Easily Misunderstood by The Samuel Jackson Five (SJ5)

Yet another proof that music is a universal language, able to bring together people from distant worlds but with kindred sensibilities, breaking down every language barrier and telling us that there are no cultural barriers in music, because feelings are the same everywhere. 

Recommended, ordered, arrived and immediately listened to.

The Samuel Jackson Five are a band from Oslo, formed at the start of the century, influenced by prog, jazz and classical music, who write instrumental music, able to condense these genres even within a single track. Despite the complexity of the pieces, the sound is very accessible; top-level musicians manage to make easy to listen to what is actually very complicated both to compose and to play.

On this record there’s all of that: symphonic rock alternates wonderfully with jazz, strings and piano sketch a melancholy texture, and there’s an excellent, virtuosic rhythm section. Deliberate dissonances move the melodies, making them interesting and innovative.

It’s worth repeating once again: Norway keeps the world of Prog flying high, this time in its jazz-rock form.

On the cover a nautilus, with its perfect geometry, a living fossil once thought extinct and only at the beginning of the 1900s was it found again… a relative of us prog-loving dinosaur types.

Highly recommended!

My Version

Label: Denovali Records – den129
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, Reissue
Country: Germany
Released: 2012

Tracks 

1. Skinflick Dress Rehearsal (5:46)

2. If You Show Off The Milk, Who's Gonna Buy the Cow? (3:58)

3. Easily Misunderstood (3:20)

4. Charlie Foxtrot Queen (2:24)

5. Person Most Likely to Enjoy the Taste of Human Flesh (5:57)

6. Unimog (7:21)

7. No Name (4:05)

8. Song for Sarah (5:08)

9. Psycho Derelict (1:49)

10. Michael Collins Autograph (7:09)

11. Switch Ambulance Trip (2:20)

Length 49:23

Line-Up

- Kjetil Gundersen - guitar, percussion
- Thomas Kaldhol - electric guitar and lap steel, effects
- Thomas Meidell - electric guitar and lap steel, Rhodes, organ, synthesizer, sampler, oscillator, percussion, effects, vocals
- Sigmund Bade - bass, guitar, piano, Rhodes, synthesizer, percussion, Fx
- Stian Tangerud - drums, percussion
With:
- Ingar Hunskaar - synthesizer
- Dag Stiberg - alto sax
- Jørgen Sissyfus Skjulstad - clarinet
- Magnus Moriarty - violin, viola
- Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - double bass
- Sven Andréen - percussion