After doing some reading, it seems like Skalpel is pretty known in the Polish Jazz scene (which I unfortunately know nothing about but apparently is a thing?). A lot of their music takes hip-hop beats as well as samples from Polish jazz records of the '50s, '60s and '70s, the result being a distinctive yet rich sound that could be placed under "electronica jazz".
Their self-titled is quite diverse in its sound and gives off a nice live sounding quality that a lot of contemporary jazz records fail in, in my opinion. If you're familiar with styles of jazz, this record has a very retro sound- elements from '50s beatnik and '70s fusion are very apparent. The hip-hop style beats give it a more fresh and contemporary flair. One of my favorite aspects of the record is how crisp (goes back to the live-sounding quality of the record) yet complex the drum playing is, especially in songs like Not Too Bad and So Far.
If y'all enjoy it, I highly recommend checking out Jaga Jazzist and Cinematic Orchestra. Happy listening.
on the clock
Maz
current selection
Curtis Mayfield - Super Fly (1972)
past selections
- Elbow - Asleep in the Back (2001)
- Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (2005)
- Asobi Seksu - Citrus (2006)
- Brittle Brian - Verisune (2015)
- The Notwist - Neon Golden (2002)
- Solange - A Seat at the Table (2016)
- Younghusband - Dissolver (2015)
- Downtown Boys - Full Communism (2015)
- Cornelius - Point (2001)
- Katie Dey- Flood Network (2016)
- Mother Falcon - You Knew (2013)
- Poliça - Shulamith (2013)
- Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda (1971)
- Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman (1996)
- Self - Breakfast With Girls (1999)
- This Town Needs Guns - Animals (2008)
who's on deck
- Erik
- Nora
- Parker
- Tyler
- Sam
- Maz
what we do, and how we do it
1. Rotate through members of the club - current member picks an album and completes a write up on the album.
2. Other members listen as many times as they can throughout the course of 7 days. When ready, other members write comments on the original post detailing how they feel about the album.
3. Repeat.
I enjoyed listening to this album! The musicians are talented, the samples are often really well done, the drumming is really good, and they have just found a way in general to create a really neat blend of sounds. This album makes for good evening listening, especially when I'm looking for something to listen to while taking it easy/not thinking too hard about what I'm listening to. The problem I have with it is actually what you said you liked a lot, Maz - the "live" quality to the recording. Just a personal preference, but to me it sounded shallow and I felt like the album would be better off with some more layers and definitely a better lower end.
ReplyDeleteThe whole time, I wished that Beth Gibbons (Portishead) would just come in halfway through the songs and start singing. That's my own personal problem of course (I often struggle with instrumental music), but I think Skalpel would be a great backing band for lots of trip-hop singers and other artists. Just imagine a Skalpel/Portishead collaboration! It would be awesome, right?
Cool album. I'll listen again in the future.
Yeah, the live feel may not be for everyone. I like that kind of production with jazz. I could definitely see these instrumentals being used as a backing for trip-hop as well
DeleteI think I have liked this album more every time I listened to it, which was probably like 5. The second song, Not Too Bad, is definitely my favorite song on the album and probably my favorite thing I've listened to yet on my new headphones. It made them sound like they were worth a million bucks.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that much technically speaking about jazz but I usually like it a lot when I listen to it, it's just hard to know where to start. Skalpel was pretty different from anything else I've listened to and I LOVED the drumming. A lot. I can't really think of anything bad to say about it so I won't.
Overall really cool stuff that I'll certainly be listening to again. Also I agree with Earl about how great this would be with collaborations.
I enjoyed listening to this album very much!This album is a keeper. It's mellow but it's ideal for evening relaxation or to keep things chilled out at home.
ReplyDeleteThis album has reminded that dark dingy bier cellar in Poland which I visited when I was travelling around in Europe and oh, they used to play this type of music over there as well. That why I am getting series of flashback by listening to this album!
Overall, this album is great and I would listen to this album again.
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