WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013Live Review: BOHJASS UPAS MILITIA, PATAPHYSICS, SPENCER P JONES AND THE ESCAPE COMMITTEE
Reviewer: Andy Hazel (The Music)
Despite there being only fifty-odd people in the audience by the time Bohjass Upas Militia (BUM) take to the stage, excitement courses through the venue. This seventeen-piece explorchestra of jazz-funk-psych minimalism match the low-fi cosmic projections beautifully. Opening with some brassy, noir-ish toning and spectral percussion, the band show an astonishing level of restraint and silence, leaving the tension of what ‘could’ suddenly explode from the crowded stage lingering through their quieter movements. The band leap from killer blaxploitation funk and delicate minimalism to Sun Ra freakouts in the tight constraints of a song-length piece, with a mere raising of bandleader Timothy Pledger hand. At times BUM’s rhythm section sound like a programmed backing as it’s so unusual to see and hear such intricate combination of sounds. Swimming Pool is a blast of exuberant space funk and highlights the fluidity of the guitars and insistence of the brass; the music never feels as crowded as the stage looks. Launching their album Beneath the Lightless Sky tonight, this is a fascinating, unique band and a blast of a show.
Reviewer: Andy Hazel (The Music)
Despite there being only fifty-odd people in the audience by the time Bohjass Upas Militia (BUM) take to the stage, excitement courses through the venue. This seventeen-piece explorchestra of jazz-funk-psych minimalism match the low-fi cosmic projections beautifully. Opening with some brassy, noir-ish toning and spectral percussion, the band show an astonishing level of restraint and silence, leaving the tension of what ‘could’ suddenly explode from the crowded stage lingering through their quieter movements. The band leap from killer blaxploitation funk and delicate minimalism to Sun Ra freakouts in the tight constraints of a song-length piece, with a mere raising of bandleader Timothy Pledger hand. At times BUM’s rhythm section sound like a programmed backing as it’s so unusual to see and hear such intricate combination of sounds. Swimming Pool is a blast of exuberant space funk and highlights the fluidity of the guitars and insistence of the brass; the music never feels as crowded as the stage looks. Launching their album Beneath the Lightless Sky tonight, this is a fascinating, unique band and a blast of a show.
https://worldwidefm.net/archive/?search=bohjass (bohjass live with ennio styles on 3rrr 1.03.17)
Bohjass – Invisible Desert
New music from the Tim Pledger lead band Bohjass. “Invisible Desert” roams a barren hinterland of free jazz minimalism that swims in the midst of a rock and roll heart whilst indulging in the heady scent of a wet and pulsing earth. Really great thrilling jazz album full of depth and emotion.
https://twistedsoulmusic.org/2016/12/02/between-the-cracks-5-albums-you-need-to-hear-14/
Bohjass – Invisible Desert
New music from the Tim Pledger lead band Bohjass. “Invisible Desert” roams a barren hinterland of free jazz minimalism that swims in the midst of a rock and roll heart whilst indulging in the heady scent of a wet and pulsing earth. Really great thrilling jazz album full of depth and emotion.
https://twistedsoulmusic.org/2016/12/02/between-the-cracks-5-albums-you-need-to-hear-14/
I liked what I heard, I liked it a lot, bought a CD after the gig and ended up chatting with the horn and flute players. That’s how I met Bohjass... Andrew Lindsay reviews the new release by Bohjass - Christ 3 Buddha Nothing- http://australianjazz.net/2011/02/review-christ-3-buddha-nothing/
NEWS, REVIEWS
Review: Christ 3 Buddha Nothing - POSTED ON 1 FEBRUARY 2011
- AuthorAndrew Lindsay
- Christ 3 Buddha Nothing – Bohjass
Independent release
CD Review by Andrew Lindsay
Christ 3 Buddha Nothing:Some nights you just luck out. I was walking home, chilled out after Tai Chi, and feeling the time had come for a glass of Stout. Walking past Melbourne's legendary venue 303 I heard some sounds that pulled me up short, and I wandered in. I liked what I heard, I liked it a lot, bought a CD after the gig and ended up chatting with the horn and flute players. That's how I met Bohjass. They are a Northcote institution, and their music is a treat, if you like lyrical, gnarly, hypnotic jazz played with grunt and virtuosity. Their new release is a double CD, Christ 3 Buddha Nothing, and the humour of the title is typical of the bandleader and composer, Tim Pledger.
My own sense of ‘classic Bohjass’ is when they launch into a powerfully stated riff or tune, and lock onto it, and shake the bastard free and loose…
Twenty three new tunes, and almost two hours of new music. It starts with a bass clarinet wail and moan, over a solid pulse, that fades, before the band starts singing, not with their voices, but on reeds and hides and strings and keys, and they settle into the deep groove, and this is Bohjass.
There's a lovely generosity in the playing, a true ensemble feel. Most of the band members have been playing together for over a decade.
There‘s no need for showing off, the've all had their chops for years – there's a surprising modesty in the playing, that mingles with a kooky, inventive verve. There is restraint, and excess. They are not afraid to voice a simplicity that can at times become a kind of menace. One of the delights of this recording is the way that all the players find their places, and this constellation shines. Moments of frenzy lead into pools of reverie and deep reflection.
There's so much to like about this band, though for me one feature has always been the way that the saxophone or clarinet lines meld so beautifully with the flute, and the way Tom Fryer has a great knack of tricking the ear, as he finds ways of making you believe that his electric guitar is part of the wind section, and does this while also keeping his guitar anchored in the rhythm section. Ali Watts is on bass, Mike Portley on drums, Chris Lewis on percussion. Belinda Woods is on flute, and Tim Pledger plays sax, bass clarinet and guitar.
