Record Reviews

JAZZBLASTER ~ PLAYS DEPECHE MODE V 012 (Barcode: 590311137712) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz-Pop Fusion Recorded: 2017 Released: 2017 This is the debut album by a young Polish Jazz quartet JazzBlasterFind albums by this artist, which comprises of trumpeter / vocalist Tadeusz KulasFind albums by this artist, pianist Piotr RachonFind albums by this artist, bassist Eugeniusz BetlinskiFind albums by this artist and drummer Marcin RakFind albums by this artist. Vocalist Adriana StyrczFind albums by this artist guests on a couple of tracks. The album was recorded live at the Vertigo Jazz Club in Wroclaw. As the title suggests, the album presents eight songs written by Martin GoreFind albums by this artist, the leader of British electronic Pop / New Wave group Depeche ModeFind albums by this artist, arranged for the Jazz idiom by Rachon. Personally I have never been a great fan of the New Wave many groups, Depeche Mode included, founding their music rather limited and honestly boring, suffering from the post-Punk trauma. As such my approach to this album was a priori extremely cautious. I am glad to say that overall the album has many wonderful moments and surprises, which is more that I expected. The positive thing about this music is its originality and the attempt to bridge between genres, which is its essence. On the other hand there are many problems, the main of which is the clarity of its statement, i.e. at times the music sounds like electronic Pop which has nothing to do with Jazz and at others it sounds like a modern Jazz quartet which has nothing to do with Depeche Mode except for the rhythmic parts. In short the proposed amalgam has not been fully achieved. But these young musicians can play, that is for sure. All four of them display excellent technique and fire and the Jazz oriented parts swing beautifully. Kulas plays some truly wonderful trumpet parts, Rachon is a superb pianist, which I hope to hear more of in a different environment, Betlinski singlehandedly holds this music together by his superb bass parts and Rak adds the kick this music needs. Overall take away the vocals (which are not up to par with the instrumental parts) and you get an entertaining Jazz-Pop Fusion album, which is fun to listen to, but nothing that breaks significant new ground; well done and passionate, but still very ambivalent. But there is a lot of great potential for sure, which hopefully will come to fruition in the future. A little more modesty on the album´s liner notes is also advised ;)

Updated: 09/02/2018Posted: 09/02/2018

CD 1 Digipak Recommend To A Friend