NIECHĘĆ — Live at Jazz Club Hipnoza (review)

NIECHĘĆ — Live at Jazz Club Hipnoza album cover Live album · 2018 · Nu Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
Niechęć, a Polish band from Warsaw, came as a comet with their debut album "Śmierć W Miękkim Futerku" in 2012. Their cinematic mix of alt-rock, jamming, jazz-fusion, post-rock, and free jazz, all well played, with dark melodicism, won listeners by storm. The band's sound, based on heavy keys/electronic passages, sounded attractive not only for jazz lovers but for prog-rock and alt-rock fans as well.

The band's second album "Niech​ę​ć"(2016) significantly strengthened their reputation. So, two years later it looked like the right time for a live album release. "Live at Jazz Club Hipnoza", recorded in Southern Poland, opens with a longish heavy jam, which is probably the most problematic song on the album. The band's strong side is its melodic well well-arranged tuneful songs, so the bulky composition (titled "Koniec"("The End")) based on heavy keyboard passages without noticeable development or direction leaves a mixed impression.

Fortunately, things change for the better right after that. After the short introduction, the band offers listeners what they do best - emotionally colored well-crafted songs with a great balance between energy and melodicism.

The program comes almost exclusively from their second studio album, with two exceptions. The almost twelve-minute long "Chmury" is a new song, which will be released on their third studio album, "Unsubscribe", in 2022. It builds tension from the very first piano/sax/keys sounds and continues with the same atmosphere till the end. The eight-minute-long "Transhumanizm" starts as a slow-tempo dreamy lite (at least by the band's standards) electronics piece, but in the second half explodes with expected heavy keys/sax passages. It has never been released on their studio albums until now.

The closer, "Krew"("The Blood"), starts from free jazz sax soloing and continues with the same sax and piano interplay. The album's end is more impressive than "The End" at its beginning.

For newcomers, I would recommend starting from any studio album (I would probably prefer the debut). Any of them is more comprehensive, better edited, and as a whole more attractive. "Live at Jazz Club Hipnoza" could be interesting for the band's fans, who get the possibility to hear the band playing live.

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