KEEPING SCORE

JUMP FOR JOY!'s second album "Keeping Score" is veiled in an avantgarde sleeve of eccentric memorandum-flooded pics, that obviously gives us (the audience) incredible expectation for the content. And we will notice their music theatre will never betray us at all. They say this album was recorded as a live one at the R.I.O. Festival (France) in 2016, where they would have gigged quite lively and delightfully we can imagine easily (yes as their moniker says!). Their creation sounds pretty vivid not only for our auditory sensation but also for our visual impression. Guess their stage and performance should have been perfect for a picture. Every single player in the music commune plays on the stage with his/her massive intention to create another dimensional sound world perfectly.

The topnote is quite complex. In the beginning weird synthesizer-oriented sound pressure like a crying kitty confuses us. Multistreaming hard-edged percussion, crazy tremendous saxophone plays, or gorgeous piano sound compilation is exactly their credential of avantgarde, innovation. It's very amazing their improvised sound production is completely harmonized and crystallized together although each of them is kinda musical giant. My favourite movements are second and third. The second one drenched in tunes / noises / samples improvisation sounds like sorta Krautrock like Mahogany Brain or Semool. Rhythmic unification cannot be heard anywhere but can suggest everyone plays with full smile and full mind. In the third movement, we can hear beauty in confusion. Beneath Yumi's piano and maybe Japanese voices, we can feel ethnic delight and tragic vibe whilst sensitive, complicated moment.

The whole album can be thought as a JUMP FOR JOY's theatrical, inspired suite. This musical nutrition will directly be digested and absorbed in your brain, with such an eccentric sleeve pic. ;)