Brooklyn Babylon is an unstoppable throbbing theatrical force, a surging shapeshifter that offers the listener a wild exciting ride. Inventive and impressive, but not pretentious. Big-band music at its most contemporary and provocative form.
An intricate embroidery of 70s jazz flavors, Balkan folk, rock and a variety of modern influences. Brooklyn Babylon is the second album by composer and conductor Darcy James Argue and his 18-piece band. As mentioned on the press release, the album was conceived in collaboration with Croatian-born visual artist Danijel Zezelj, whose narrative inspired Argue’s mash-up of musical styles.
Wind instruments, bass, drums, guitars and keyboards, twist, slide and strike together harmonically and dynamically, telling an epic story. The music moves in an unpredictable way, undulating and unfolding hectically. For the full effect, Brooklyn Babylon should be consumed from start to finish. It conjures so many different images over a course of 53-minutes, but they all fit together like pieces of a finely written and executed play. Brooklyn Babylon is an unstoppable throbbing theatrical force, a surging shapeshifter that offers the listener a wild exciting ride. Inventive and impressive, but not pretentious. Big-band music at its most contemporary and provocative form. The CD comes in a lovely four double sided panel digipak that features the design and illustrations of Zezelj.
Brookly Babylon is available on New Amsterdam. [Release page | Secret Society]
