BADBADNOTGOOD

★★★★ Talk Memory

XL. CD/DL/LP

Rap-friendly Canadian genremashers return to jazz for fifth LP.

HAVING MADE their name as a hip-hop jam band – summoning electric backings for MF DOOM, Ghostface Killah, Snoop Dogg – these atypical graduates from Toronto’s Humber College jazz program hit pause after 2016’s R&B-flecked IV. The result is their most forward-facing jazz album yet, packed with complex, multi-storied compositions you can still dance to. Signal From The Noise sets the standard, morphing from Necks-like brooding atmospherics into a frenetic show of strength, Alexander Sowinski’s gymnastic fills and Chester Hansen’s rising-falling bass pulse offset by Leland Whitty’s distorted guitar solo. Cameos from Laraaji, Terrace Martin, Brandee Younger and Karriem Riggins allow BBNG to funnel down instrumental foxholes, but Brazilian composer Arthur Verocai’s sympatico string arrangements make the most telling intervention, elevating City Of Mirrors and Talk Meaning into a deeply spiritual dimension.