Snarky Puppy

I started out in two minds about this album by the Grammy award winners. First time through – and you have to listen all through – I heard some superb playing and writing but I couldn’t get a handle on the originality of the band. The genre-switching didn’t really hold together for me so I put it to one side, vowing to revisit it.

So now I have revisited it and it began to come into more focus.
There is a logical flow in the music and their use of different genres in the music – jazz-fusion one minute, moving in to Melodic jazz the next and electronica the next – serves to take the listener on a journey along a Jazz infused path.

You can never really settle into this as ‘music as background’ as there are too many twists and illogical (but clearly signposted) turns in the music.
I found myself getting deeply invested in the music, trying to spot the changes while still following the flow of the music and it makes for a slightly discomfiting listen – but a worthwhile one.

Production by Michael League is exquisite, using the talents of the whole collective to create the feeling of movement and passage and the title, ‘Immigrance’ instantly suggests a flavour of political view not too close to the prevailing trends.
I really enjoyed the quality of the playing on here, very little that represents the mainstream and often reaching back to the seventies for inspiration but taking it into the 21st Century for impact.

All told, a bloody fine album – well worth a go.