2013-11-07 4:20:51 ¶ ●

RATING: 6 / 13 – It’s goddamn bedlam down here.

The very first theme album. If the Midnight Crew formed a band, what would it sound like? Since they originate from the hard-boiled, ‘two steak dinners’ world of Problem Sleuth, jazz and noir rules the day. The whole album has a very listenable quality to it, and there’s a few great songs (Three in the Morning, Ace of Trump) scattered throughout as well. Lots of jazz piano, bass, and drums. But there’s one thing that holds me back a bit.

Saxophone must be one of the toughest instruments to produce samples for. On some of the songs where the sax leads the charge, I have a hard time ‘suspending my disbelief,’ so to speak. It’s got that throaty, growly tenor sax voice, but it just feels a little bit off in tone and cadence. Compare Liquid Negrocity to the saxophone lead in Blue Atom, which was a live alto sax player. The transitions in the latter are crisp but much more natural (especially near the end when the part gets busy).

And jazz is one of the most organic forms of music there is. When I think of jazz, I think of Miles Davis wailing away on the trumpet, or Blind Willie Buttermilk Stubbs usin’ his twiddlin’ fingers.

All that being said, it’s a good collection of neo-jazz-noir, one that works on its own level throughout (there’s not much in the way of dead spots).

Click here for individual song reviews for Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead.