Ratanga Junction – While Your Heart Flickers On It
Today, a few unexpected turns in the realm where electronica and jazz meet. I’m skeptical of music that casts jazz in new lights. As someone whose childhood was soundtracked largely by 50s and 60s bop, I have a hard to enjoying any modern jazz — especially when it lacks the textural qualities of old recordings, and pretends skillful playing is enough alone to communicate emotion. But the skeptic in me also needs to recognize that part of what made the bop jazz of my father’s era so compelling was that it was a revolution against convention; one that did prioritize the creativity and experimentation of the individual.
In that spirit, first up tonight is the opening track from the new album, Ellipses, from Philadelphia-based composer and producer Joel Ronning, aka Ratanga Junction. On Ellipses — and especially so on this song — Ronning designs a delicately hectic forest of atmosphere and prickly synthesis, and casts dueling woodwinds played by collaborator Jarrett Gilgore as harmonious narrators to guide the listener gracefully through the thicket, avoiding all of its thorns. What results is something lacking melodrama, that’s full of feminine poise without ever falling victim to smooth jazz tropes or hyper-sensuality. The whole album is excellent, and really worth a listen. For good measure, I’m also sharing the album’s title and closing track — in which Ronning removes the trustworthy guides and lets the listener become briefly engulfed in the bramble. Grab Ellipses on bandcamp, or find it for streaming all over.
Ratanga Junction – “While Your Heart Flickers On It”
Ratanga Junction – “Ellipses”
Jassclub – Radio Friendly
Second today, a charming piece from Swiss duo Jassclub, in the tradition of contemporary masters like Floating Points. As the song’s name might imply, Jassclub are evidently eager to explore how unconventional harmonization and polyrhythm can frame a set of melodies that, at their core, are the ingredients of a pop song. Modern post-jazz and experimental sensibilities inform the presentation of this song, and the textural sound design provides it a really pleasant twinkling effervescence. But it’s the slowly revealed vocal refrain — fully exposed in the song’s final seconds, atop a sweeping string arrangement — that leaves the most lasting impression. This is from Jassclub’s new EP of the same name, which you can grab on bandcamp or find for streaming.
Jassclub – “Radio Friendly”
Kai Moa – ≠ What It Is
Of today’s examples of incorporating elements of jazz into modern electronic music, this last one from Birmingham-based drummer and producer Kai Moa is the one that takes the biggest swing. Spending its first couple of minutes as a dense and focused — albeit relatively familiar — industrial broken beat IDM workout, it suddenly takes a sharp left turn, veering straight into a spectacular two-minute cosmic jazz drum solo beneath lush, well-voiced piano chords, before eventually returning suddenly to propulsive industrial electronics. Not for everyone, as this is truly a bare expression of an individual’s personal preferences, but if you also find yourself in this as I have, there’s something really appealing about it, not least of all because it’s so daring. Taking these sorts of swings risks alienating some, but guarantees the ones you reach will remember. This is from Kai Moa’s new EP, Some Of My Best Friends Are…Electric Sheep, which you can find on bandcamp or for streaming now.
Kai Moa – “≠ What It Is”