- XXXX Bitter Irony is the latest three track offering from Brisbane’s own contemporary jazz trio, Milton Man Gogh, a band with a sense of humour and irreverence just dripping from everything they do, it's obvious from their name and track titles alone. Milton Man Gogh is so much more than a great play on words however and what stands out particularly is the group's cumulative efforts in both composition and outrageously entertaining individual performances.
Their previous full-length, 2017's Stress To Impress, delivered some inventive compositions, incredible performances and forays into sound experimentation. Forgive a trip down memory lane but it's worth recalling a couple of highlights. The track Unexpected Virtues involved bassist Zac Sakrewski creating atmospheres and walls of sound on the upright bass using guitar pedals and pickups. On Sue (Or in a Season of Crime) where the band was able to display how strong each member’s internal clock is while drummer Benjamin Shannon cascaded around the drum kit in the album’s final moments. Stress to Impress skirted the line between the accessible and the frantically, musically complex, demonstrating the trio’s ability to compose well considered, approachable tunes.
What changes on XXXX Bitter Irony is the regard (or lack thereof) for that accessibility. Give it a chance, because after more than a few listens the patterns and grooves crystallise and you find yourself head bobbing to some heavily swung drum and sax grooves. For the most part, accessibility is traded out in favour of the exploration of ambiguous key centres: passages often meander outside of the usual scales and venture much more into the territory of contemporary jazz.
This is easily heard on the title-track and EP opener XXXX Bitter Irony. It begins with a smooth but ramping tempo increase, only to launch into an intense riff-like melody reminiscent of King Crimson or Tigran Hamasyan. Each instrument is its own foundational rhythmic piece, avoiding rhythm section reliance, and this becomes a theme among the three tracks of the EP. Much of this is down to how saxophonist Andrew Saragossi and bassist Sakrewski interact with Shannon's manic drum sequences. Despite this, the band maintains a sense of cohesiveness that is both enthralling and impressive. As a unit they seem to converse with their instruments rather than compete.
The remaining two tracks on the EP are awesome examples of each members’ ability to perform an individually impressive performance while staying in sync with the others. Take the main, sprinting saxophone melody in Doo Rocks for example. A clear pulse still remains despite the fill-laden drum section and deviant bass line underpinning the melody. It winds and turns until the band, as if conducted, simmer down suddenly to give the listener a moment to breathe...before re-launching. That dynamic range of energy and volume is only amplified in the EP closer Cradle Failure, where the final half of the track is a chance for Shannon to display his facility and breadth of timbral options over the drum kit in an explosive drum solo, only to suddenly break back into the main bass groove of the track.
This EP is a short but commanding show of the band’s immense talent, and thanks to the crisp production and dynamic compositions, that showing is vibrant and entertaining throughout. The complexity can be intimidating to those unfamiliar with jazz. Give it time though, these tracks need to grow on a listener and return passes make the pieces’ virtues obvious. It is the price they demand for admission and one that is worth it.
- Peter Strasser.