The Best Darkjazz Albums and Artists

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Last year I heard a mix while using Bandcamp that featured a genre I had not heard before: Darkjazz. I don't remember the name of the mix, although it might have been either Two Hungry Ghost's or Sonar's Ghost that had liked this mix at SoundCloud.

My question then is, which are the essential acts and albums featuring a darker form of jazz; darkjazz, doomjazz, or jazz noir?
never heard of it Oops
I've heard Cities Last Broadcast before.

Label mix from Cryo Chamber.    Vibe reminds me of if perhaps, FSOL went in a bit more "organic" direction, no?   Chin






Tracklist - including bandcamp links:

00:00:00 Wordclock - St. George
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:06:38 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - Quiet Days on Earth
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:14:11 Wordclock - Where Mercy Lives
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:17:39 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - The Other Lobby
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:23:30 Wordclock - Heralds
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:26:46 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - Floor 6, Please
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:29:34 Phonothek - In the smell of Wolves
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:34:22 Wordclock - Bell ringing I
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:39:45 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - Miles to Midnight
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:45:08 Phonothek - Mudra
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:50:30 Phonothek & Cities Last Broadcast - Last Melody
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:55:52 Wordclock - Beatrice's Euphoria
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


01:01:34 Wordclock - Bell ringing III
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


01:06:17 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - A thousand empty rooms
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...
I've heard Nyctophiliac in downtempo / trip-hop streams.  Sounds like something that could have been released on WordSound in the 90's.

obviously more beat orientated. 


https://nyctophiliac.bandcamp.com/album/...the-mental




Speaking of which..

Kevin Martin / The Bug's debut "Tapping the Conversation" 1998 WordSound lp, could be an earlier reference point.   I LOVE this Bug release.  





TRACK LISTING:

[
0:00] "Harry's Theme"
[
4:19] "Invasion of Pricacy"
[
10:39] "Countdown to Elimination"
[
14:55] "Those Tapes Are Dangerous"
[
22:53] "Bug Party"
[
26:10] "The Lift"
[
32:32] "Fake Auto Crash"
[
37:51] "Room 773"
[
45:35] "Seduction and Betrayal"
[
50:08] "The Director"
[
53:53] "Amy"
[
57:51] "Nightmare Messenger"
[
1:01:54] "Twenty-Four Hour Surveillance"
I think I don't know much about dark jazz. I only have eight artists on the tip of my tongue

The Alpha Rhythm - Proof Of Concept (Seedknowledge)
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (anything from em)
Boozou Bajou - Six (light n dark jazz electronics)
Oren Ambarchi - Live Knots (his jazziest stuff, n dark)
Excepter - Excepter (brushwork electronic processed)
Natural Snow Buildings - longass titled vinyl (?)
Twinsistermoon - Twinsister (more triphop a la Lamb)
Speeq - OR (heavy improv shit, dark n noisy jazz)
It might have been this mix, but I cannot recall if the picture for the mix is the same as the one I saw last year. The mix is in the same vein though:

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble Electronic Explorations 125 mix
https://soundcloud.com/marinela-parlicov...o-darkjazz

This mix I heard may have been more on a dark ambient downtempo tip.
(24th March 2018, 07:16)Statto Wrote: never heard of it Oops

Me neither
the NEW Dj Krush "Cosmic Yard" lp has some moments indeed.

Great listen.




http://www.gammaproforma.com/index.php/e...ory=758346

https://www.juno.co.uk/products/dj-krush...684062-01/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/cosmic...1354275586

Tracklist:

00:00 1. Regulus
03:51 2. Stellar Wind
07:14 3. Divine Protection feat. – 渥美幸裕*
11:36 4. Asterism (Interlude)
13:16 5. Emission Nebula
17:21 6. Law Of Harmony feat. – 森田柊山*, 近藤等則*
23:45 7. Dust Trail
27:27 8. Bow Shock (Interlude)
29:14 9. La Luna Rouge feat. – Binkbeats
34:13 10. Ignition
37:42 11. Habitable Zone (Chapter 1)
42:11 12. Sporadic Meteor feat. – 近藤等則*

