TRIBAL
LOGIC – freaky karma
(CD,
r.a.i.g.)
I have this CD playing some time between eleven and
midnight and my wife comes in and says, oh that is nice jazz to listen too
late at night. And then she takes a closer listen and says, no, it is not.
Anyway, a lot of people believe that the truth and wisdom of a human live
can be read within the lines of their hands, and some even go as far as to
include the lines not only on the inner side of the hand but also on the
fingers and the back of the hand as well. Me, I prefer the juice made of
black currant to all other fruit juices, because of the rich taste.
The quartet Tribal Logic has its roots in the jazz
scene of Western Russia and for Anton Sheludko (keyboards), Alexei Savitsky
(guitar), Konstantin Poptsov (bass) and especially the man responsible for
those squared and sideways percussions Alexander Strashinsky the main idea
is to spread the boundaries of what their music might be. At the core it is
still jazz, but it may range from the Ulver-like death prog intro to the
dynamic shifts and sounds of mid-eighties avantgarde music of for instance
Minimal Compact. Within these ranges they take long and short detours with
keyboards that sound like chimes or trumpets, atmospherical shifts that take
the listener and players through music history, and then to some newly
discovered places, that they are about to chart for the listener. “Freaky
Karma” contains for long pieces that are too complex to be improvised and
too loose and subconscious to be noted.
It is mainly this unique fusion of mid-eighties jazz
visions and post-modern liberties that make up the fascination of this
rather strange record. And a good dose of ambient or even tribal or better
yet world music rhythms. If you let yourself get carried away you easily end
up at some remote part of the world, somewhere at a bend of a river or where
a mountain road ends, and then there is somebody playing a musical
instrument there. Aimlessly following the notes just played with other
notes, in a mixture of the freedom of being abandoned and the age old
traditions of the soil that have seeped into the musicians soul. And let’s
not forget the help of certain wild growing plants, mushrooms and cacti and
their radiating dose of psylocibin. Anything that helps to free the mind
will also free the soul.
Overall it has to be said that “Freaky Karma” has a
variety of moments, some sparkling with genius and some tedious with the
rehashing of ideas that have long been chewed and spit out. In some places
the music just becomes too Eighties – I am sorry, I have no other way to
put this. But the minutes radiating with complex rhythms and shifting
melodies, were new areas are being walked on, truly make up for this. Maybe
this is just my taste in jazz, and to other people the mixture is just the
other way around. Sometimes I do grab some old jazz albums from that decade
as well and listen to them and the clarity and polish of the sounds still
fascinates me, but in close connection to those other parts, they just
don’ turn off too well.
Tribal Logic take ample space of the 75 minutes that
are possible to contain inside a Compact Disc, and they take long ways in
the various parts of their tracks. A jazzy night time standard might turn
into a melodic line that is close to a military march which then turns into
a easy and laid back solo on guitar and trumpet. A few people have lined up
to help them along the way on a whole range of instruments, like violin,
cello, slide guitar or saxophones. All in all, a remarkable piece of music.
