MoonJune Records keeps the jazz fusion torch alive, with these two recent releases showing a rich new direction for the plugged in genre.
Heavy on electronics and keyboards, the band Mahogany Frog teams together Graham Epp/g-key-tp-el, Jesse Warkentin/g-key-el, Scott Ellenberger/b-key-tp-el and Andy Rudolph/dr-key-el to create a mix of spacey psychedelic jazz and rock. The gents rely on thick textures, tape loops and synthetic pulses that create a mix of repetitive grooves, relentless melodies and deep rivulets of rhythm. There are three songs between 5-8 minutes, and two around 15. Of the former, there’s some 70s styled hard rock on “Octavio” and heavy metal thunder on “Cube”. Some Middle Eastern moods create an exoticy synthy pulse on the funky “Floral Flotilla” while “Psychic Police Force” is reminiscent of a Nintendo game. The longer tunes have some hip bass lines and keyboard work on “Sundog” and palpable textures ooze through on “Theme From P.D”. Is there a movie for this to be a soundtrack for?
If you like guitars, you’re going to want to gorge on Stephan Thelen’s second journey into the mix of electric guitars, touch guitars, fretless guitars, lap steel guitars, 12 string guitars, bowed guitars and even a “filtered and sliced cloud” guitar. The guests on these strings include Henry Kaiser, Jon Durant, David Torn, Bill Walkera nd Stefan Huth, supported by Andi Brugger-Manuel Pasquinelli/dr, Andy West/b, Andi Pipato/perc and Fabio Anile/key on a rotating basis. The music itself is quite clever and tasty, with a funky groove on “Cosmic Krautrock”, a mix of acid and mystic on “Point of Inflection” and chunky chords and interstellar overdrives on “Ladder to the Stars”. The guitars meld together to form a rich Raphaelesqe tapestry of tones, particularly dreamlike on “Fractal Guitar 2” and “Celestial Navigation”. Would love to see these guys in concert to see how they interrelate in front of my eyes.