"Machine & the Synergetic Nuts". What kind of music does that band moniker conjure up in your mind? New wave? Neo-prog? Goth metal? Vintage psychedelic rock?
How about avant jazz-rock? At least that's the closest I can come to describing this compelling instrumental music.
This isn't the first time this space was used to pimp an album that was off the beaten path jazz, from Japan, and released in 2005. Nope, Otomo Yoshihide took that prize. But Otomo is well off that path. In contrast, withering sonic assaults are not central to Machine & the Synergetic Nuts' game plan. That's not to say that there isn't anything fascinating going on, however, on Machine & The Synergetic Nuts' first and only stateside release, Leap Second Neutral.
If you need touchstones, instrumental progressive rock outfits like The Soft Machine, Don Cabellero and that movie soundtrack supergroup Tuatara come to mind. Other times one can hear echoes of aggressive jazz combos like The Bad Plus. And those horn charts give off impressions of those Scandinavian new fusion stylists, Jaga Jazzist.
Which is to say, the Nuts remind me of many others but sound like nobody else.
As to their history or background...there's nothing to pass along, actually. They've seem to have come out of nowhere. They haven't, of course, but while the picture suggests youth, the music hints of much woodshedding.
This is a band that takes a lot of chances, but they're always carefully considered ones. They change the modulations and time signatures frequently, but rarely in a disruptive way. When guitarist Matsue Jun turns up his amp and everyone gets worked up into a frenzy, they're apt to quickly back off before it gets annoying and move on to the next section. The saxes provided by a dude only identified as "Mahi Mahi" takes just enough edge off the sound when they're feeling frisky, anyway. And there's no overly long solos here; everyone has their turn (and sometimes simultaneously), but it's usually in bite size pieces. After all, another unexpected turn in the melody might be just around the corner.
Article comments
1 - Dev
Great, super engergetic album.