Adult Jazz are releasing their debut album Gist Is next Monday, August 4, via their own label Spare Thought. Ahead of that, they’ve given us a first play of the record in full – take a listen above.
Forming in Leeds, where Harry Burgess, Tim Slater and Steven Wells were attending university, with Tom Howe, then studying electronic engineering and music at York, joining, first as producer, then fully-fledged member, the band recorded the album in a Scottish Borders farmhouse. That the equipment they used had most recently been used on folk recordings seems to have impacted on their own work: Gist Is is pitched somewhere between experimental folk and jazz-tinged electronic pop played acoustically, grounded by sparse percussion which gets layered up with touches of guitar and fragmentary squalls of electronics, and lead singer Burgess’ literate lyrics rendered in falsetto levity. While Burgess cites Björk’s adventurous back catalogue as a sonic influence, the record owes as much to literary inspirations and natty wordplay, with Burgess explaining of the album’s title: "It means not having to write down every possible permutation of your moral belief, and not having to subscribe to a set canon of truths – but instead cultivating the gist. It’s a neat little trick in two words, I like that kind of loss of seriousness."
The group are playing a show at London’s Electrowerkz on August 12 – get tickets for that here, and watch out for an interview with the group coming up on the Quietus.
