MOTORPSYCHO & JAGA JAZZIST HORNS: IN THE FISHTANK

MUSIC FROM THE TANK FULL OF PREDATORY FISH...

This is not ordinary Motorpsycho album, but their side project with three excellent musicians from related acid jazz band jaga Jazzist and one special guest. The result of this connection is very pleasant surprise for me.

I think the name "Jaga Jazzist Horns" would to be at the first place because their influence is more significant here. Jazz music outweights rock, especially in instrumental songs.

All musicians here are technically perfect of course and emphasizing any member of this project would be useless. Connection between both sides, Motorpsycho and Jaga Jazzist is very strong. Fruit of their endeavour takes greatly compact effect.

You can find here a little bit Motorpsycho´s "common" Heavy Prog and ton of a Jazz in his many forms, from swing ("Bombay Brassiére") , over funky ("Theme de Yoyo") to free jazz (excellent final 20´53´´ long track "Tristano").

I like this album because I like jazz, I like heavy rock sound like Motorpsycho and I like fusion sometimes. This record sounds very fresh (but mature!) and I can recommend it to all Jazz/Fusion and Heavy Prog fans!!!

Oh Internet where would I be without you. Where would I do research for the shamelessly downloaded music. Now I know that the In the Fishtank is a series of projects that have one band or pair record for only two days and what the end result might be - so professional and clean this sounds. Anyway, this is a collaboration between the heavy rockers of Motorpsycho and experimental jazz outfit Jaga Jazzist. Motorpsychoes are not strangers to pop or jazz, for that matter, but this leans heavily into fusion. The album actually starts with three relaxed compositions, almost (good) elevator music (number two is a jazzed-up version of Motorpsycho's old ballad Pill, Powders + Passion Plays). On the last two track is where this starts to be adventurous. Theme de Yoyo is an aggressive piece, with mean guitar and sax runs. Tristano is a 20-minute acid jazz improv with Latin flavors, gradually building in intensity and culminating in a complete frenzy in the end.

The "In the Fishtank" collection is comprised of a series of EPs that were produced by independent music distributor Konkurrent from the Netherlands. These EPs were each done by different bands that were invited to participate. The bands would record original music for these EPs and were given 2 days worth of studio time to come up with the material for each EP. Most of the EPs were either recorded by one or two individual bands. Some of the bands that were invited to participate in the project were "Tortoise", "Sonic Youth", "June of 44", "Motorpsycho", "Jaga Jazzist" and "Isis" among many others.

In the Fishtank 10 consists of a collaboration with Motorpsycho and the Jaga Jazzist Horns section. Both bands actually did a series of gigs together in 2002 and decided to take advantage of their collaboration by recording this In the Fishtank episode. This collaboration sees both band stepping out from their comfort zones to produce a record that consists of a jazz fusion style with little snippets of their usual sound, some free jazz and some experimental jams. The album actually clocks in at over 46 minutes, but is still considered an EP since it only has 5 tracks (one being a remake, one being a cover and one being a long, drawn out jam).

Motorpsycho consists of their usual trio line-up of the time, but also includes a guest Baard Slagsvold helping out with piano, vocals and some other instruments. The Jaga Jazzist Horns consists of 3 members of the Jaga Jazzist experimental project namely Mathias Eick, Lars Horntveth and Jogen Munkeby, each one playing quite an array of instruments mostly in the brass family, but also flute, clarinet, marimbas, vibraphones and percussion.

Bombay Brassiere - Begins with an ambient, floating groove with sparse percussion and a smooth bass line. The horns finally come in playing in a sexy and improvised manner, but staying quite level. After the halfway mark, the tempo picks up a little becoming more direct and the horns harmonize in a strange, discordant way. The guitars create a drone deep in the background while percussion drives the horns forward.

Pills, Powders and Passion Plays - Another smooth groove begins and the horns establish themselves early, but this time vocals soon come in. The feel stays quite laid back even with the directness of the lyrics. In the long instrumental break, the guitar takes over a melody with a cool bass line and the horns keeping it soft letting the guitar have the limelight this time. It's a very cool, jazz groove that reminds you of a city night. The sound can put you into a nice spell especially when the mellow trumpet takes charge. The vocals come back quite a while later and retain the dreamy atmosphere. This track is actually a reworking of the song of the same title from Motorpsycho's "Angels and Daemons at Play"

Doffen Ah Um - This track is a bit more free-form and experimental. Wandering brass and meandering guitar play for a while, but then is suddenly interrupted by a much heavier brass notes, chunky guitar chords and uneven drums. The jazz style becomes a bit more traditional sounding in the 2nd half of the track, but it all doesn't pare together well making it sound a bit clumsy.

Theme de Yoyo - This one is actually a cover of a song originally done by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. This starts with a cool, bass groove which is soon mimicked by a low sax and joined by the trumpet before blasting off with some nice hits from the guitar and occasional dissonant outbursts. Some interesting vocals come in that give it a humorous tone. Vocals and instrumental sections trade off before it slips into a nice sax solo while the cool groove continues. As it goes along, the sax gets wilder and wilder. After a while, the lead gets passed over to a loud guitar solo. It's a nice combination of stoner fusion, if you can just imagine that. The over-the-top vocals come back at the last section. It's quite a cool combination of both straightforward and bizarre.

Tristano - Ambient at first, this one builds slowly off of a trance-like bass line, meandering along with twinkling guitar, keys, clunky percussion and sometimes noisy feedback. You start to hear some of the flutes and brass play around in the background from time to time. It's mostly quiet with occasional high drones building in volume and then suddenly dropping off. This meandering goes on for over 10 minutes before it sounds like it might be going somewhere, but it all levels off to more wandering, staying a bit subdued except for the occasional builds and drop offs. After all is said and done, you get 20 minutes of this improvisation that does at least build up consistently in the last 5-6 minutes, but you have to wait a long time for the payoff, which it does come eventually.

So this is mostly a fairly decent record with 3 excellent tracks, one shorter mediocre track ("Doffen Ah Um") and a long 20 minute track that overstays it's welcome, which if it was cut down to 10 minutes, it would have been just as effective as the final payoff is quite excellent. But the long track actually takes away from the overall enjoyment of the album, unfortunately, cutting this down to a 3 star album. That's really too bad because it would otherwise be a strong 4 star album.

In the early 2000s, an indie music distributor from the Netherlands, Konkurrent, decided to start a project called 'In The Fishtank' where they invite one or two bands to record for only two days. Music from this series ranged from punk rock with Nomeanson and Snuff, to more experimental post rock like Tortoise and Isis (the band). For the double digiter of In The Fishtank 10, Konkurrent invited the darlings over at Motorpsycho, and the Norwegian experimental jazz group Jaga Jazzist to come and record the 10th entry in the 'In The Fishtank' series, and the 11th album of Motorpsycho's discography, plus the 4th album in the Jaga Jazzist discography was born.

In The Fishtank 10 is a very collaborative piece from both bands. Both bands work together in each song to create a good and rounded portion of progressive rock music and jazz fusion. This album reminds me of a more modern post-Lizard King Crimson, with tracks like Doffen Ah Um and Theme de Yoyo have similar vibes to, say, Ladies Of The Road or The Great Deceiver. As a big, big, BIG fan of King Crimson, this sound was really easy to get used to and enjoy quite heavily. All the songs on the first side are not only both really jazzy and enjoyable, but showcases more of what Motorpsycho can do in a collaborative aspect.

In fact, I feel this is the start of the band's more jazz focused musical workings, as a few albums later they'd release the very crisp Little Lucid Moments, and later on, their big home star runner of The Death Defying Unicorn. I say, give In The Fishtank 10 the credit it deserves for showcasing the band in an even heavier progressive aspect, that'd come to be my favorite aspect of the band's modern day sound.

I will say that this album isn't all peaches and gravy, and in fact the album has one big problem, and that is the final track of Tristano. This big 20 minute song isn't really that good in my personal opinion. To me, while the 4 songs prior all were really good jazzy Prog rock soundscapes that combined both groups' sounds perfectly, this song is a very experimental, but rather boring effort from both groups. It doesn't really fit in with the record in my opinion, and it is a rather disappointing new epic for both Motorpsycho and Jaga Jazzist. It is a lot of fiddling around with no rhyme or semblance of anything really special. It is not a charming improv track, or one that really brightens this album up, it honestly feels like less of a tie that tightly wraps the album together, but rather drags it down a peg. If this track was gone off the album and we only had those 4 really excellent tracks, this album would probably be one of the best releases both groups have made in their career.

In The Fishtank 10 marks a new era for Motorpsycho and Jaga Jazzist as both bands would shift sounds quite a bit and would go on to continue their careers in new lights. While it is imperfect, I do find it as an interesting look on how each band became their modern counterparts after this record. I highly recommend it for an educational piece of work that shows how one record can change a band's image. An interesting, and rather unique piece of Motorpsycho history.