Icy sparklies

Ok, I promise this is not turning into a music blog. Truly.

Here is a band for people who want to like jazz, but have failed. (Like me.)
It's a hodgepodge, no, I shouldn't say that, because it's icy clear Norwegian electrojazzpop instrumental stuff. Chilly! Can you believe it's on the mainstream radio there? Check out "All I Know Is Tonight" or "Oslo Skyline" from their latest release. Here's a freebie off their website. Day

Question: How many readers do you need to affirm that your blog is worth existing? What do you think?

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Jaga Jazzist
“What We Must” [2005]
www.jagajazzist.com

I enrolled in Jazz Appreciation last year in the hopes of learning to like what is called the only American music form that actually originated from America. Sadly, it didn’t work, for I left the class with an appreciation for jazz’s rich history and its technicalities, but did not embrace it as pleasurable listening. Recently, I came across this Norwegian band whose music could be described at worst as a cross between easy listening jazz and blips and bleeps. But they deserve more credit for creating a sound that is highly textured, lush, and boundless, a far cry from the cheesy elevator music we are forced to endure nowadays. Their current single, “All I Know Is Tonight,” has been playing on airwaves all over Norway, an eight-minute song packed with bouts of jamming, interwoven themes, multiple climaxes and spacey silences. (If that isn’t a testament to European radio, I don’t know what is.) Some purists may stick their noses up at what they might call watered down jazz, but here’s a counter argument. Movie soundtrack compositions are generally considered to be inferior to classic music, but we all know that this distinction does not bar them from being any less breathtakingly beautiful. In that respect, I found myself enjoying Jaga Jazzist’s musical “icescapes” without any guilt. On their website, the band lists their various influences, which include Bjork, Radiohead, Miles Davis, My Bloody Valentine, Emmylou Harris, Justin Timberlake, Eric Satie, Leonard Cohen and David Bowie, to name a few.

Recommended if you like: Sigur Ros, Coltrane, Tortoise, Instrumental Post-Rock