Groupshow

Groupshow are the latest outing by the increasingly eccentric Berliner Jan Jelinek, and The Martyrdom of Groupshow features him in the midst of a trio rounded out by fellow Kosmische impresario Andrew Pekler, as well as Hanno Leichtmann. If this line-up rings a bell it's because they first toured together as the live band for Jelinek's 2005 album, Kosmischer Pitch. In many ways, this album delivers an apt evolution of that phase of Jelinek's career, with a greater emphasis on organic textures blended together in highly hypnotic loops of dub. It's complexly muddy and loose music that borrows as equally from the world of free-jazz as from the sphere of electronic experimentation. However, unlike Jelinek's solo work, the trio formation allows a greater range of variety, and so listening to The Martyrdom beginning to end feels more like a complete journey than a well-accomplished exercise of variations on a single theme.