Review of “It’s not jazz, it’s worse” by Swedish Mobilia, Auand, 2016
Despite its name, Swedish Mobilia is an italian trio that made the last 2016’s release for the italian indipendent label, producing a record characterized by a real high energy impact.
The title, quite ironically, refers to a certain idea of jazz, developed during the 80s and 90s with artists such as Frank Zappa (Jazz from Hell, Make a Jazz Noise Here) and John Zorn (Naked City), or with the idea of a music characterized by improvisation and structural features that could defer to jazz, but with an energy and strong impact taken from fiercest anarchy, from the hard core and the New York No Wave, waned rapidly just a few years earlier.
The band, consisting of Andrea Bolzoni (guitar), Dario Miranda (bass) and Daniele Frati (drums and percussion), plays to provoke the listener with abrasive sounds and skew dynamics to stun it through walls of distorted guitars and odd rhythms. At the same time the band plays a citation game both with real jazz references in the titles of the songs ( “Two Nights in Tunisia”, “Coffee to Go”, “Please” and “Time for Tea”), both playing more geometric and articulated, almost progressive musical games.
The end result is an album characterized by an extremely energetic interplay between the band members, you can feel they are having fun with each other and, for sure, they can entertain the listener dragging him in the vortex of their sounds. When finally silence falls you may feel the urge to listen it again to even higher volume and to shake yourself into some instinctive dance. Beautiful and quirky cover. Ballard’s quotation in the booklet that accompanies the CD is simply perfect.
NeuGuitars 