This is the first single that introduced the audience to the powerful forms of MOb, deconstructing and reconstructing the language of jazz, combining technical mastery with emotional depth, adding exploratory punk rock and melodic sax.
Video credits:
Video: Thomas Beltsios/ Label: Veego Records
MOb
As Greece’s unconventional jazz community advances into the mainstream, MOb is pushing things to the next level. The trio initially came to notice in February 2023 when their first recorded track, “VAG”, was played in BBC6 radio shows such as in those of Mary Ann Hobbs, the legendary Gilles Peterson and Tom Ravenscroft (son of John Peel), and made it onto the playlist of James Lavelle’s (Mo’Wax label owner and UNKLE’s trip hop band steady member), earning enthusiastic comments. For a Greek act which hadn’t put out its first official release yet, that was a great start!
Marios Valinakis (sax & live electronics), Alexandros Delis (bass guitar & effects), and Panagiotis Kostopoulos (drums) released their debut album, titled MOb 1, in 2023 via Veego Records. The band somehow manages to stretch the rhythmic and melodic conventions of jazz, encompassing a variety of sonic forms with compositions mainly based on open forms of tonal and non-tonal linear material, that feels close to Shabaka Hutching’s The Comet is Coming futuristic approach.
MOb subvert the seriousness often associated with jazz, challenging broader views of what it can sound like, and it turns out their artistic mindset earns them a broad reputation. Based in Athens, the three-piece group carries rich and diverse influences in its jazz fusion idiom: avant-garde, post-punk, synths and loops fit perfectly to jazz’s innovation and creativity. Through these combinations, and as their name suggests, MOb create a disorderly dynamic blend that is raw, free and visionary.
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