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Envelopes: Free Jazz

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by Rachel Cawley

'Free Jazz' by Sweden’s Envelopes sounds nothing like the free jazz of John Coltrane. And, as much as I enjoy explosive improvisational saxophone solos, most occasions I’d plump for Envelopian fluorescent pop music. Where the free jazz of musical definition has tried to wave off structures – compositional, harmonic and rhythmical - this 'Free Jazz' is resplendently neon-soaked in all of them. Where Coltrane and Envelopes might cross over is in attitude: loud, brash, joyous, inventive and unafraid to step right over the marked boundaries.

This aforementioned a-side is patchwork pop of lime green, fuscia pink and electric blue. Lyrics of pragmatic optimism (“Make things happen / Provoke them”) alongside chopped-up, juttering broken English make for a children’s TV theme for the Ritalin generation. There’s that same feeling of uninhibited wonder at everything that ran through early nineteen-nineties children’s television – how Whybird and Peggy Patch could visit a soap factory and make it thrilling, or Brum would only have to visit a park to get his kicks.

B-sides 'Put On Hold' and 'Pink Christmas' continue the stuttering, cluttered pop theme. The former toys with phone-engaged tones, vocals part-human part-automated, still fixed in a wide-eyed expression of awe. To try and stick some neat summary around this mass of fun is never going to work, but taking The Jackson 5’s perfectly executed pop hooks and Misty’s Big Adventure’s grown-up approach to juvenile exuberance would end up sounding something like this single release. Only one caveat emptor – these levels of high spirits will probably grate with the permanently morose, as melancholy is not a word in the Envelope’s vocabulary.

  • Envelopes 8 / 10

Go 'vlopes!

2006 will be yours.


I really do hope they get more

recognition this year. They are playing a tiny venue in Newcastle shortly. They deserve a much bigger stage.


i doubt it


i walked out of their show

i'm so silly...


They're playingin Durham

Sunday 26th. Be there or be rectangular. Man.

PS PM me if you want to reserve a ticket, I'm supposedly helping to organise it...


I heard

...that Ornette Coleman is going to return the favour with a track called 'Beautifully Quirky (yet certainly not annoying) Indie-Pop To Bring A Smile To The Face of All who Hear It'.





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