Boujeloud: Candy Prince

Sometimes, there is a moment on a record that embodies the promise of a group or an artist. Such is the case with the track "Jojo" from Danish experimental jazz group Boujeloud. This is one of the most amazing jazz tracks I have heard this year and a little journey into a strange and fascinating world of sound.

It starts with a slowly dragging afrobeat-groove, with slurring horn lines and punctuated riffs. Emil Palme's spiky guitar keeps things in motion while the Albert Ayler-esque saxophones blow passionately and suddenly they hit the stratosphere with a grandiose otherworldly soundscape. Huge echo-laden tribal drum patterns mix with a massive wall of floating synthesizer-sounds and psychedelic guitars and a choir of wordless voices and in the middle of it all, the horns blow a catchy, circular riff, taking the music higher and higher.

It is hard to eclipse a track like this and the album, while having many fine moments, like the irresistibly funky "Golden Inc" and the trashy grunge-jazz on "Five Kings," never reaches quite the same level of excellence, although the music is consistently good and highly entertaining.

There is a prevalent punk-attitude attitude on the album that is not afraid of embracing bad taste and kitsch and the album title Candy Prince and wacky song titles like "Tennis Head" and "Ape Space" reflect this. The colorful approach of the music is also reflected in the flamboyant vinyl-color-disc on which the music is released. Like the music itself, it is a psychedelic explosion.

Mixing free jazz, grunge, pop, afro-beat, disco, psychedelic music and Spanish rap! Boujeloud's Candy Prince is a powerful and potent potion that is impossible to categorize. It is a wonderful postmodern grab bag of music and a track like "Jojo" suggests that the full potential of the group has not been realized yet.

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