[PCMS 2023.4] Dacamera - Don't Call It Jazz, It's Social Music

Dacamera's Don't Call It Jazz, It's Social Music opens suspensefully with a couple of layered sounds and noise. A drummer and bass player softly prepare in the background and then pick up into a bluesy jazz duet. But it isn't jazz. As live as Dacamera sounds, this is sequenced music. And is evident as the drumming starts shuffling through different snares.

The intro transitions seamlessly into the title track. The arrangement mimics a quartet adding keys and saxophone. Friends & Enemies, Swiss Cartel, and Heavy Soul follow. And are built up like jazz arrangements sometimes with strings or brass or woodwinds. At around a 170 bpm tempo with recognizable drum and bass patterns, they bridge the two styles. The tone is light and energetic.

Memento Mori and Tipping Point create more urgency. Sparse guitar notes growling and distorted lo-fi sounds shift the influence from jazz to blues. Layered breaks and a classic dnb break make appearances. Tipping Point grows sparse in an extended outro setting up the final piece.

Stasis in Darkness / Astral Melt are two tracks in one. In the first half, the sonically dense stanzas of a somber poet set a retrospective mood before a final seamless transition leaping into future seeking drum and bass.