Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Snaggle: The Long Slog
Snaggle: The Long Slog
ByThe Long Slog, their third recording and second full length album, is quite enjoyable from that standpoint. And that's all well and good, but these guys clearly have more than enough talent and chops to do music that doesn't sound like Snarky Puppy... music that sounds like Snaggle. The saving grace is that these guys are already beginning to get to their own style.
The first track, "Snaggle #7" doesn't help. Even though there's some nifty Mike Stern-like guitar from Mike Murray, and Tom Grosset (reputedly the "fastest drummer in the world") does a lot of über-hip Chris Dave- inspired stuff behind the kit, it sounds a great deal like Snarky Puppy's "heavy" schtick. Nick Maclean's mini-moog screams out triumphantly over the horns, just like you'd hear in one of Michael League's arrangements. After a somewhat fitful but appealingly dark tenor-piano duet, "Sad Ritual" also gets into the crunchier terrains of the Snarky Puppy Zone. Again, Murray's crazed guitar playing carries the day, generating the most interest with some inspirednot just impressivepyrotechnics. Producer Brownman Ali chips in some great throwback wah-wah enhanced electric trumpet on MacLean's frenetic jazz- rocker "Theorum," but it's not enough to stop the piece from sounding like a roomful of Snarky Puppies. The jaunty, happy-go-lucky jam "Nonuhno" also has a strong Snarky Puppy flavor, though it also has roots in the horn-driven jazz-funk of the 1970s purveyed by the likes of the Brecker Brothers, New York Mary, and the John Payne Band.
Snaggle's music is most engaging, however, when it sounds least like its influences. MacLean's "Track 5" is a dark-hued hard-fusion effort with some truly tasty plugged-in tenor soloing by Graeme Wallace , plus the author's own limpid Rhodes, and another gratuitously crunchy guitar solo. "Tree Assassin" starts off as a slow groover which shifts gears slightly to get into some vaguely Middle Eastern-sounding (and somewhat less Snarky) harmonic territory. "Saw" starts out with some weird talk-box effects, and develops into a heavy jazz- funk jam that sounds more like something that Ian Carr's Nucleus might've messed with back in the day. MacLean's Rhodes solo is particularly effective, as he slowly reveals himself to be the talk-box culprit from the tune's opening moments.
The Long Slog is a peculiar album; one that's clearly the product of a highly talented and extremely proficient band, but also one that's disturbingly derivative of a better-known established band. Similar copycat bands were common during the mid-to-late 1970s, particularly in Eastern Europe where the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report were hugely influential. A lot of great musicians emerged from that scene; guys who eventually found their own style.
Track Listing
Snaggle #7; Sad Ritual; Nonuhno; Track 5; The Key of Listening; Tree Assassin; Theorum; Saw; Lagaan; The Long Slog.
Personnel
Snaggle
band / ensemble / orchestraNick Maclean: Rhodes, organ, synthesizer; Doug Moore: bass; Tom Grosset: drums; Mike Murray: guitar; Max Forster: trumpet; Graeme Wallace: tenor sax; Brownman Ali: electric trumpet (7, 9).
Album information
Title: The Long Slog | Year Released: 2017 | Record Label: Self Produced
Comments
About Snaggle
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar To