Tyft - Smell the Difference

All Music Guide

With his deep ties to the Brooklyn avant jazz community, Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jensson has never been a conventional jazzer, but after 2009's Skirl label release Smell the Difference, one wonders whether he's preparing to ditch even avant jazz for good. It's not like Jensson followers couldn't see this coming all along, particularly after his Skirl debut, 2006's Meg Nem Sa, featuring the Tyft core trio lineup of Jensson, reedman Andrew D'Angelo, and drummer Jim Black. In spots on that album, Jensson truly found his inner Meshuggah, and merely naming a track "Led Tyftelin" further revealed the influences slamming around inside his head. Meg Nem Sa was a particularly heavy outing for the guitarist, but the title track was all about the groove, and Smell the Difference is even more so, nearly start to finish. Here, Jensson has expanded his band to include another old Brooklyn pal (and Skirl label founder), saxophonist Chris Speed, along with trumpeterofthemoment Peter Evans. Once aga...in there's no bass, but the guitarist's bottom end is damn heavy not exactly dub deep, but no one is likely to complain that Jensson's sound is thin, as in "This music really needs some bass, man" (More likely: "That guitarist and bassist are really tight, man") And at the higher frequencies, there's enough dirt and gravel in his tone to suggest postgrunge and even noise rock. But that groove is what really stands out, and nobody can push a groove out of the gate and ride it around the track as crisply and cleanly as Black, a model of both power and economy. He nails that part of the rhythm that moves your foot despite time signatures that confound your head, while Jensson cranks out skewed lines in jagged, funkedup repetitions that suggest, as a writer, he's a bit of a pummeling postpunk Tim Berne. Read more Less