Review Summary: Magazine forms foundations for excellence.
Even for those who know Jaga Jazzist, most do not know of anything before their breakthrough album
A Livingroom Hush. However, there are two releases that came before these; a debut album entitled
Jævla Jazzist Grete Stitz and later an EP -
Magazine. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, these two releases never saw any acclaim or popularity even in their home country. Looking back on them and comparing them to the band known today, one will find the foundations slowly forming. On Magazine, full song ideas truly develop as well as an ensemble sound, setting the stage perfectly for what would become
A Livingroom Hush.
“Plym” shows the barebones ideas for truly great songs later in the band’s career. It plods along at a slow tempo, with lyrical, slurred lines played by the horn section throughout. Much like a Miles Davis ballad in his electric era, the horn players harmonize and continue along with no real melodic idea revolving around the entire song. With about a minute and a half to go, the song enters a supposed climax with guitar feedback and heavy drums. Unfortunately, the horns pick up little intensity and the production comes across unbalanced and unrefined. Oddly enough, the band never returned to this idea until
What We Must in 2005, where songs like “All I Know Is Tonight” and “Oslo Skyline” perfected the style. More ideas transferred to earlier albums from “Swedish Take Away”, which finds the band acting more as a standard jazz unit. Mathias Eick, their award-winning trumpeter, takes an extended solo. This song as well grows to a climax, but instead it is subtle, simply with horns adding in to make a discordant, chaotic scene. “Airborne” from
A Livingroom Hush makes use of this jazz combo style, but the band also put their own sound into it.
The most influential song, however, is album opener “Jaga Ist Zu Hause”, which makes use of electronic drums and simple horn melodies. It provides a preview of how the band would incorporate live and electronic drums together in one unique blend. Overall, the song is the best composed and best performed song on the album. With shimmering guitar chords, a powerful and melodic bassline, and actually memorable horn melodies, the song is a sign of the greatness to come. In short, the
Magazine EP sets the base ideas for the rest of Jaga Jazzist’s career as a band. While the songs are enjoyable, they have done everything on this EP better later in their career. It is, for all intents and purposes, for fanboys like myself looking to complete their Jaga Jazzist collection. With the breakbeats of "Serafin I Jungelen" and the quiet, reserved calm of "Seems to Me", the album provides good material. If you have some extra time, give it a listen, but only if you have all of their other material first.