Louise Goh on keyboards is a recent addition to the lineup, though she’s already clocked up a few years with the ensemble. In her playing there’s a subtle lightness and grace, married to a sometimes whimsical invention.
My own sense of ‘classic Bohjass’ is when they launch into a powerfully stated riff or tune, and lock onto it, and shake the bastard free and loose, while playing with a glorious tightness and discipline. There’s an anthemic feel sometimes, but these are not the anthems of stadium rock, these are anthems of delight, songs without words to let the heart sing. And, typically, the band will fire up some stirring tune, and find their way to cascade into a marvellous dereliction, or subversion, while keeping the playing both tight and free, and then they’ll hit you so gently with an exquisite tune that will bring you in contact with the sublime, and just as you've begun to sink into this mellow moment, they’ll burst it open, and shriek and wail, before they bring that exquisite melody back in, but they’ll keep that dark edge too, and just as quickly they’ll gently wind the whole thing down, and it’s become a kind of lullaby.
Belinda Woods is a sweet monster on the flute, the beguiling effortless of her invention masks the years of work, but years of work won't guarantee the edginess and clarity of her blissful execution. When she plays she is lyrical and feisty and marvellous. But they are all great players.
There’s a lot of heart in the band. I write this while listening to their requiem for Will Poskitt, a much loved keyboard player. It's called ‘Teardrop (vale Will Poskitt)’. He played with the band in an earlier incarnation of its life. His requiem becomes riotous, celebratory and mournful, and at times does all these things at once. It's a gorgeous tribute.
It took three or four years of catching different gigs before I realised that all the players are composers and bandleaders in their own right. By then I'd heard Belinda Woods in Meter Maid, and the Tom Fryer Band, and bass player Ali Watt's Slipper, and The Boys, yurodivye, Wildflower, Kewtie¦ but clearly all these leading players and composers are happy to dive in, and take their parts in Bohjass. I suspect it's a measure of the regard they have for Mr Pledger's compositions. They are all masters and mistresses of their instruments. One imagines it’s a delight to play together.
As I listen to Christ 3 Buddha Nothing I keep picking up the cover to check the titles of tracks that have just caught my ears, but with each listening I find I am picking it up so often I finally accept that the marvellous joke is on me. Some titles are funny, others lyrical. I'm loving a tune, I pick up the CD cover. It's a sweet, sweet melody. Its name? ‘She's fucking another man’ Another night-and yes, there may have been Stout taken-I find I am dancing in the workroom. What's that tune called? ‘Guantanamo bed and breakfast’. And then another quirky delight pops up, it's called ‘The Jesus sandwich'.
This music is deceptive and sweet and spiky, fuelled sometimes by a legitimate sense of outrage. The dominant sense is one of joy, even in the midst of chaos and pain and consternation. The lyricism always shines through, perhaps this is at last a music of compassion. Christ 3, Buddha Nothing
Bohjass Upas Militia has created a scary kind of musical, jazz-punk armageddon with their "Where's Tyrone" that drags on a bit too long, but initially makes for some very angst-filled uneasy-listenin'.
Hybridmagazine.com
Poland meets New York | ABC Jazz
abcjazz.net.au/programs/jazztrack/poland-meets-new-york....Mal Stanley
Music News; Features; Events; Browse Tags; ... Melbourne saxophonist Tim Pledger and the debut recording from his 16 piece powerful ensemble the 'Bohjass Upas Militia'.
Last.fm
bohjass are a jazzy and experimental sextet led by Timothy Pledger. Their sound explores a range of structures and rhythms, leading to hypnotic and mesmerising interplay. They’ve played around the Northern suburbs of Melbourne for a few years now.
Genre: Experimental / Jazz / Rock
Website www.bohjass.com
“one of the most talked about bands in the Melbourne Improv Scene.
Artist: BUM (Bohjass Upas Militia)
Title: Derriere...pourquoi?
Label: Self-released
File Under: Macbeth's madness come to life via free jazz potion.
RIYL: Coltrane, Coleman, Bitches Brew, Allscars
17 musicians, 5 live tracks (the shortest clocking in at just under 9 minutes), 1 stage on fire and an uncredited number of dwarves and pot-smoking grandmothers howling cheers from the crowd - welcome to the BUM, or Melbourne's Bohjass live. And dangerous. And mad.
Bohjass have never been known for their respect towards tight structure or genre - their last release, Chocolate Ice, saw them blending glips and other forms of electronica with their emphatic saxophone-led cacophony - yet Derriere, for all its insanity, is as tight as (insert your own animal/virgin/actress joke here). Recorded earlier this year at the Planet Cafe, you can hear the audience responding as saxophones are strangled (6 of them), trumpets are pushed towards the heavens (3 of them) and the other menagerie of mescaline-fuelled instruments squeeze and release, breathing fire and ice and all sorts of other wickedry. Who knows what hell was opened up in rehearsals, but this expanded Bohjass pulled it off on stage, and when what you're doing can sometimes sound like 50 Mack trucks colliding, taking a willing audience with you into the inferno and bringing them out hollering for more is nothing to be sneered at.
As for the tracks themselves, "rex-o-lube", number 2, is my favourite. It begins with a noirish trumpet, all Mulholland Drive, and builds, slowly, monstrously, into a behemoth that stalks, seizes and then guttles for almost 18 minutes. About 10 minutes in, you can feel the blood oozing out of the horns and I swear there's a cow bell being anally violated. That might just be my hearing. You decide.
