#bloomerangs

“ i can hear them whisper as we pass by. ”

“the people here have a bad habit of talking about anything or anyone new or different. the best thing you can do is learn to brush it off.”

He had no idea who she was but given he fact she could see him meant that she wasn't some mundane. It also meant that he wasn't going to stand there and listen to her tell him he was something that he wasn't. In all honesty, he had better things to do than stand there and explain just what it was he was doing out there. Somewhere in the city was a problematic downworlder and they needed to stop it before they found more bodies. The Clave was already breathing down their necks for the bodies they'd already found. And Jace knew Alec was struggling with keeping the Clave at bay while they spent time hunting down their problem downworlder. Neither of them needed more stress. Which meant he needed to figure out what she wanted and return to the hunt. "There's more to this city than you think and I'd be more careful next time."

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Moments and Fragments is #Bloomerangs’ sophomore album, featuring 13 unique tracks that prove to be a modern take on jazz. While these songs have the classic features of jazz—syncopated rhythms, a catchy swing, and dissonant harmonies—they also introduce some experimental musical choices.

For instance, the album itself starts off with the very calming song, “Home.” It is a relaxing introduction, beginning with a soft but soulful piano, with the addition of a steady drumbeat, guitar, and some cymbal which develop the rhythm into a nice, echoey atmosphere.

But this introduction isn’t necessarily indicative of the pace of the album, for as “Home” slows to its end, the next song, “Leaps and Bounces” starts with high energy from the get-go. It is definitely a leap with its feature of fast-paced guitar and bouncy support from drum and piano. This new, quicker pace remains relatively steady throughout the rest of the album.

Like with “In Some Shape of Form” which has a lot of personality in its intermittent tempo-changes and meshing of instruments. This song was very visceral for me, producing a lot of colorful, free-floating shapes in my head as I listened. My favorite part is around the five-minute mark, where the swirling instrument sounds fade away and the guitar is featured. This portion is a nice regroup; it doesn’t falter in energy, but just feels more focused. I think this song’s ending especially highlights the experimental “neo-jazz” sound of #Bloomerangs. It feels like the end of an epic.

Another stand-out for me is “Catch a Clue.” It is truly an experimental take on jazz. It begins without instruments, and instead just the sound of rapid clapping. When the instruments do come in, we also get some very psychedelic laser sounds. Psychedelic is not something I ever would have previously connected with jazz, but in this case, it seems to make perfect sense. There are a few other songs on the album, such as “Change of Pace” and “Mind Your F” that combine these seemingly adversarial genres.

What’s interesting about “Mind Your F” is that it is a very different sound from the rest of the album. The use of a melodica gives it an almost medieval sound, yet it still features that modern, psychedelic edge with some reverberating keyboard. Overall, it plays on an interesting dichotomy between the future and the past that really seems to fit into the experimental choice to combine psychedelic sounds with jazz.

Although “Layers of Complexity” doesn’t stay in that psychedelic vein, it is another one whose sound is very distinct against the rest of the album. It is only a 26-second interlude, but with the surprising addition of banjo, it is a fun bridge between one of my favorite songs, “After The Fact,” and a song that made it to the semi-finals in the International Songwriting Competition, “S Mitchell St.”

The reason I like “After The Fact” so much is for the way it gives each instrument a feature. Throughout the album, it is clear that each band member is truly talented at their respective instruments. But this song gives each of them a real moment to shine. From the finger-flying keys to the funky drumbeat, the smooth base, and an impressive guitar-solo ending.

The album ends cleverly with “That Sums It Up” which is a summation of everything from the masterful album that stands out to me. It still has that classic jazz sound, but we get changes in pace and tone, the instrument features, and of course, some of the same psychedelic sounds from earlier in the album.

The way that #Bloomerangs experiments with the classic genre of jazz align with their goal as a music collective to integrate different cultures and sounds as a vehicle of human expression. This album is extremely expressive and I would highly recommend giving it a listen when it’s released, March 27, 2020.

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