High Pulp – Pursuit of Ends (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 40:46 minutes | 508 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph
“We’re a bunch of outsiders who refused to be kept out,” says High Pulp drummer Bobby Granfelt. “We’ve never had an academic approach to jazz-most of us grew up playing in DIY bands-so it was the rawness and the energy and the absolute freedom of the music that called to us in the first place.” Indeed, there’s something defiant, something utterly liberating about High Pulp’s remarkable ANTI- Records debut, Pursuit of Ends. Drawing on punk rock, shoegaze, hip-hop, and electronic music, the band’s brand of experimental jazz is both vintage and futuristic all at once, hinting at times to everything from Miles Davis and Duke Ellington to Aphex Twin and My Bloody Valentine. The songs here balance meticulous composition with visceral spontaneity, and the performances are nothing short of virtuosic, fueled by raw, ecstatic horn runs ducking and weaving their way around thick bass lines and dizzying percussion. While the Seattle-based collective is centered around a crew of six core members, they also make judicious use of a broad network of collaborators on the album, wrangling special guests like sax star Jaleel Shaw (Roy Haynes, Mingus Big Band), harpist Brandee Younger (Ravi Coltrane, The Roots), GRAMMY-nominated trumpet?er Theo Coker, and keyboardist Jacob Mann (Rufus Wainwright, Louis Cole) to help stretch the boundaries of their already-expansive sonic universe. The result is a lush, cinematic collection that’s as unpredictable as it is engrossing, an urgent, exhilarating instrumental album that manages to speak to the moment without uttering a single word.
The current era loves atypical bands eradicating stylistic barriers. The era will love High Pulp. Because even if this young collective from Seattle was built on a common passion for jazz, the language they speak throughout the forty minutes of Pursuit of Ends goes far beyond. As they say themselves, Rob Homan (keyboards), Antoine Martel (keyboards, guitars), Andrew Morrill (alto saxophone), Victory Nguyen (flute, saxophone, trumpet), Scott Rixon (bass) and Bobby Granfelt (drums) recognize themselves as much in Miles Davis and Duke Ellington as in Aphex Twin and My Bloody Valentine. And it is indeed solid cables that High Pulp stretches between bop and post-rock, electro and pop, jazz-fusion and new wave. Their exclusively instrumental soundtrack which resounds on this Qobuzissime—awarded debut, leans especially on a faultless melodic framework, itself solidly propped up against a fascinating rhythmic structure. One often thinks of the autonomous music of mad scientists like the late David Axelrod—another of High Pulp’s idols—whose compositions, with vintage and futuristic flavors, have the shape of real music for fake films. It is in this loss of spatiotemporal reference points that Pursuits of Ends becomes fascinating. When its brass instruments wrap themselves around hypnotic grooves (“Kamishinjo”), when the clock does not indicate any time, and the calendar, no date. Supported by some guests like Jaleel Shaw (Roy Haynes, Mingus Big Band), Brandee Younger (Ravi Coltrane, The Roots), Jacob Mann (Rufus Wainwright, Louis Cole) and trumpet player Theo Croker, the American collective makes a rather remarkable entry on today’s jazz scene. – Marc Zisman
Tracklist:
1-01. High Pulp – Ceremony (05:40)
1-02. High Pulp – All Roads Lead To Los Angeles (04:42)
1-03. High Pulp – Blaming Mercury (03:34)
1-04. High Pulp – Window To A Shimmering World (02:39)
1-05. High Pulp – Chemical X (04:24)
1-06. High Pulp – A Ring On Each Finger (06:34)
1-07. High Pulp – Kamishinjo (03:21)
1-08. High Pulp – Inner Crooner (01:39)
1-09. High Pulp – Wax Hands (03:37)
1-10. High Pulp – You’ve Got To Pull It Up From The Ground (04:32)