But you will not hear BUM on the radio, nor in the elevator on your way to work, nor in the faux-hip jazzy slut-supplier cafes that ooze their credibility like a gonorrhea river. This type of sound caters only for those intent on blocking out the sound of white trash neighbours fucking and fighting, or for those at 3am who have run out of Camus and are tossing up whether to move onto Nietzsche or just slash their wrists. It's music that gives sordid old cynics sitting in their sweaty summer filth hope, or at least something that resembles it, and reminds us that out there, behind the 7-11s, fake pizza stands and window displays frothing with rabid consumerism, there is meaning and comfort to be found. Sure it's in madness. But like Bohjass Upas Militia's brand of jazz, the best things in life and death are free.
UNCLE.E - Deep in the Bushes
CDR from antboy (08)
Buy Now $12.00 from Antboy Music
"It's hard to know exactly what Deep in the Bushes is. And that's what makes it so great. It's the electronic moniker of Tim Pledger, bandleader and saxophonist for Melbourne experimental outfit Bohjass and it borrows heavily from Bohjass' high st 3070 album of last year. In particular the languid beauty of Deep in the Woods, a track itself that almost sounded electronic on that album, thanks to some sparse reverb soaked guitar, delicate brushwork and dreamy horn action. So perhaps this is a remix album, with Pledger grabbing some of his evocative horn work and reprocessing it with a vague nod to its former world. Yet if it's a remix album it's unlike any I've come across before as he transforms these tunes into strange new almost indescribable forms. There's a definite ambient/ soundtrack quality to his new constructions and it is incredibly engaging and seductive, with any electronic aspects treated in a quite subtle manner, the focus is instead on the gorgeous drifting reverb soaked horns. Given the similar source material there is a thematic unity to the album, with motifs repeated and rearranged in different configurations, much like a soundtrack to a movie, though it's Pledger's refusal to be tied down, to form that provides the most interest. I don't know what this is."
January 30, 2006 by Bob Baker Fish
UNCLE E. - DEEP IN THE BUSHES (CDR by Antboy)
Now, this is a bit of surprise. Uncle E. is one Timothy Pledger from Melbourne, and besides playing music, he makes films. He's the leader of Bohjazz, an experimental band, but also plays in the rockband Bikeboy and he has two audio visual experimental bands, Sandwich Jesus and Viaduct. He is 'deeply involved in the tonal and emotional aspects of rhythmic harmony as they move against each other in blocks and waves of sound', it says on the cover. 'Deep In The Bushes' is resampled reworking of Bohjazz album 'Deep In The Woods', and is his third album as Uncle E. The reason why I call this a surprise is that it is indeed all about emotions and harmony, the latter aspect not a frequent thing on releases by Antboy. Usually this label deals with the more noise related aspect of improvisation and electro-acoustic music. In each of the five pieces, Pledger uses samples of mostly wind instruments that only differ marginally from each other but that he staples as blocks next to each other and creates shifting layers out of that. Highly electronic and organic sounding, this moves away from the cut 'n collage sound of many other Antboy releases. Minimal along the lines of Phil Niblock, but more harmonic and also with a more low fidelity character. Shimmering, twilight music. The only point of critics might be that some of the tracks are perhaps a bit too similar, like 'The Dep Boy Descends' and 'Deeper', but throughout I thought this was a very nice moody and atmospheric release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antboy.com
Uncle E. - Deep in the Bushes
Antboy 08
Having never previously heard Timothy Pledger’s music in any of its incarnations, notably as leader of the band Bohjass, I had certain inevitable preconceptions upon initially unwrapping this disc. Between the moniker “Uncle E.” and the pose struck by Pledger on the disc’s cover, I was expecting, shall we say, music with a more aggressively rhythmic character. Nope.
Uncle E. is apparently Pledger in his more minimal, even ambient persona. For this disc, he’s taken samples of what seems to be a pretty small section of some music from Bohjass (“deep in the woods” from the album, “high st…3070”), reworking and remixing it into a smooth stew. The central material is a slow wind motif with flutes and saxes predominant. I pick up a faint hint of South African jazz chorales of the type that might have been played by the Brotherhood of Breath, though that may be entirely coincidental. On the first track, this theme is stated calmly and quietly, bathed in fuzzy atmospherics. On the next one, memorably titled, “deep in the bushes the angry penguins warbled”, dub-like bass, softly splashing cymbals and backwards tape washes are introduced, propelling the music more swiftly downstream, though still at a relaxed pace. It’s an infectious piece, with a super-saturated sound quality, and you’re drawn along pretty irresistibly though, depending on your tolerance of the basic sameness for the duration, you may find it goes on somewhat long. This criticism might be extended to the next two tracks as they occupy territory only tangentially different from track two. The third, “deeper”, has a more muffled, hazier aspect with the winds sublimated. It’s a remix, in other words and, while basically equally as enjoyable as the previous track, a slight sense of “more of the same” sets in. Maybe not, though. More so than many discs I’ve heard recently, I find my reaction to this one varying with my mood. There have been several occasions where the music’s dreamy, floating nature has been just the thing. On “the deeper they go”, the horns re-emerge, the ringing echoes that have been lurking for a while start asserting themselves more strongly but we’re essentially still at the same bend in the river, just gleaned through a different filter.
Things take an intriguing turn, though, on the final cut, “deepend”. While the source material is the same, it’s both pared down a bit sonically, probably closer to its original sound and, interestingly, is presented in more or less identical segments lasting a bit over a minute that abruptly cut out then reappear, repeating this cycle six or seven times. It produces a rather disquieting sensation, as though one is startled awake from a dream, falls back asleep into the same dream, reawakens, etc. Pretty cool.
http://www.antboymusic.com/
Posted by Brian Olewnick on February 19, 2006 10:48 AM
Bohjass Upas Militia has created a scary kind of musical, jazz-punk armageddon with their "Where's Tyrone" that drags on a bit too long, but initially makes for some very angst-filled uneasy-listenin'.