A conceptual diversion, but BLISS nonetheless.    Smile   



^that second Kronos Quartet vid is da bizness. Thx!
I love DJ Shadow, but to my ears DJ Shadow is not darkjazz. Seen him live in 2011, he was amazing. "Endtroducing" is beautifully done.
^^ my darkjazz is your vapourwave doomstep    Wink

As a past dj, when I hear the term & sounds associated with darkjazz, etc, personally I immediately think of sounds that would fit within the dj set context, as apposed to the minted, genre specific darkjazz, etc. ideal, that seemingly now, might have a specific emphasis on a genre defined production aesthetic that we hear now in places.  Obviously,  darkjazz ideas that have been around for a long time, before the genre term, right? Personally, I instantly think specific points in FSOL, Dj Spooky of course & his various collaborations (I concur, Kronos for the win!), Kevin Martin moments as mentioned, and even Jack Dangers / Meat Beat Manifesto productions to my ears, Bill Laswell remixes and such. As a dj... just pitch up or down, edit, air snippets, and you have a darkjazz vibe.   Just my immediate correlation when I hear the stuff.
   

avant vs. the danceable, head noddding factor. Always in interesting dichotomy.    Groove can be silent too right? heh.     Chin
Thanks for all the recommendations guys.

Now I understand the link between darkjazz and Cryo Chamber / Wordclock etc. because it can fit into the dark ambient genre. In my current understanding of the term, the music can be either straight up jazz on a more serious and dark atmosphere, or tie into ambient and dark ambient. You could combine dark ambient overtones with proper jazz percussion and background instruments.

Here is a compilation I found at Bandcamp: https://aquarellist.bandcamp.com/album/d...ompilation

Let me know what you think, and I'll check the Wordlock material and the other recommendations.
diversion, fawk the genres & labels.. at least for an hour or so heh.  

More Dj Spooky conceptual, ambient craziness posted about. From 1997. 


https://www.discogs.com/Paul-D-Miller-Vi...ease/16990





1.Prologue (The Duchamp Effect)-7.24  
2.Indra's Net (Song of the Circular Ruins Edit)-11.10  
3.Morphic Interlude (The Sun Ra Effect)-2.52  
4.Nodal Flux (The Rauschenburg Effect)-2.10  
5.Invisual Ocean (Critical Bandwidth Mix)-7.57  
6.Striated Interlude #1-2.00  
7.Necrologue (The Lament of Darth Vader)-5.09  
8.Striated Interlude #2 (Biomorphic Structure #786*Beta)-.57  
9.City on the Edge of Forever (Vector Analysis Mix)-8.08  
10.Zona Rosa (Total Chromatism Mix)-7.38  
11.Colophon-6.51  
12.Striated Interlude #3 (Synchronic Overload Edit)-2.00  
13.Primary Inversion-7.07  
14.Striated Interlude #4 (The Fannon Effect)-1.52  
15.Epilogue (Processed Digital Feedback)-1.04
dj Spooky - turntables, electronics
Matthew Shipp - piano
William Parker - bass
Guillermo Brown - drums

Filmed Concert In The Blue Banlieue Card
Jazz In Seine Saint-Denis, France 20th Edition
Wednesday 19 March 2003 



Michael Arthur Holloway  aka. Dead When I Found Her - Portland, Oregon

I've posted the Dead When I Found Her, Skinny Puppy-esque dark industrial project in the Electronic Body Music thread in the past:

http://www.subvertcentral.com/thread-618...#pid884445


Holloway also does darkjazz stuff too. Recommended. 


https://michaelarthurholloway.bandcamp.c...guilt-noir




Tracklist:

01. Lift Your Curtain 0:00
02. Exposure 07:48
03. Dead Weight 12:56
04. Bottom Feeder Blues 19:02
05. Don't You Believe Me 23:53
06. Corkscrew 34:25
07. Short Change 38:51
08. Doctor Knows Best 44:14
09. Empty Bridges 49:23
10. At Rest (At Last) 55:49
Painkiller circa 1994


https://www.discogs.com/PainKiller-Execu...ster/12945




Blue
I went through parts of Wordclock's discography today, and I thought that it suited me quite well in terms of listening pleasure, and quality of the music. If I were to describe it in layman's terms, I'd say that the music is 'ambient jazz', 'dronejazz' or 'dark ambient darkjazz', if you get the idea, whereas The Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble is more jazz; i.e. darkjazz or jazz noir.

