Labels: Release the Bats
Review by: Kjetil Holstad
After finally sorting out the speed of this record, inscribed on the record itself along with some other gibberish text that I can’t sort out, the sound of Loosers fills up my living room. I have never heard or even heard of this band before I saw that RTB was doing this split, so I had close to no expectations on what this would sound like. Basically this is a steady bass groove with a gentle jazzy guitar floating on top and after a while there are hints of percussion broadening the soundscape a little, but not enough. If the bass groove had even a hint of being interesting this could have been good, but it’s sadly just dull and un-inspiring. It might be the lack of ‘jazztobakk’, but honestly I’m not sure if that would even help. The description from the RTB page says “feels like a slow and hot Sunday afternoon”, I’d say that descriptions lacks at least one ‘too’.
Flipping the record hoping to find gold. The little piece of paper says Drums, Upright bass, Saxophone and Electronics which could be a sign that I have something more exiting coming. It’s free jazz and i guess it’s improvised. Does not start too good and has a Sax / Bass part that is irritating to say the least but then the drum kicks in and the madness starts. Boyaaa! A lot of things happening and it works. My mind is no longer drifting of into the ‘what’s for dinner land’. Interesting how something sounding this improvised can work this well. Not something I would have wanted an LP of, but they could easily have replaced the Loosers side with another piece like this.