A concert review of our concert at the Stockwerk/Graz by Felix Jurecek in the Kronen Zeitung:
Catchy tunes in series
The Viennese jazz quintet Memplex has just released its second album “Lawn of Love”. Now the gentlemen around Mario Rom (trumpet) and Werner Zangerle (saxophone) came to visit the Stockwer in Graz – and surprised with catchy hooks, full-sounding melancholy and cinematic sound dramaturgy.The new album is supposed to sound a bit like music for a TV series, says drummer Niki Dolp, while repairing his broken pedal.
Both, the part about the series and the part about the pedal, are symptomatic for this band: the quintet’s melodies are soothing, very catchy, but beautiful, warmly flowing and somehow always a bit melancholic.
Felix Jurecek
However, ecstatically floating solos burst into the sonic bliss again and again, which will probably ruin many a drum pedal by their length alone.
The way the music tells short stories, for example in “the Plod”, or suddenly makes turns with cuts and collages (“Soupa die Alentaja”) is cinematic in the best sense of the word – it’s cinematic!
