Night Idea - "Ocho the Cat" (2011) ; "Paths" (2013)

I have to admit, I'm a bit of a fan of Playful/Jazz/Math such as Our Daily Fix or Monster Machismo. Now while these men come no where close to the technicality of those two bands, they successfully capture that playful jazz sound that I've come to love so much. A lot of the songs are hit or miss for me on their first album, vocals really only showing up on the less mathy songs. They focus less on tapping and more on the time signatures themselves.(The two tracks that really get me here are Ocho and Open Mind.)

The next part of their discography, consisting of the "Paths" EP, is pleasantly a lot more mathy. Although it seems that somewhere in the process they ended up sacrificing most of their jazz sound for something a little bit more post-rock sounding. Which isn't a bad thing, but it isn't my cup of tea.

(I've notice them being talked about on the swords every once in awhile, specifically on the post about Brother Rutherfrord, but they were never given a proper write up. ) Overall I think its a good listen and both albums are worthy of your time.

Ocho the Cat
Paths

Zu - Carboniferous

This is an amazing amalgamation of so many genres. Hailing from Rome, Italy there is no doubt in my mind that whatever you could call this....Zu is the greatest at it. To effectively compile every style that is twisted by this trio you would have to include.

Jazz
Free-Jazz
Rock
Metal
No-Wave
Math
Punk
Noise
Experimental

phew...

It should be noted that this is the groups 14th release and shows with its laser focus. Fans of any of the above mentioned flim-flam please check it. 

Carboniferous

Natsumen

First off would like to thank Metaghost for getting me into these guys years ago. There are really only a couple things you need to realize about Natsumen. They describe themselves as a "Japanese Progressive HardCore JAZZ Aggressive Improvisation ROCK band" and really I'd be hard pressed to argue with such a tagging.  This stuff is gold with noisy abrasive guitars, intricate drumming and soaring horns. Maybe think Broken Social Scene with some balls minus vocals. Awesome Sauce

Natsumen

Sajjanu - Pechiku

Already seasoned veterans of the Japanese progressive scene in other groups, Sajjanu carries on ideas and styles frequented by their geographical brethren Ruins.  My previous post on Nuito as well shares many similarities although Nuito are certainly the more grounded rock band if you can even say that.  This is classification wise spazzed out complex jazz-math. An interesting component here is no lead instrument being focused on which makes it that much easier for the songs to breath and shift. This is a sound of a band that is having fun while simultaneously charting time changes and abrupt pauses. Most technical groups are a heavy handed sort and strive for some sort of emotional charge that never comes.  You can tell by the chords chosen that the band is fully aware of this aspect, playful but not twinkly. Songs can run into one another and you cant exactly hold onto a riff without it being torn out from under you. After its over your left impressed yet without an exact memory of parts. This however is never the point of such ventures.
   


PECHIKU!