Moon Hooch - Moon Hooch

Artist: Moon Hooch
Album: Moon Hooch
Genre: Dance Jazz
Origin: USA (NYC)
Year: 2011

Moon Hooch is essentially club dance music played by a (very talented) jazz trio. The dual tenor saxophones (interweaving, but usually with a 'rhythm sax' and a 'lead sax') have a great raw, live feel; I don't know what the recording for this album was like, but the production and the improvisation fit the band's reputation of live public shows in parks and subways around New York city. It's dance music, so you'll need to bear with the repetition, though the lead sax and the drums progress very nicely through each track.

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Unrelated recommendation: You should definitely check out the new Lunar Aurora: Hoagascht. It's already going to be a tough release to unseat from my album of the year position. I'd post it up here, but I'm sure it's already all over the intertubes by now.

Orange Tulip Conspiracy - Orange Tulip Conspiracy

Artist: Orange Tulip Conspiracy
Album: Orange Tulip Conspiracy
Genre: Experimental Rock
Year: 2008
Origin: USA (LA)

I usually try to avoid reposting albums that have already been offered by my blogging friends, but this is a great album that deserves more exposure. Orange Tulip Conspiracy is sort of a mashing together of the members of Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3. I like both of those bands, but this seems like a culmination of their musical ideas, avoiding some of the sloppiness and incoherency that went with their earlier experimentations. I guess arguably that could mean that this release is more 'tame', but I think that would be selling it short. Anyway, if you aren't familiar with these artists, it's a style created by jumping between (instrumental) genres - all kinds of rock, jazz, classical (and even some death metal) show up when least expected. And it's fantastic.

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World's End Girlfriend - The Lie Lay Land

Artist: World's End Girlfriend
Album: The Lie Lay Land
Genre: Experimental
Year: 2005
Origin: Japan

This album is a psychedelic style of post-rock that incorporates ambient electronic music and some jazz passages. Japan knows how to do experimental music right, and this album in particular is wonderfully beautiful to my ears. Headphones or a quality sound system are necessary to pick up on the depth of the music. It is probably different from the music you normally listen to, but I hope you will give it a try.

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Dub Guerilla - Dub Guerilla

Artist: Dub Guerilla
Album: Dub Guerilla
Genre: Dub
Year: 2005
Origin: Germany

This album combines dub and jazz wonderfully. The instrumentation is impressive and the production is smooth, so that three trombonists feels like just the right number. If this album doesn't make you feel calm and happy with the world, I don't know what will.

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NOTE: MediaFire gave me a weird message. I downloaded it myself to test, and it all seems to be working, but let me know if there are any problems.

Mouse on the Keys - An Anxious Object

Artist: Mouse on the Keys
Album: An Anxious Object
Genre: Nu-jazz
Year: 2009
Origin: Japan

This Japanese jazz trio is fresh and exciting, though much more 'produced'-sounding than traditional jazz albums. In this case that adds as much in carefully crafted intricacies as it takes away in atmosphere. I'm pretty sure this'll make my top of '09 list. For fans of The Bad Plus, Happy Apple, Jaga Jazzist, etc.

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Wes Montgomery - Full House

Artist: Wes Montgomery
Album: Full House
Genre: Jazz
Year: 1962
Origin: USA

Wes Montgomery might just be the greatest guitarist jazz music has ever seen. His trademark thumb-plucking technique and wonderful solos make this one of my favorite jazz recordings. Normally I wouldn't appreciate the inclusion of several takes of the same song, but with Wes each track is a unique delight.

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The 3rd and the Mortal

Artist: The 3rd and the Mortal
Album: Memoirs
Genre: Doom Metal
Year: 2002
Origin: Norway

The 3rd and the Mortal play very experimental doom metal; in the case of this album it is very jazzy, with some electronica parts as well. The female vocals are great, and they fit the downtempo music as well as the poetic male spoken-word. I've heard that this band was a big influence to the multitude of Nightwish-esque female-fronted gothic metal bands, and I can believe it, but The 3rd and the Mortal are way outside the box compared to those bands. I like this one a lot more than Painting on Glass, which is the only other 3atm album I've heard.

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Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out

Artist: Dave Brubeck Quartet
Album: Time Out
Genre: Jazz
Year: 1959
Origin: USA

This is one of the jazz albums everyone should have. It's all about experimenting with unusual time signatures, but it ends up with seven very compelling pieces. I only started listening to Dave Brubeck fairly recently because I went to the University where he's from and I thought I should find out what the excitement was all about. I was pretty much blown away, and now he's one of my favorite jazz musicians.

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