I am also halfway through parts of The Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble's discography, and this reminds me more of proper jazz, although with an ambient/electronic depth to it. You take the best parts from jazz syncopation, electronic as well as analog instruments, and suggestive vocals, thus adding to the elements of jazz proper. It's as if a jazz group did a jazz noir soundtrack to one of Lynch's movies - Mulholland Drive perhaps? - and the soundscape incorporates more variation and comes and goes, when a lot of the core works within ambient has a droney sound wall type of soundscapes that makes it intense at almost al times during a tune.

Furthermore, Massive Attack's 100th Window sounds like a few of the tunes from The Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.
The Caretaker utilises doo-wop and ragtime, slowed down to an Ambient crawl. The music has a dark n raw bogeyman feel because of how slowed down the music is. 
Jazz down into bedtime oblivion...everywhere at the end of time.

https://thecaretaker.bandcamp.com/album/...nd-of-time

I thunk yule find dis merry horn plenty full at over 3 hours long. Smile
(24th March 2018, 07:44)+ToRMeNT+ Wrote: I've heard Cities Last Broadcast before.

Label mix from Cryo Chamber.    Vibe reminds me of if perhaps, FSOL went in a bit more "organic" direction, no?   Chin






Tracklist - including bandcamp links:

00:00:00 Wordclock - St. George
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:06:38 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - Quiet Days on Earth
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:14:11 Wordclock - Where Mercy Lives
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:17:39 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - The Other Lobby
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:23:30 Wordclock - Heralds
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:26:46 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - Floor 6, Please
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:29:34 Phonothek - In the smell of Wolves
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:34:22 Wordclock - Bell ringing I
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:39:45 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - Miles to Midnight
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:45:08 Phonothek - Mudra
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:50:30 Phonothek & Cities Last Broadcast - Last Melody
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


00:55:52 Wordclock - Beatrice's Euphoria
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


01:01:34 Wordclock - Bell ringing III
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...


01:06:17 Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect - A thousand empty rooms
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/albu...

Big up +ToRMeNT+ for the link to this mix. I have actually not listened to it yet, but many tunes comes from these albums:

Wordclock - Heralds: https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/heralds
Atrium Carceri - Miles to Midnight: https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/m...o-midnight
Phonotek - Red Moon: https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/red-moon

Both Heralds and Miles to Midnight are good albums, and I would also recommend: Wordclock - Self Destruction Themes: https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/s...ion-themes and Wordclock - NOCT OST: https://lacedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/...soundtrack

I haven't yet listened to the Phonotek album.
These albums from Wordclock are currently on sale:

https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/s...ion-themes
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/endless
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/heralds
I listened to the Holloway "Guilt Noir" lp today, as well as the Dead When I Found Her "Eyes on Backwards" release (.. so good!). Both releases I haven't delved back into for some time.

In the contrasts within Holloway's dark jazz vs his electro industrial stuff, I found the samples to be typical, dark industrial, (Skinny Puppy-ish) noir themed in both projects. Which translates to both, giving the same atmosphere & vibe to the different aesthetics, but definitely drawing parallels to both approaches. DWIFH, "The Pines" carries the most atmospheric similarities to his dark jazz delivery.

Michael Arthur Holloway, "Strange Cargo" lp, from 2021


https://deadwhenifoundher.bandcamp.com/track/the-pines
https://michaelarthurholloway.bandcamp.c...ange-cargo

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