Get The Blessing - "OC DC" Review
This is contemporary heavyweight get-up-and-move jazz at its finest.
Get The Blessing. Sounds almost like a demand, doesnt it? Well, let me assure you that the sense of urgency conveyed in the bands name is echoed wonderfully in their new record OC DC, released on March 5th through Naim Jazz. This is contemporary heavyweight get-up-and-move jazz at its finest. Get The Blessing are Jake McMurchie on saxophone, Pete Judge on trumpet, and Portishead duo Clive Dreamer and Jim Barr on drum and bass respectively. Despite the obvious selling point of the latter performers former band, McMurchie and Judge most definitely take the lead on this record. The opening track (also the title track) features tight harmony playing between the two, the trumpet sounding wonderfully muted and the saxophone taking off with real ferocity. The rhythm section really rocks on this tune as well, the players seeming to revel playing in a major key for a change. The record then shifts tempo into the almost psychedelic sounding Americano Meccano, featuring legend of prog-rock Robert Wyatt. There is a much darker feel to this song, the chorus line recalling the high drama of Neutral Milk Hotels seminal In The Aeroplane Over The Sea record, and the rumbling saxophone echoing the work of another great modern jazzer Colin Stetson, and creating a feel of ordered chaos which provides a great segué into the brilliant Between Fear & Sex. Adagio in Wot Minor is another highlight on an album of highlights. Throughout the album the production helps to create a sense of old and new coming together, but nowhere more so than on this track. The muted, deadened horns bring us in with a long, slow drone, creating the atmosphere of an old film noir, before a shrill yet warm guitar sound punctuates the theme with deft precision. As the song progresses the conflict increases, with the guitar violently stabbing at chords as the saxophone launches into a mind-swelling solo. Even Barr on drums, so water-tight across every song, throws a couple of extra beats in here and there. Jazz has always been a genre that has moved with the times, just before his death Miles Davis was working with hip-hop acts, and this track is a great introduction to contemporary jazz for anyone looking for a way in. The record ends as strongly as it begins with the eight minute epic Pentopia, a masterpiece in jazz structure, with typically excellent work from McMurchie and Judge. As well as the technical virtuosity on display here, there is also real taste and a lightness of touch which keeps the songs from descending into over indulgence, and youve got to imagine it must be hard to over indulge when youre playing music this good. In short, the musicians are never allowed to outshine the song as a whole. Sure, youll be floored by some of the playing on this record, but its the way they work within the songs that makes the record so enjoyable.