It occurred to me that Seven Impale should really be called Six Impale on account of the number of band members but then I wondered if the number might be referring to the number of different styles they play. The sextet from Norway have a range of different musical backgrounds, so on this 5 track EP you’ll find a strange blend of jazz, rock, classical, metal and more. Never has the word “experimental” been so useful.
Well, I’ve listened to this work several times and I’m none the wiser. In some ways the opening sequence of patternless noises did more for me than the rest of it put together. “Mind Riot”, appropriately enough, is an anarchic, distorted, brain-twisting nightmare. There’s a bit of the Shadows, a bit of Ephel Duath, sounds that are like a radio dial being turned in the night when the reception is bad, and jazz. Jazz is what defines “Beginning/Relieve”. From the patternless, a sort of pattern does develop. It’s woozy. There’s an element of night music, and as we get to the title track the experimental jazz process is decidedly moody, with images of smoke-filled rooms. There’s a bit of Mezzoforte about it. The singer’s voice reminds me of the guy from Sieges Even and Subsignal – a sweet voice, drifty and suitable for the willowy stuff which follows the more substantial “Blind to All”. Quirky is a word which could describe all of this, but perhaps none more so than the soft and melancholic “Measure 15”. I’ve listened to this track very carefully and I haven’t a clue what it’s about. It does have an unusual string section, which gives it an eerily sinister tone. This 25 minute work ends with “What Am I Sane For?”, another mysterious piece. It is insipid, embellished by the saxophone, and bordering on anarchic as it ends on a fusion of progressive jazz images.
I don’t know whether I was supposed to warm to “Beginning/Relieve” or feel something in it but I did neither. For most of it I looked or listened on in a state of incomprehension. Bits of it were very interesting and I appreciate the musicianship but the structure was overridingly bland, increasingly so as the album progressed. It was like a group of students getting together and letting their imagination flow. It’s probably ok if you like quiet, classically-orientated jazz but unfortunately I don’t. “Beginning/Relieve” wasn’t the finished article for me. I gather that Seven Impale are putting together an album but this gave me no clues as to what direction they might take with it or whether it would enter the realms of the comprehensible, as this doesn’t. I didn’t get this one at all and just found it very strange.
(5.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
5.5 / 10 Andrew Doherty
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