Hybridmagazine.com
Poland meets New York | ABC Jazz
abcjazz.net.au/programs/jazztrack/poland-meets-new-york....Mal Stanley
Music News; Features; Events; Browse Tags; ... Melbourne saxophonist Tim Pledger and the debut recording from his 16 piece powerful ensemble the 'Bohjass Upas Militia'.
Last.fm
bohjass are a jazzy and experimental sextet led by Timothy Pledger. Their sound explores a range of structures and rhythms, leading to hypnotic and mesmerising interplay. They’ve played around the Northern suburbs of Melbourne for a few years now.
Genre: Experimental / Jazz / Rock
Website www.bohjass.com
“one of the most talked about bands in the Melbourne Improv Scene.
Artist: BUM (Bohjass Upas Militia)
Title: Derriere...pourquoi?
Label: Self-released
File Under: Macbeth's madness come to life via free jazz potion.
RIYL: Coltrane, Coleman, Bitches Brew, Allscars
17 musicians, 5 live tracks (the shortest clocking in at just under 9 minutes), 1 stage on fire and an uncredited number of dwarves and pot-smoking grandmothers howling cheers from the crowd - welcome to the BUM, or Melbourne's Bohjass live. And dangerous. And mad.
Bohjass have never been known for their respect towards tight structure or genre - their last release, Chocolate Ice, saw them blending glips and other forms of electronica with their emphatic saxophone-led cacophony - yet Derriere, for all its insanity, is as tight as (insert your own animal/virgin/actress joke here). Recorded earlier this year at the Planet Cafe, you can hear the audience responding as saxophones are strangled (6 of them), trumpets are pushed towards the heavens (3 of them) and the other menagerie of mescaline-fuelled instruments squeeze and release, breathing fire and ice and all sorts of other wickedry. Who knows what hell was opened up in rehearsals, but this expanded Bohjass pulled it off on stage, and when what you're doing can sometimes sound like 50 Mack trucks colliding, taking a willing audience with you into the inferno and bringing them out hollering for more is nothing to be sneered at.
As for the tracks themselves, "rex-o-lube", number 2, is my favourite. It begins with a noirish trumpet, all Mulholland Drive, and builds, slowly, monstrously, into a behemoth that stalks, seizes and then guttles for almost 18 minutes. About 10 minutes in, you can feel the blood oozing out of the horns and I swear there's a cow bell being anally violated. That might just be my hearing. You decide.
But you will not hear BUM on the radio, nor in the elevator on your way to work, nor in the faux-hip jazzy slut-supplier cafes that ooze their credibility like a gonorrhea river. This type of sound caters only for those intent on blocking out the sound of white trash neighbours fucking and fighting, or for those at 3am who have run out of Camus and are tossing up whether to move onto Nietzsche or just slash their wrists. It's music that gives sordid old cynics sitting in their sweaty summer filth hope, or at least something that resembles it, and reminds us that out there, behind the 7-11s, fake pizza stands and window displays frothing with rabid consumerism, there is meaning and comfort to be found. Sure it's in madness. But like Bohjass Upas Militia's brand of jazz, the best things in life and death are free.
UNCLE.E - Deep in the Bushes
CDR from antboy (08)
Buy Now $12.00 from Antboy Music
"It's hard to know exactly what Deep in the Bushes is. And that's what makes it so great. It's the electronic moniker of Tim Pledger, bandleader and saxophonist for Melbourne experimental outfit Bohjass and it borrows heavily from Bohjass' high st 3070 album of last year. In particular the languid beauty of Deep in the Woods, a track itself that almost sounded electronic on that album, thanks to some sparse reverb soaked guitar, delicate brushwork and dreamy horn action. So perhaps this is a remix album, with Pledger grabbing some of his evocative horn work and reprocessing it with a vague nod to its former world. Yet if it's a remix album it's unlike any I've come across before as he transforms these tunes into strange new almost indescribable forms. There's a definite ambient/ soundtrack quality to his new constructions and it is incredibly engaging and seductive, with any electronic aspects treated in a quite subtle manner, the focus is instead on the gorgeous drifting reverb soaked horns. Given the similar source material there is a thematic unity to the album, with motifs repeated and rearranged in different configurations, much like a soundtrack to a movie, though it's Pledger's refusal to be tied down, to form that provides the most interest. I don't know what this is."
January 30, 2006 by Bob Baker Fish
UNCLE E. - DEEP IN THE BUSHES (CDR by Antboy)
Now, this is a bit of surprise. Uncle E. is one Timothy Pledger from Melbourne, and besides playing music, he makes films. He's the leader of Bohjazz, an experimental band, but also plays in the rockband Bikeboy and he has two audio visual experimental bands, Sandwich Jesus and Viaduct. He is 'deeply involved in the tonal and emotional aspects of rhythmic harmony as they move against each other in blocks and waves of sound', it says on the cover. 'Deep In The Bushes' is resampled reworking of Bohjazz album 'Deep In The Woods', and is his third album as Uncle E. The reason why I call this a surprise is that it is indeed all about emotions and harmony, the latter aspect not a frequent thing on releases by Antboy. Usually this label deals with the more noise related aspect of improvisation and electro-acoustic music. In each of the five pieces, Pledger uses samples of mostly wind instruments that only differ marginally from each other but that he staples as blocks next to each other and creates shifting layers out of that. Highly electronic and organic sounding, this moves away from the cut 'n collage sound of many other Antboy releases. Minimal along the lines of Phil Niblock, but more harmonic and also with a more low fidelity character. Shimmering, twilight music. The only point of critics might be that some of the tracks are perhaps a bit too similar, like 'The Dep Boy Descends' and 'Deeper', but throughout I thought this was a very nice moody and atmospheric release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antboy.com
Uncle E. - Deep in the Bushes
Antboy 08
Having never previously heard Timothy Pledger’s music in any of its incarnations, notably as leader of the band Bohjass, I had certain inevitable preconceptions upon initially unwrapping this disc. Between the moniker “Uncle E.” and the pose struck by Pledger on the disc’s cover, I was expecting, shall we say, music with a more aggressively rhythmic character. Nope.
