A LIVINGROOM HUSH

Norway's Jaga Jazzist offer a dizzying variety of sounds on A Livingroom Hush, seamlessly integrating lush, organic acoustic instrumentation with cutting-edge technology. On the album you'll find classic jazz textures to energetic and fast-paced fusion-inspired stretches reminiscent of Frank Zappa or some of the Canterbury Scene bands (I particularly note a hint of National Health and the Muffins), along with very modern-sounding dance music influences - and often you'll hear all of those happening at once.

What makes the album such a brilliant success to me, though, is the way they are able to seamlessly blend all of these styles together; the stylistic shifts in the album aren't abrupt and don't exist solely for showing off, but flow smoothly and organically and come across as part of a careful process of composition. If this is the "future jazz", as the Norwegian scene which spawned it is referred to, I can't wait for the future.