Music From Norway: Just how important is it, really?

[interbellum]

Second album on Is It Jazz? Records (Karisma sub-label) will be Datadyr's Woolgathering
And no, it's not pure jazz, it has elements of Americana, blues, jazzrock. Quite nice actually.

[Jacob Holm-Lupo]

Should it be of interest, my new band Solstein is the 3rd signing on Is it Jazz?
https://www.loudersound.com/news/jac...utfit-solstein

[JKL2000]

Should it be of interest, my new band Solstein is the 3rd signing on Is it Jazz?
https://www.loudersound.com/news/jac...utfit-solstein

Am I imagining it or does the band name keep changing?

[Jacob Holm-Lupo]

Am I imagining it or does the band name keep changing?

Heh, you could be forgiven for thinking that, but this is a brand new project. It grew, however, out of my electronica project Donner, where Keith Carlock also was involved. Solstein is not electronica though, more a kind of groovy prog-funk-jazz-rock

[Marco]

Seven Impale are in the studio recording their 3rd LP!

[Scrotum Scissor]

Should it be of interest, my new band Solstein is the 3rd signing on Is it Jazz?
https://www.loudersound.com/news/jac...utfit-solstein

This is really cool, Jacob!

Seven Impale are in the studio recording their 3rd LP!

I've got hopes for this one. Caught them live on my last visit to Bergen this May, and they presented some new material which was simply outstanding and to my ears more memorable than the Contrapasso pieces, which sound a bit too rushed and divisive in conception to really make intended marks.

I still love their debut; one of the greatest rock records ever from my hometown! The new stuff seems less abrasive or confrontatjonal than the Contrapasso tunes, retaining all levels of finesse and adventure and definitely the sense of charge as well, but more elaborately confined to structure and drive rather than a constant attack. They're a marvellous live band; I'd really wish to see them play a festival or something along with Wobbler, Tusmørke, Jordsjø et al.

[Zappathustra]

Seven Impale are in the studio recording their 3rd LP!

was about time. Cheers!

[Marco]

I've got hopes for this one. Caught them live on my last visit to Bergen this May, and they presented some new material which was simply outstanding and to my ears more memorable than the Contrapasso pieces, which sound a bit too rushed and divisive in conception to really make intended marks.

I still love their debut; one of the greatest rock records ever from my hometown! The new stuff seems less abrasive or confrontatjonal than the Contrapasso tunes, retaining all levels of finesse and adventure and definitely the sense of charge as well, but more elaborately confined to structure and drive rather than a constant attack. They're a marvellous live band; I'd really wish to see them play a festival or something along with Wobbler, Tusmørke, Jordsjø et al.

Their debut is one of the finest debuts of the 2010s. Amazing stuff.

[aith01]

Yeah, Seven Impale are good. I've got their first album and I like it, but I definitely need to spend more time with it to get more familiar. Though I never checked out Contrapasso, after hearing some of the thoughts on it here from folks whose opinions I trust. It sounded like a step down in quality from the debut.

They're a marvellous live band; I'd really wish to see them play a festival or something along with Wobbler, Tusmørke, Jordsjø et al.

That would be a serious incentive for me to book a trip to Norway, to catch all of those groups in one place. I can dream at least.

[Zappathustra]

For what it's worth, I think Contrapasso is a fantastic record, one of the best of the previous decade. It incorporates pop and metal elements into the more traditional VDGG and KC influences in a very entertaining and inspired way, making for a unique listening experience. I would suggest at least one listen, since it's quite an out-of-the-box affair.

[IncogNeato]

Barock

[aith01]

For what it's worth, I think Contrapasso is a fantastic record, one of the best of the previous decade. It incorporates pop and metal elements into the more traditional VDGG and KC influences in a very entertaining and inspired way, making for a unique listening experience. I would suggest at least one listen, since it's quite an out-of-the-box affair.

Thanks man. I will check it out based on your recommendation.

