Review: ROIL

ROIL - Frost Frost (Bo’ Weavil Recordings)
“Frost Frost” is the second album release for Sydney jazz trio, ROIL, but the first outside of Australia. Members, James Walpes, Mike Majkowski and Chris Abrahams have been active on the Australian jazz and improvised music scenes for many years. Collectively they have performed with the likes of Jon Rose and Clayton Thomas (Mike - bass) and been members of the Mike Nock Trio (James - drums) and The Necks (Chris - piano).

On “Frost Frost”, the centerpiece track, “Water Servant” picks and feels its way through various musical personalities of melody or intangibility, but as a whole, their improvisations stage a passive / aggressive approach to music making. Some are more minimalist (“Honeydew”) or more melodic ambient passages (“Costume of Melancholy”, “The Absence of Air” and “Frost Frost”) which tend towards the passive, whilst the extended free jazz excursions – like the brooding and acerbic, “Super Victim” – teeter on the aggressive.
www.myspace.com/roilmeaning
www.boweavilrecordings.com
Willsk