Shalosh - Broken Balance

Act Music

£14.51

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: ACT99142
Barcode: Broken Balance
Release Date: 30th October 2020
Genre: Jazz

 “Life never goes in a straight line. Our world is full of surprises. Things we
have known forever can change before our very eyes. So the challenge is to
keep level-headed, to ensure that our lives stay in balance on the personal,
the social and the political level.” Shalosh capture this attitude in their music
and especially in ‘Broken Balance’. “More drama, more pushing at the
extremes, more sideways looks,” that was the motto for the album.
 The Tel Aviv-based trio cheerfully mix and contrast styles and genres;
they’re far too nimble to be categorized. They play with the complementary
extremes of strength of impact and fragility. “We are always Shalosh. That is
how we act, as one; our sound can be swing... or death metal.” There is
nothing random about their musical choices, however. Shalosh is like one
organism, its parts instinctively breathing together. They tell stories too.
Because Shalosh genuinely do have something to say. They want to inspire,
to make references, to ask questions and the miracle is that they do it all
wordlessly.
 The album gets going with ‘The Orphan Boy Who Wanted To Be A King’.
The track has a dreamy opening and also has a story to it. An orphaned
child is contemplating a vision of what it would be like to be a king. As the
melody grows and evolves, that dream starts to feel more and more real.
‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ deals with paranoia and disaster in the minds
of some of our current political leaders, who have lost all sense of humanity
and decency. The elegiac tune about David Bowie in Berlin finds ways to
transform a newspaper photo that brings bad news into an artistic
statement.
 ‘The Birth Of Homo Deus’ is the soundtrack to a three-part film script by
Gadi Stern, in which computers have taken charge - and made the world a
better place. The impromptu ballad ‘Quiet Corner’ is the album’s refuge of
calm. In ‘Breed’, the album’s only cover, the trio take on the rocky riffs of
Nirvana. And the bonus track ‘Party On A Powder Keg’ captures the
paradoxical Israeli emotions that arise when witnessing celebrations while a
war is going on.
 Shalosh make intensely insistent music which appeals to the feelings rather
than taxing the brain. This music without words has immediacy, catchiness
and strength - and yet delicacy as well. There is an irrepressible joy, a
physicality that goes straight to the feet and yet their hooky melodies have a
way of circling, of pausing and then moving forward and of growing
inexorably. Shalosh have a sense of being implanted in tradition but with a
perceptive eye for the future.

Tracklisting:
The Orphan Boy Who Wanted To Be A King
Back In Town
The Emperor‘s New Clothes
David Bowie
Contemplating Art And Death In A Café In Berlin
Nina
The Birth Of Homo Deus
Quiet Corner
Breed
The Last 8th Of April
Bonus Track: Party On A Powder Keg