[Scrotum Scissor]

For what it's worth, I think Contrapasso is a fantastic record, one of the best of the previous decade. It incorporates pop and metal elements into the more traditional VDGG and KC influences in a very entertaining and inspired way, making for a unique listening experience. I would suggest at least one listen, since it's quite an out-of-the-box affair.

It's not a "bad" album by any possible means, and it's certainly an interesting case of feigning redevelopment - but to me it sounds more like a different group altogether attempting to beat another one at their own game.

I've written this a number of times before; if Contrapasso had been a single album as opposed to a double, I'd might have taken it directly to heart -no matter- the content. The playing and production is formidable and there are rackets and ideas simply pulled from a magician's hat - yet it doesn't really stick as a whole. To my ears it completely lacks the melodic hooks and licks of tricks so defining of the debut, although instrumental levels and standards are ripe across the board and ostentively leave little or nothing to circumstance, spurs, whims or limbs - if not for the fact that it somehow also appears to do just that from start to finish. It's as if they've only recently hashed the songs in place before recording each individual track.

I'm glad I got it (double vinyl is always a good thing), but I won't be revisiting all too often.

[moecurlythanu]

Barock

Can't believe I've never heard of this one before. Will be on the lookout, thanks!

[Sputnik]

It's not a "bad" album by any possible means, and it's certainly an interesting case of feigning redevelopment - but to me it sounds more like a different group altogether attempting to beat another one at their own game.

I've written this a number of times before; if Contrapasso had been a single album as opposed to a double, I'd might have taken it directly to heart -no matter- the content. The playing and production is formidable and there are rackets and ideas simply pulled from a magician's hat - yet it doesn't really stick as a whole. To my ears it completely lacks the melodic hooks and licks of tricks so defining of the debut, although instrumental levels and standards are ripe across the board and ostentively leave little or nothing to circumstance, spurs, whims or limbs - if not for the fact that it somehow also appears to do just that from start to finish. It's as if they've only recently hashed the songs in place before recording each individual track.

I agree with almost all of this. Contrapasso really does largely sound like a different band, which in and of itself wouldn't be that big a problem, but I also agree that it comes up really lacking compared to their first album. I think there's one song that one song on there that would have fit well on the first album (can't recall which one, maybe the second track), but other than that I found this album really disappointing. The guy who sings on a lot of the tracks is a real turnoff for me. He didn't sing on the first album, iirc, and I'm not sure why they didn't just let the guy who sang on the first album sing all the tracks.

I do still own it, so I guess I don't totally hate it, but it's not one I reach for often. I'm hoping the new one is better.

Bill

[Zappathustra]

It's not a "bad" album by any possible means, and it's certainly an interesting case of feigning redevelopment - but to me it sounds more like a different group altogether attempting to beat another one at their own game.

I've written this a number of times before; if Contrapasso had been a single album as opposed to a double, I'd might have taken it directly to heart -no matter- the content. The playing and production is formidable and there are rackets and ideas simply pulled from a magician's hat - yet it doesn't really stick as a whole. To my ears it completely lacks the melodic hooks and licks of tricks so defining of the debut, although instrumental levels and standards are ripe across the board and ostentively leave little or nothing to circumstance, spurs, whims or limbs - if not for the fact that it somehow also appears to do just that from start to finish. It's as if they've only recently hashed the songs in place before recording each individual track.

I'm glad I got it (double vinyl is always a good thing), but I won't be revisiting all too often.

It's that time of the year again that I have to defend Contrapasso, and nothing has changed in my book. Lack of melodic hooks? The album is loaded with them, far more than the debut - I just listened to it after so much time, and there are themes that stick and stand out as truly memorable.

And when did "sounding like a different group altogether" become a problem? Should they have repeated the formula of the debut to get some approval? The band took a gamble, and showed enormous ambition on this album - and if the structure of the songs is looser there is clearly some intention in there: to follow the emerging musical ideas to wherever they took the band, even if it's a dead end. To allow chance to enter the game, and make things more interesting, more juicy, more unpredictable. This is like progressive rock to be played in a dance club, for people to enjoy or even dance or headbang to, not for 100 seated people to listen to attentively and applause at the end of it. Contrapasso is full of dark humor, extreme intensity and creative brio - and it makes progressive rock sound modern, relevant, fun.

