Reach

Kneebody push their sound to its sonic edge on their confident and funky ninth studio album, 2025s Reach. The group, who have been carving out a distinctive path through the creative world since their 2005 eponymous debut, features saxophonist Ben Wendel, trumpeter Shane Endsley, keyboardist Adam Benjamin, and drummer/bassist Nate Wood. Ostensibly a jazz ensemble, their music deftly straddles genres, informed as much by funky 70s fusion and edgy Krautrock as modern post-rock and avant-garde electronica. They also write from a strong compositional aesthetic, where the individual solos are often less of a focus than crafting an overall group vibe. That said, each member is an adept improviser in the motivic post-bop style. Reach is an almost perfect balance of these elements, equal parts textured group interplay and daring improvisational sorties. The overarching sound of Reach is a one-two punch of Woods pounding, Teutonic drums paired with heavy low-end synths, sometimes supplied by Endsley on bass synth. Theyve been exploring this potent combination since they started, but it feels distilled to its acidic core elements on Reach. Its the first thing you hear on the opening "Repeat After Me," a pulsating drum and synth groove beaming forth like a laser from a monolithic spaceship. Spiraling through that kinetic groove beam are Wendel and Endsley, whose sax and trumpet melodies sound like they are filtered through alien-tech effects pedals. Things get more cosmically adventurous on the title track, where Wendels sax roars through an overdriven effects board like a rocket engine against a dubby, off-kilter drum and bass pattern. More space funk follows on the Daft Punk-esque "Another One" and the breakbeat kaleidoscope of "Top Hat." Similarly, "Glimmer" has an impressionistic, Debussy-in-space quality with Endsley and Wendel playing hushed melodies against Benjamins spectral piano and icy synth clouds. One gets the sense that many of the songs on Reach probably started out as loose jams, built around the particular sound of a synth or effects patch. This is a good thing; its an exploratory sonic expedition into the jazz unknown. ~ Matt Collar