Mauricio Morales - Seven Days (2024)

Here is the new album by bassist and composer Mauricio Morales. In terms of groove and rhythms, we are well served. However, on the composition side, we get an impression of ‘déjà-vu’ throughout the album, which makes it easy to lose interest, especially since the mixing of this album is far from the best, drowned in bass. For the record, Mauricio Morales was stuck in his native Mexico due to a mysterious visa renewal issue. He channeled his feeling of isolation into the cathartic process of creating the various atmospheres and the cohesive suite of tracks, leading to a live performance in Los Angeles, followed by encouragement from his bandmates to create a recorded version, which resulted in ‘Seven Days.’ This album primarily suffers from overly dense composition; piling up notes for each instrument in quick succession only creates a sense of suffocation. The musicians featured on this album accompanying the bassist are saxophonist Edmar Colón, guitarist Horace Bray, trombonist Ido Meshulam, pianist Luca Mendoza, and the dynamic drummer Jongkuk ‘JK’ Kim (perhaps a bit too dynamic…).

The listener’s ear is constantly drowned in an abundance of sound whose purpose is unclear, hindering the narrative. It’s really difficult in this context to get hooked on the album, moving from track to track, finding some passages interesting but nothing more. Nowadays, there are so many artists producing albums of very high quality and perfectly mixed. I tried to find a more positive perspective, but I couldn’t, getting bored listening to this album, a listening experience I stopped at the fourth track, which is rare for me. Therefore, I would only give this album one star, as it’s easily skippable and, in my opinion, suffers from being overly pretentious and lacking in thought. Thierry De Clemensat