I guess we have to disagree at some point - it happens rarely - and disagree we will. Contrapasso is a great record, and a step in the right direction for the band.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Well, I may be wrong about stuff.

I'll keep listening.

[mellotron storm]

^ Well, I may be wrong about stuff.

I'll keep listening.

You? Naww but we all have our own opinions and tastes.
I prefer Contrapasso but then I had trouble unlike most appreciating the debut. I mean there was this buzz about it when it came out and maybe it was overhyped I don't know.

[Zappathustra]

^ Well, I may be wrong about stuff.

Not really. I don't disagree with your take, but what you count as defect I count as virtue. It's just a matter of different perspective, or "taste".

[IncogNeato]

Can't believe I've never heard of this one before. Will be on the lookout, thanks!

yeah, a journalist buddy of mine posted it on FB and I've loved it since.

[Crawford Glissadevil]

You? Naww but we all have our own opinions and tastes.
I prefer Contrapasso but then I had trouble unlike most appreciating the debut. I mean there was this buzz about it when it came out and maybe it was overhyped I don't know.

For sure, we all have opinions. I like both albums. I like the way they incorporate jazz elements.

[Sputnik]

I gave both Seven Impale albums a fresh spin tonight. I still vastly prefer the debut, but Contrapasso has many outstanding moments as well. For me, the second album is marred by some of the vocals, which are a real turn-off for me, and also as sense that they tried to be really heavy and dense and lost some of the subtlety and precision of the first album in the process. the last song is a bit of a snooze as well. I don't hate it, but the debut just seems like a really tight, clear statement. We'll see where they go from here.

Bill

[Scrotum Scissor]

I like the way they incorporate jazz elements.

A really cool asset with the band, as I see it, is the fact that they consistently present themselves as "progressive jazz-rock" - on Facebook, Karisma's page and most other assortions of promotion. A side to this could otherwise have been suspected as an effort to distance the band from any cultural misconceptions about where they -are- as opposed to where they might -want- to belong, but that's apparently not the message at all.

At least two of the members are educated/trained musicians, and here in Norway this means basically either a) academy/conservatory (classical artistics, taught in various institutions across the country) or b) the jazz programme at NTNU in Trondheim. In the past 30 years or so, the latter produced a large number of performers in the wave/phenomenon we're trying to outline in this very thread, many of whom ended up in acts on the Rune Grammofon label or similar. And while Seven Impale differ essentially from, say, Shining/Krokofant/Grand General/I Like To Sleep in that they are far more resolute in stylistic confirmation and affility, there's that equal sense of "formality" in how the band delivers.

In this respect they somehow remind me more of a group like Sweden's Hooffoot in that their "retro" principles are not only a token of fandom or choice, but of foundations in a tradition others sought to forget.

[Trane]

Bought their debut when I saw them live in Soignies (they were good too). I guess it was in 2015, because their second album wadn't out yet.
I (very) rarely get autographs, but the back track leaf allowed plenty of space for that.
Played the album quite a few times for the first couple of years, but I guess another spin is timely

However, I got rid of Contropasso after a few of listen (actually, it could still be in my outgoing pile).

If a third album is coming out, I'd hope it goes in the direction of City Of The Sun.

[Marco]

... while Seven Impale differ essentially from, say, Shining/Krokofant/Grand General/I Like To Sleep in that they are far more resolute in stylistic confirmation and affility, there's that equal sense of "formality" in how the band delivers.

7I feel much more like a traditional prog rock band (as in, friends with a youthful purpose in discovering what they can do together) than jazz guys making amazing music for fun or self-indulgence (like those bands you've mentioned). Not that bands like I Like to Sleep aren't both of the cases, but it feels like the jazz upbringing is the dominant aspect with those guys.