Uncle E. is apparently Pledger in his more minimal, even ambient persona. For this disc, he’s taken samples of what seems to be a pretty small section of some music from Bohjass (“deep in the woods” from the album, “high st…3070”), reworking and remixing it into a smooth stew. The central material is a slow wind motif with flutes and saxes predominant. I pick up a faint hint of South African jazz chorales of the type that might have been played by the Brotherhood of Breath, though that may be entirely coincidental. On the first track, this theme is stated calmly and quietly, bathed in fuzzy atmospherics. On the next one, memorably titled, “deep in the bushes the angry penguins warbled”, dub-like bass, softly splashing cymbals and backwards tape washes are introduced, propelling the music more swiftly downstream, though still at a relaxed pace. It’s an infectious piece, with a super-saturated sound quality, and you’re drawn along pretty irresistibly though, depending on your tolerance of the basic sameness for the duration, you may find it goes on somewhat long. This criticism might be extended to the next two tracks as they occupy territory only tangentially different from track two. The third, “deeper”, has a more muffled, hazier aspect with the winds sublimated. It’s a remix, in other words and, while basically equally as enjoyable as the previous track, a slight sense of “more of the same” sets in. Maybe not, though. More so than many discs I’ve heard recently, I find my reaction to this one varying with my mood. There have been several occasions where the music’s dreamy, floating nature has been just the thing. On “the deeper they go”, the horns re-emerge, the ringing echoes that have been lurking for a while start asserting themselves more strongly but we’re essentially still at the same bend in the river, just gleaned through a different filter.
Things take an intriguing turn, though, on the final cut, “deepend”. While the source material is the same, it’s both pared down a bit sonically, probably closer to its original sound and, interestingly, is presented in more or less identical segments lasting a bit over a minute that abruptly cut out then reappear, repeating this cycle six or seven times. It produces a rather disquieting sensation, as though one is startled awake from a dream, falls back asleep into the same dream, reawakens, etc. Pretty cool.
http://www.antboymusic.com/
Posted by Brian Olewnick on February 19, 2006 10:48 AM
Bohjass
Chocolate Ice
Poorboy
Free jazz brass meets electronic samples. Sublime joy results.
Experimental fusion.
Melbourne band Bohjass have been around in various shapes and sizes for over 10 years, but Chocolate Ice is only their second full-length release. Their first, an Ex. in P.M. tort, was a sonic voyage through post-jazz/rock territory, lots of searching sax from main-man Tim Pledger and explorations of repetitive riffs mined for intricacies and intimacies.
Chocolate Ice sees them, at first, going over familiar grounds - the building up of the saxaphonic main melody, backed by Cam McAllister’s trumpet divergances. But then a mobile phone ringing and a vocal sampled begin track two, "Uncle E’s Technology Crèche," and a muted beat courtesy of Michael Portley introduces a new tack - lots of empty spaces filled in with almost-menacing brass blasts that evoke suspense without ever revealing the source. Over-layered are echoes of effects, at times sounding like dripping water and others the drone from a didgeridoo. It’s like the sonic equivalent of a David Lynch film, elements combining, merging, and fracturing, meaning intimated but never fully revealed.
As Chocolate Ice continues, we’re given the sounds of a band now comfortable exploring the aural regions the recording studio offers. Whereas an Ex. sounded live and raw, the more Chocolate Ice reveals, the more samples and loops are heard, augmenting rather than detracting from the mix. "Vito’s Last Stand" sounds exactly like the last stand of a Mafia don as filtered through a free jazz-electronica combo - it’s nasty and dirty and confusing, all varying times and octaves. "The First Days of Sodom and Gomorrah" is also gloriously self-explanatory, beginning with a perfect drum patter, the introduction of the sax, then bass, then a more frantic, almost percussive guitar that drives everything from underneath. At around five minutes into the eight, it’s pure chaos yet a sultry flute drifts in over the top. By the time eight minutes and 26 seconds are done, it’s over, gentle peace until "The Esoteric Girl" gets started, a riff on the 1940s detective music turned inside out.
Bohjass prove again that they’re the free jazz equivalent of Sonic Youth. There are moments here that suggest the more familiar strains of Coleman and Coltrane, but their use of electronic elements, samples, and the like reaffirm the band as they walk with open arms into that new ocean. The sounds of their trip are here for all to hear - it’s brash, unsettling, abrasive, and downright gorgeous. You’re unlikely to hear anything else this year more intriguing, more challenging, or more enlightening.
