MAXMUS is guitarist/composer Max Makin, and whoever the collaborating artists are: in this case Verena Zollinger who does the sampling, Mery Wunderlin and Estella Benedetti on vocals and Christopherb on bass clarinet and tenor saxophone. The music falls very much into the soundscape/jazz market.
The CD is a total of six tracks over a time span of twenty six and a quarter minutes. The tracks are just labelled ‘Elements 1-6’.
‘Element 1’ is an avant garde jazz/ambient number which uses hip hop style drums and sampling along with electric guitar and clarinet. There are some sparse vocals along the lines of “Don’t slow down now.” “You got it, got it.” And “Just use your perception.”
‘Element 2’ is slower starting but builds slowly, an atmospheric track with free jazz guitar runs and samples working together to create a portentous doom laden soundscape, which works very well in this instance.
‘Element 3’ is the sort of mood music that you’d get in a modern jazz club, with bass, keyboards sampling and jazzy guitar.
‘Element 4’ which was in parts my favourite of the tracks reminded me slightly in parts of It’s Immaterial’s ‘Driving Away From Home’, which tickled the charts way back in 1986. The vocals are upfront and echoey: “Got to pack my bag, got to be on time. Going on a journey, movin’ down the line.” The problem with this is that the track then ends up with a lot of guitar feedback, which undermines the song.
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‘Element 5’ carries on the feedback motif, but then settles down into some atmospheric mood music, interspersed with shards of feedback that jolts the listener out of any complacency.
‘Element 6’ is guitar and clarinet based, with a few vocals that fade at each line “Get it, get it get it.” etc. The problem for me is again the feedback. The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Raveonettes have both made an art out of using feedback, but here it sounds disjointed and is unsettling.
Overall, I thought that this will probably be the sort of album that will have a very select group of fans, but I can’t see any great increase to the fanbase as the result of it. Very much aimed at a specific market.
Download 'Elements' from the Maxmus website
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