Spinifex Beats The Plague digital album
Tobias Klein – alto saxophone
Bart Maris - trumpet
John Dikeman - tenor saxophone
Jasper Stadhouders – guitar
Gonçalo Almeida – bass guitar
Philipp Moser – drums
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Spinifex Beats The Plague was recorded in June 2021 by Olivier van Betsbrugge, mixed and mastered by the legendary Pierre Vervloesem, and provided with beautiful cover art and graphic design by Gonçalo Almeida. The album consists of 9 tunes, among which a cover of a Madurai N. Krishnan thillana, a composition by Bart Maris inspired by burning airships, two miniatures by Goncalo Almeida chasing out the pest demons, and an epic by Jasper Stadhouders. The four remaining pieces are compositions by Tobias Klein, one of them a homage to Selim Sesler and another dedicated to Mohammad Reza Shajarian. The tune Zoowiezoo celebrates a memorable night at the Berlin venue Sowieso, while Four20 is not really a reference to the herb but alludes to its theme’s 420 notes.
Press about Spinifex Beats The Plague:
“Spinifex is a free-spirited band of musicians who embrace free jazz in the very best way ... the result is brilliant free jazz with a certain control... This has become a brilliant record from some of the freest improvisers from the Be-Ne-Lux countries… a brilliant record, and a band you just have to listen to at a concert. Delicious!”
(Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts)
**** “Spinifex deliver a much needed counterattack… Here, as with the band's last few discs, the composing and musicianship is hitting on all cylinders…”
(Mark Corroto, Allaboutjazz )
***** ”… delicious breathtakers, non-idiomatic, nervous entanglements, minimalist rates of varying intensity, the rising dynamics of ruthless flow. Their music really beats the plague… Amazing musical energy !!!”
(Jan Hocek, jazzport.cz)
"...the immediacy of punk but with the elongated melodies of jazz... This is punk-jazz at its best! ... What ‘Spinifex Beats the Plague’ does incredibly well is focus the frustration of the past few years into musical form ... this is a wonderful album that gets better with each play... Play loud. Play often."
(Vital Weekly)
"There are many indications that the genre-crossing, multi-aesthetic Spinifex recorded the most dynamic, not to say aggressive album in its already quite long history. Well, since it's supposed to Fight the Scourge, it can't be otherwise!"
(Andrzej Nowak in Spontaneous Music Tribune )
Amsterdam-based Spinifex, named after a tough Australian species of grass, may at first sound like a combination of free jazz, punkrock and other typically Western contemporary music. However, beneath the surface the listener will discover ancient cyclical rhythms from Turkish and Indian musical cultures. Dave Foxall (Jazz Journal, UK) wrote: "ambitious yet unpretentious, tight, catchy, but also fearlessly exploratory and experimental.” Drummer and astro-physicist Philipp Moser is known for his work with Dutch progressive metal band Cilice. Guitarist Jasper Stadhouders sets the tone in the Amsterdam and Berlin underground or touring with Ken Vandermark’s Made To Break. The Portuguese, Rotterdam-based bassist Gonçalo Almeida switches effortlessly between a beautifully rounded sound and heavy electric distortion. Tenor saxophonist John Dikeman has been impressing audiences performing with his trio with William Parker and Hamid Drake, as well as with Universal Indians/Joe McPhee. Trumpet master Bart Maris has been a singular voice in European improvised music for some decades. Alto saxophonist Tobias Klein, the motor behind the band, has also made a name for himself as a bass clarinet player and composer.
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