- Geoff
http://www.adequacy.net/reviews/b/bohjass.shtml
BOHJASS
Chocolate Ice
Poorboy Records PB004
Perhaps not quite the equal of last year's amazing debut An Ex. in P.M. tort..., this second release by Melbourne's electric quintet is still doing things no-one else dares. The line-up remains the same, playing the kind of gothic power minimalism which God Speed You Black Emperor! promised but were too theatrical to pull off. The cover shot shows a motley crew of whores and spivs, and the music is likewise noir, sleazy and careless of official virtues. The title track builds relentlessly, though we'd need a better recording to appreciate what must be a shattering experience live. In Techno and Ambient, repetition is often a technique to avoid expression. Here, each beat is driven in with an avidity that is disturbingly sexual;and just when you think you cannot bear it anymore, the ensemble explodes into myriad free-jazz colours. Inspired
music to make your mouth go mmmm...
"an Ex. in P.M. tort..."
Somewhere out on the edge, unhindered by margins, are musicians blasting away at the possibilities of sound and structure, Since the days of the NYC-based groups led by John Cage, and their ventures into the dynamics of repetition, artists as varied as Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground, Neil Young, and the (sometimes-produced by Fugazi) Allscars have to varying degrees and extents taken the concept of rhythm and melody and mutated it through amps, angst, and sonic squalls. Here, on the debut release from Melbourne-based Bohjass, we have a prime example of the often-underlooked examples of post-modern jazz, a generic form that takes on the instrumentations familiar to us from the days of the big band and bebop and pushes them to the extreme capabilities.
Surprisingly, its refreshing material to these jaded ears, and you can audibly sense the ten years-plus that Bohjass have been together from the ability not just to hold the material together, but also their willingness to let if fall apart, in the process creating new visions of harmonising and also discordant instrumental play. With openly 6 people, they manage to fill the air with enough diversity and polymorphous intrigue to sound like a full orchestra. Led by Timothy Pledger on guitar and sax, the group, obviously informed by theoretical positions, plow through tracks enigmatically titled “orphee’s Dream Juice” and “The God Gorgeous and Me” with great aplomb, rising and turning like a rip tide gone mad, a sea out of control yet ever-so softly brought back into focus at the most unexpected moments.
This is not dinner party music, nor is it the jazz so disappointingly featured in mum and dad-friendly festivals on a Sunday afternoon. It's challenging, it's dangerous, and it's about bloody time.
Geoff Parkes
BOHJASS
AN EX IN PM TORT
BY BEN WATSON
Composition nowadays is so often a bummer - More about taming and managing sound than unleashing it - that it's tempting to adopt
improviser fundamentalism and dismiss any
music not invented in real time. Then along
comes saxophonist, guitarist and composer Tim Pledger and his group Bohjass, and you're reminded that aching melodies and haunting harmonies can be written down, and that a score can still be a launchpad for aural poetics.
Bohjass are a Melbourne-based sextet who
banner themselves "trance music meets jazz",
with mentions of "rhythmic minimalism" and "free jazz". If that sounds like Man Jumping or Icebreaker, that's because Bohjass's advertising isn't as astute as Pledger's composing. In the hands of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, minimalism became a repressive sublime, where repetition achieved a relentless, chic finesse unbesmirched by traces of human emotion.
Pledger favours sleek, repetitive riffs, but his
sinister, minor scale keys and asymmetrically
metres are worlds away from classical minimalism, creating an absurdist feel as the
musicians focus on the task. The unison
melodies and expressive solos of the opening
"God Gorgeous: An Exercise In Postmodern
Torture" stand out against the crazy flow of the rhythm section like inner thoughts against rush hour traffic.
Pledger's harmonies are so pungent they make you blush, and his tunes breathe, puffing themselves up and deflating in humorous mimicry of biological necessities. Michael Portley's drumming is clinically precise when necessary, but also capable of intimate thumps and 'out' extrapolations during the free sections. Ali Watts takes fiendish electric bass parts in his stride. When flute, trumpet, guitar and the leader's sax take off in deferent directions, it resembles early electronic music by Arne Nordheim, all birdsong and fireworks.
The usual distinctions between tradition and
Invention can't plot Bohjass. Maybe what's most admirable is Pledger's emotional investment in His melodies, his very unpostmodern absence of formalist justification. If you like Bobby Hutcherson's Total Eclipse, Eggs's The Polite Force and Frank Zappa's The Grand Wazoo, but didn't think such harmonic hypnosis and linear
Exfoliation could survive the bubbling
scintillation's of House and rave, try Bohjass.
THE WIRE (UK) July 2001
BOHJASS
an Ex. in P.M. tort…
Bohjass are a Melbourne sextet led by
Guitarist and saxophonist Timothy Pledger.
They went into a studio in Atlantis in
September 2000 to record this album.
Involved compositions open out into
sections of expressionist blowing from
Belinda Woods' distinctive flute, fluent
jazz trumpet from Cam Macalister, or
pleasingly active guitar breaks from either
the leader or Ned Collette. Ali Watts on
bass and Michael Portley handle the
Complex rhythm changes - hints of Soft
Machine - with enviable nonchalance.
Pledger demonstrates his right to
impose his ideas on the rest of the group
by delivering amazing sax solos, where he
evokes Ayler and Dolphy with just the right
amount of detachment and humour to
separate himself from the numbskull
literalists. Indeed, a sense of irony
pervades all the music: not the feckless
Smirk of postmodern pastiche, but the 'let's
try this one upside-down' bizarreness of
brainiacs like Mingus, Zappa or Mr. Bungle.
Pledger's compositions are indeed a
pleasure: rather than the ubiquitous
recycling of avant cliches, actual
subversion of generic cliches (he seems to
have studied the 'out' releases of mid-'60's
Blue Note with great care). Production is a
little soft and diffuse, but this first effort
Augurs well. Apparently the band are
relocating to Europe. Welcome!
