The Inhabitants at Casa Del Popolo

Vancouver's Inhabitants dropped by Montreal's Casa Del Popolo recently to share their ecstatic mix of post-rock and jazz with us. I was fortunate enough to check it out.

A group of Vancouver's finest jazz players known for their work with other projects to numerous too mention, Vancouver's The Inhabitants have been touring in support of their brand new Drip Audio release, The Furniture Moves Underneath. Although The Inhabitants is a project in which players known primarily as jazz heavyweights are trying their hand at post-rock, the group thankfully does not resist their natural impulse towards improvisation.

The band stopped by Montreal's Casa Del Popolo and played to a small but very appreciative crowd. It was my second opportunity to see the group live – the first time was at Vancouver's Rime - A Turkish restaurant with a predilection for free-jazz. Perhaps due to a propensity of dining customers on this particular night, the band played an impressive but subdued set. The Montreal show I witnessed this past weekend was anything but.

At Casa, the group was on fire. Guitarist Dave Sikula tore through some pretty awesome post-Frisell solos and bassist Pete Schmidt demonstrated through example, that he is a shining compositional light within the group with a few unforgettable tunes - one exquisitely beautiful, a track off of their new album entitled "A Part of You" and the other an infectious African inspired-number whose name I can't recall but whose melody, on the other hand, I can't get out of my head. Drummer Skye Brookes demonstrated, as he always does, that impressive technique and good taste aren't mutually exclusive. And then there's the terrorist of the trumpet, JP Carter.

Where fellow Vancouverite Dan Bejar was content to merely speak of a 'war on jazz', Carter and many of his compatriots seems hellbent and determined to put the concept into action, doing unspeakable things to the trumpet. This is what is politely known as 'extended technique'. After a trip through ProCo Rat distortion pedals, loops and delays and whatnot - Carter's sound comes out mangled beyond recognition. It all makes for a pretty awesome soundscape - waves of complex noise and texture that ride on top of relatively tame tones of the other members of the group.' That's not to say that his personal 'war on jazz' is never permited a truce - on tracks like the aforementioned 'Part Of You' his dulcet tones are a thing of beauty.

It's this constant dialectic between noise and mellifluousness, jazz and rock, explosive catharsis and gentle introspection that makes the group so compelling. Their live shows soar high above anything a recording could hope to capture so take advantage of an opportunity to catch a concert, but the record is certainly more than mere consolation prize. Vancouver's jazz scene, in my mind, is without question, the hottest in Canada; the city boasts a few truly great festivals, a number of clubs that are willing to venture to the outer reaches of free-improv, a free-jazz bookstore concert series, and a dizzying array of top-flight musicians who've banded together in every possible permutation. It all adds up to a pretty good time for fans and players alike. Thankfully, The Inhabitants took the time out of their no doubt busy schedules to spread the message, and the music, to the rest of the country.

http://www.dripaudio.com/releases.php?release=15

Gordon B. Isnor