Kimchi Moccasin Tango - Yankee Zulu (2019)

Two of the musicians (saxophonist Karl-Hjalmar Nyberg and guitarist Karl Bjora) ensembled in this trio come from the Megalodon Collective, a septet that was already described as «sounding like the Mingus Dynasty band trapped on a star cruiser with controls set for the heart of the sun» or a «pit orchestra from hell performing the soundtrack to a Keystone Cops movie directed by Quentin Tarantino». Something similar, adapted for this redux variation of that band, can be said about Kimchi Moccasin Tango. Here, Nyberg and Bjora are associated with drummer Dag Erik Knedal Andersen, someone who all Clean Feed lovers already know from CDs recorded by the groups Saka and Akode. All of them are products of the scholarship provided by the highly prestigious Trondheim Conservatory. The content of “Yankee Zulu” emerges from a disparity of musical languages and sound materials, going from traditional jazz to noise, in a continuous game between order and disorder that has place for swinging rhythms, touching melodies, meticulous textures and abrasive outbursts of energy. Yes, the Norwegian scene keeps taking new rabbitts from the hat, doing magic.