splint!

Moro

Lampse have slowly been carving out a name for themselves over the last couple of years - notably breaking artists such as Machinefabriek and Jasper TX, but still keeping a close connection with the world of avant-jazz as typified in the release of Office R(6)'s debut EP. This latest album shows the label's two worlds colliding and is possibly their finest moment yet; Splint! is a jazz act without a doubt but this is jazz in the same way as Arve Henriksen or Supersilent, they have horns, double bass and drums but they also manage to inject their sound with samplers, laptops and synthesizer. It should come as hardly surprising then that the Scandinavian four-piece have more than comparative connections to the Rune Grammofon scene, with members having played in an early incarnation of Supersilent themselves. The last thing Splint! are however is mere copyists, what they manage with 'Moro' (the band's debut studio album) is a fusion of old and new, blending the sound of Miles Davis and Alice Coltrane with abstract electronics more readily found in the archives of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Take 'Sinjom' for instance, the album's blistering second track which pits furiously plucked double-bass and heavy percussion against stuttering eletronics and breathy, muted trumpet. This is quickly followed by the rattling synthesizer-and-drums mentalism of 'Bommosytsy', a track which simply defies comparison, coming off like the bastard son of Delia Derbyshire and Ornette Coleman. Elsewhere we have the submerged low-slung beauty of 'Tannin', a piece which manages to perfectly evoke the Scandinavian landscapes in which it was created; desolately beautiful plains surrounded by lakes and fog as captured by Ingmar Bergman. The double-bass is joined by delicate electric guitar and bubbling waves of analogue synthesizer resulting in something as atmospheric as Deathprod while sounding absolutely removed from his signature sound. This is still jazz, somehow, but with a punk attitude and an expert ear for experimentation which should push Splint! into the kind of places rarely reached by a band of this kind. Far from being the academic exercise these albums so often become, 'Moro' manages to be utterly entrancing for its entire duration poking fun at the scene rather than fitting in gracefully. This is ECM re-wired for a new generation of listener, music that practically demands you to take notice and play very loud indeed and in that becomes something totally new and quite unique. A hugely rewarding record that shows Lampse is going to be the label to watch in 2007, fans of the whole Rune Grammofon scene need to check this without delay... Essential Purchase!