Jaga Jazzist
Day
Ninja Tune
I really, really need to get my hands on Stix. Seriously. I used to bow to the Scandinavian mastery of garage rock, and now I’m humbled yet again in deference to their progressive jazz-fusion. The title track from the Day EP is culled from Stix and makes for a great standalone track as well as a clear invitation to dance. The loose guitar/keyboard/horn leads flow beautifully back and forth, kept in check by mechanized drum flourishes. This song is by far the most organic of the EP’s four tracks. “Two Things” glitches and cut + paste components are spliced together into a more subdued dance groove. The band shuffles the sounds around to allow a particularly evocative guitar/keyboard riff escape the studio reconstruction unscathed.
The glitch goes into full effect on the remaining tracks. Herbert’s remix of “Day” is considerably more mellow than the original, coasting along on gentle clicks, binary gurgles and corroded NES sounds. Finally, what DAT Politics’ remix of “Reminders” lacks in consistent rhythm, it makes up for in sonic elasticity. Going from a solo tipsy trumpet to cacophonous white noise and back in the course of ten seconds makes the song seem like silly putty. The remixes are good stuff, but I’d have rather had two more Jaga Jazzist originals and, man, I can’t wait to pick up Stix.
Ninja Tune: http://www.ninjatune.net/
