JAZZ FOR THE DEAF

Over the last two year's Mörglbl have deservedly taken off and become " internationally recognised", at least in the prog/jazz rock fusion circles. Some people smirk at the idea of virtuoso rock players coming from France - but through Mörglbl's four album releases, exposure on stage and You Tube, those claims are very justified. Indeed the power trio Mörglbl is a damned good band, mixing jazz rock with metal/heavy rock and a very special ingredient, infection Gallic humour. So now after extentively touring, for instance getting rave reviews in the USA (time for the UK??), Mörglbl have found time to record and release 'Jazz for the deaf'.

This is a good album but does not have the immediate impact of 'Grotesk', which had a consistent run of excellent and instantly memorable tunes. But still the new one grows on me with repeated play, since whilst having fewer stand-out tunes the consistent whole is well above average. But the fact is 'Jazz ' doesn't grab me as much as 'Grotesk', perhaps because (ironically) there is less jazz/jazz fusion and more emphasis towards the metal side of their playing - the new drummer?? However, this record isn't jazz-free using with the old trick of the early jazz-rockers: play the main part of the song as rock but the instrumentals as jazz . Everybody who's heard my Morglbl albums, have commented on Godin being Vai-like, but I hear the Holdsworthian breaks too combined with heaps of originality, so don't accuse him being a Vai-clone. But then I don't get the Primus (thereby the Les Claypool?) connection - I don't hear it in the albums or samples found on You Tube. Ivan Rougny on electric bass, is a much different sort of bass-playing virtuso - freer and jazzier.

Having said all that, a superior jazz fusion going metal album, but not the one to start discovering Mörglbl.

3 and half going 4 star