BEN WATSON
Hi - Fi NEWS (UK) July 2001
La Mama resurrects concert connection with jazz experimentalists
Musica Opening Concert
La Mama. August 10
Review Jeff Pressing
LA MAMA is a small Carlton venue that has for many years presented experimental and alternative theatre. In the 1960's and beyond, it also had a similar seminal role in msical innovation. This lapsed, but a new season of musical events may signal a resurrection of this concert connection.
Musica is a series of six concerts featuring significant younger innovators, with a general focus on jazz and improvisational experimentation. The
opening concert last Thursday was a tripartite, wide-ranging affair.
Bohjass (reeds, flute, trumpet, guitar, bass, drums), led by Tim Pledger on saxophone and clarinet, performed a number of original pieces, interspersed with poetic readings that veered towards embittered inner city-life commentary.
Stylistically, Bohjass occupied a nether world of textural blocks that jumped between rhythmic minimalism, free jazz counterpoint and florid unison filigree: trance music meets jazz.
Some sections evoked memories of Ornette Coleman's small group efforts, others set
ultra-simple ostinati in motion for half the group, while others improvised collectively. In one passage, group phrasings in 7/4 time alternated with sections in 4/4, and in another a shifting 2:3 phrase overlay created effective emotional tension.
Some sections were bland and unexciting, but the compositional framework clearly served its purpose of elaborating an alternative vision of improvisation projection.
The Age 15/8/2000
Chocolate Ice
Poorboy
Free jazz brass meets electronic samples. Sublime joy results.
Experimental fusion.
Melbourne band Bohjass have been around in various shapes and sizes for over 10 years, but Chocolate Ice is only their second full-length release. Their first, an Ex. in P.M. tort, was a sonic voyage through post-jazz/rock territory, lots of searching sax from main-man Tim Pledger and explorations of repetitive riffs mined for intricacies and intimacies.
Chocolate Ice sees them, at first, going over familiar grounds - the building up of the saxaphonic main melody, backed by Cam McAllister’s trumpet divergances. But then a mobile phone ringing and a vocal sampled begin track two, "Uncle E’s Technology Crèche," and a muted beat courtesy of Michael Portley introduces a new tack - lots of empty spaces filled in with almost-menacing brass blasts that evoke suspense without ever revealing the source. Over-layered are echoes of effects, at times sounding like dripping water and others the drone from a didgeridoo. It’s like the sonic equivalent of a David Lynch film, elements combining, merging, and fracturing, meaning intimated but never fully revealed.
As Chocolate Ice continues, we’re given the sounds of a band now comfortable exploring the aural regions the recording studio offers. Whereas an Ex. sounded live and raw, the more Chocolate Ice reveals, the more samples and loops are heard, augmenting rather than detracting from the mix. "Vito’s Last Stand" sounds exactly like the last stand of a Mafia don as filtered through a free jazz-electronica combo - it’s nasty and dirty and confusing, all varying times and octaves. "The First Days of Sodom and Gomorrah" is also gloriously self-explanatory, beginning with a perfect drum patter, the introduction of the sax, then bass, then a more frantic, almost percussive guitar that drives everything from underneath. At around five minutes into the eight, it’s pure chaos yet a sultry flute drifts in over the top. By the time eight minutes and 26 seconds are done, it’s over, gentle peace until "The Esoteric Girl" gets started, a riff on the 1940s detective music turned inside out.
Bohjass prove again that they’re the free jazz equivalent of Sonic Youth. There are moments here that suggest the more familiar strains of Coleman and Coltrane, but their use of electronic elements, samples, and the like reaffirm the band as they walk with open arms into that new ocean. The sounds of their trip are here for all to hear - it’s brash, unsettling, abrasive, and downright gorgeous. You’re unlikely to hear anything else this year more intriguing, more challenging, or more enlightening.
- Geoff
http://www.adequacy.net/reviews/b/bohjass.shtml
BOHJASS
Chocolate Ice
Poorboy Records PB004
Perhaps not quite the equal of last year's amazing debut An Ex. in P.M. tort..., this second release by Melbourne's electric quintet is still doing things no-one else dares. The line-up remains the same, playing the kind of gothic power minimalism which God Speed You Black Emperor! promised but were too theatrical to pull off. The cover shot shows a motley crew of whores and spivs, and the music is likewise noir, sleazy and careless of official virtues. The title track builds relentlessly, though we'd need a better recording to appreciate what must be a shattering experience live. In Techno and Ambient, repetition is often a technique to avoid expression. Here, each beat is driven in with an avidity that is disturbingly sexual;and just when you think you cannot bear it anymore, the ensemble explodes into myriad free-jazz colours. Inspired
music to make your mouth go mmmm...
"an Ex. in P.M. tort..."
Somewhere out on the edge, unhindered by margins, are musicians blasting away at the possibilities of sound and structure, Since the days of the NYC-based groups led by John Cage, and their ventures into the dynamics of repetition, artists as varied as Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground, Neil Young, and the (sometimes-produced by Fugazi) Allscars have to varying degrees and extents taken the concept of rhythm and melody and mutated it through amps, angst, and sonic squalls. Here, on the debut release from Melbourne-based Bohjass, we have a prime example of the often-underlooked examples of post-modern jazz, a generic form that takes on the instrumentations familiar to us from the days of the big band and bebop and pushes them to the extreme capabilities.
