IRON KIM STYLE

Sometimes it takes you to be feeling your worst to be successfully immersed in an incredible musical experience that finally makes sense. Iron Kim Style's self-titled album is a hard and dark jazz fusion monster, comprised of fully improvised sinister moods, pessimistic dirty atmosphere and brooding menace. It's a frequently howling, tortured and oppressive instrumental album that weighs down on the listener, but with occasional reflective moments to offer some glimpses of hope. It often aims for mood over actual tangible tunes, but fans of hard edged 70's jazz-fusion, experimental Miles Davis and `Fifth' era Soft Machine will find much to appreciate here.

Spiraling trumpeting, mucky filthy bass and aggressive guitar stabs punch through the loose jazzy drumming of opener `Mean Streets Of Pyongyang'. Lots of heavy distortion and groaning reverb throughout, and the more sedate thoughtful middle with just a hint of danger rising is a nice touch as well. `Gibberish Falter' is a maddeningly funky and eerie experimental piece with harsh electronic buzzing and swallowing bass that really grates on your nerves and gets under your skin - in a good way!

In addition to some bellowing mammoth trumpeting, the guitar playing on `Po' Breef' almost gives you a hint at how the spiritual trio of albums from Santana `Caravanserai/Welcome/Borboletta' might have sounded if Carlos was devoted to the guy downstairs instead of the Lord above! `Don Quixotic' blends Anekdoten (circa `From Within'), mid-period `Recordings' era Porcupine Tree and rising-menace King Crimson improvs for a hypnotic spacey dirge.

`Adrift' is a jagged and serrated floating ambient piece - trust me, that will make sense when you hear it - with plenty of harsh distorted feedback-driven electric guitar and droning trumpet that drifts through the rainy weather. `Amber Waves Of Migraine' is a tiptoeing creeping nightmare, while `Pachinko Malice' is a manic fiery guitar/bass/wild drumming attack that reminds of the primal locked down aggression of Krautrock stunner `German Oak'.

The last three tracks all seem a little too short and underdeveloped, as good as they actually are, they could have been twice as long. `Dreams...' is a shuffling murky soundscape with chiming guitar and gentle percussion, the blustering and diabolical `Jack Out The Kims' is primal raging and maddening swirling King Crimson noise, while `Slouchin' At The Savoy' is an almost laid-back and naughty come-down to the gloom and oppression of the bulk of the album. All of these pieces hint at endless directions the band could next head in.

Once again, Moonjune Records has provided us with another top-quality jazz/progressive related work that keeps up their usual high standards of delivering intelligent, genre-blending releases from outstanding musicians.

`Iron Kim Style' is lonely, thought-provoking, deeply emotional and tormenting dark-jazz, for days when you've never felt more invisible and unhappy. How wonderful it is to have an album like this to help us through.

Four stars, and lets hope for a follow-up to this wonderful album soon, far too much potential and talent here!