Adult Jazz has only been a band since last November. They weren’t a band when Miley Cyrus whomped the VMAs last August or when the Pittsburgh Pirates won their first postseason game since 1992 in October; they weren’t even formed when Lou Reed passed later that month. Yet the four men from Leeds who constitute Adult Jazz have compensated for their brief existence with quick, thoughtful work, culminating with their adventurous, spasmodic debut, Gist Is.
Musically, Gist Is sounds like a wondrous collage of Grizzly Bear’s harmonies, Dirty Projectors’ more exploratory stuff, and Wild Beasts’ grand sense of weirdness. Instead of following popular song structures, the nine tracks that make up the record ride on zany rhythms and multiple movements and time signatures. And that makes sense: the songs presented here are the only the band wrote, and they allowed each track to transform into whatever it naturally morphed into, free of any musical restriction.
Frontman Harry Burgess’ voice is the only constant on Gist Is, mostly because the instrumentation that accompanies it is not only minimal but at times sparse. Besides an ominous synth, his chanting is the only thing we hear for the first four minutes of album opener “Hum.” And even when the band is in full swing, the spaces between notes and instruments can be vast.
With its long track lengths and numerous left turns, Gist Is can be a challenging—and even frustrating—listen. But Adult Jazz’s free-spirited approach to music is extremely refreshing and exciting to listen to. And most of the time, Gist Is simply feels really, really good.
Gist Is