden which is exactly what the band was looking for in the cover art, a reference to their home town.

And after talking to the artist who gave his permission to use it they let him listen to some demo tapes of this album and he mentioned that this music reminded him of what he was listening to during the 3 years of painting this picture which was a lot of CAN, AMON DUUL II and TANGERINE DREAM. What are the odds! That second picture inside is pretty cool too and the vehicle is identical to the one in the original but not the exact same car even though they did find that car but it was in too rough a shape to use, but the owner had this spare car they used that was the very same.

The title of the album is a reference to this music which can be a light in these times of darkness. Recorded live in studio this is 46 minutes long and like the debut I really like this but I don't love it. There was an insert in my package talking about how this was originally pressed by mistake in mono only which is not what the band wanted of course so these were pulled off the market until the mistake was corrected and re-released in stereo.

Like the debut I feel like there's so much to enjoy as far as my tastes in music go but also stuff I could do without. I was drawn more to the music of the debut overall but also feel it's not as consistent as this latest. Good quality of music of course but both records cross into the more commercial aspects of Jazz at times. So flip a coin between these two studio albums but I give the edge to the debut, and this is where I get off the bus as I was wavering about picking this up as it was. A lot of jamming it feels like and again I like this style but it's just not connecting to me like I had hoped.

Lots to like here and I have no doubt that there are some big fans of this band and their retro style.