Surprisingly, its refreshing material to these jaded ears, and you can audibly sense the ten years-plus that Bohjass have been together from the ability not just to hold the material together, but also their willingness to let if fall apart, in the process creating new visions of harmonising and also discordant instrumental play. With openly 6 people, they manage to fill the air with enough diversity and polymorphous intrigue to sound like a full orchestra. Led by Timothy Pledger on guitar and sax, the group, obviously informed by theoretical positions, plow through tracks enigmatically titled “orphee’s Dream Juice” and “The God Gorgeous and Me” with great aplomb, rising and turning like a rip tide gone mad, a sea out of control yet ever-so softly brought back into focus at the most unexpected moments.
This is not dinner party music, nor is it the jazz so disappointingly featured in mum and dad-friendly festivals on a Sunday afternoon. It's challenging, it's dangerous, and it's about bloody time.
Geoff Parkes
BOHJASS
AN EX IN PM TORT
BY BEN WATSON
Composition nowadays is so often a bummer - More about taming and managing sound than unleashing it - that it's tempting to adopt
improviser fundamentalism and dismiss any
music not invented in real time. Then along
comes saxophonist, guitarist and composer Tim Pledger and his group Bohjass, and you're reminded that aching melodies and haunting harmonies can be written down, and that a score can still be a launchpad for aural poetics.
Bohjass are a Melbourne-based sextet who
banner themselves "trance music meets jazz",
with mentions of "rhythmic minimalism" and "free jazz". If that sounds like Man Jumping or Icebreaker, that's because Bohjass's advertising isn't as astute as Pledger's composing. In the hands of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, minimalism became a repressive sublime, where repetition achieved a relentless, chic finesse unbesmirched by traces of human emotion.
Pledger favours sleek, repetitive riffs, but his
sinister, minor scale keys and asymmetrically
metres are worlds away from classical minimalism, creating an absurdist feel as the
musicians focus on the task. The unison
melodies and expressive solos of the opening
"God Gorgeous: An Exercise In Postmodern
Torture" stand out against the crazy flow of the rhythm section like inner thoughts against rush hour traffic.
Pledger's harmonies are so pungent they make you blush, and his tunes breathe, puffing themselves up and deflating in humorous mimicry of biological necessities. Michael Portley's drumming is clinically precise when necessary, but also capable of intimate thumps and 'out' extrapolations during the free sections. Ali Watts takes fiendish electric bass parts in his stride. When flute, trumpet, guitar and the leader's sax take off in deferent directions, it resembles early electronic music by Arne Nordheim, all birdsong and fireworks.
The usual distinctions between tradition and
Invention can't plot Bohjass. Maybe what's most admirable is Pledger's emotional investment in His melodies, his very unpostmodern absence of formalist justification. If you like Bobby Hutcherson's Total Eclipse, Eggs's The Polite Force and Frank Zappa's The Grand Wazoo, but didn't think such harmonic hypnosis and linear
Exfoliation could survive the bubbling
scintillation's of House and rave, try Bohjass.
THE WIRE (UK) July 2001
BOHJASS
an Ex. in P.M. tort…
Bohjass are a Melbourne sextet led by
Guitarist and saxophonist Timothy Pledger.
They went into a studio in Atlantis in
September 2000 to record this album.
Involved compositions open out into
sections of expressionist blowing from
Belinda Woods' distinctive flute, fluent
jazz trumpet from Cam Macalister, or
pleasingly active guitar breaks from either
the leader or Ned Collette. Ali Watts on
bass and Michael Portley handle the
Complex rhythm changes - hints of Soft
Machine - with enviable nonchalance.
Pledger demonstrates his right to
impose his ideas on the rest of the group
by delivering amazing sax solos, where he
evokes Ayler and Dolphy with just the right
amount of detachment and humour to
separate himself from the numbskull
literalists. Indeed, a sense of irony
pervades all the music: not the feckless
Smirk of postmodern pastiche, but the 'let's
try this one upside-down' bizarreness of
brainiacs like Mingus, Zappa or Mr. Bungle.
Pledger's compositions are indeed a
pleasure: rather than the ubiquitous
recycling of avant cliches, actual
subversion of generic cliches (he seems to
have studied the 'out' releases of mid-'60's
Blue Note with great care). Production is a
little soft and diffuse, but this first effort
Augurs well. Apparently the band are
relocating to Europe. Welcome!
BEN WATSON
Hi - Fi NEWS (UK) July 2001
La Mama resurrects concert connection with jazz experimentalists
Musica Opening Concert
La Mama. August 10
Review Jeff Pressing
LA MAMA is a small Carlton venue that has for many years presented experimental and alternative theatre. In the 1960's and beyond, it also had a similar seminal role in msical innovation. This lapsed, but a new season of musical events may signal a resurrection of this concert connection.
Musica is a series of six concerts featuring significant younger innovators, with a general focus on jazz and improvisational experimentation. The
opening concert last Thursday was a tripartite, wide-ranging affair.
Bohjass (reeds, flute, trumpet, guitar, bass, drums), led by Tim Pledger on saxophone and clarinet, performed a number of original pieces, interspersed with poetic readings that veered towards embittered inner city-life commentary.
Stylistically, Bohjass occupied a nether world of textural blocks that jumped between rhythmic minimalism, free jazz counterpoint and florid unison filigree: trance music meets jazz.
Some sections evoked memories of Ornette Coleman's small group efforts, others set
ultra-simple ostinati in motion for half the group, while others improvised collectively. In one passage, group phrasings in 7/4 time alternated with sections in 4/4, and in another a shifting 2:3 phrase overlay created effective emotional tension.
Some sections were bland and unexciting, but the compositional framework clearly served its purpose of elaborating an alternative vision of improvisation projection.
The Age 15/8/2000