BADBADNOTGOOD is an instrumental band & production team from Toronto, Ontario, Canada consisting of drummer/vibraphonist Alex Sowinski, bassist/keyboardist Chester Hansen & multi-instrumentalist Leland Whitty. Forming in 2010 over their shared appreciation for the late MF DOOM & of course Odd Future, their first 2 full-lengths BBNG & BBNG2 further gained traction for blending original compositions & covers until III fully won me over near the end of my junior year of high school after Tyler, The Creatorintroduced me to them through shouting the band out on “Lone” off his sophomore effort Wolf. They also produced what I consider to be Ghostface Killah’s most underrated album Sour Soul approximately 9 months later & Leland was promoted from touring member to official member the next summer on IV. Matthew Tavares departed in 2019 & their XL Recordings debut Talk Memory subsequently came out couple years later. In preparation for a 6th LP, they’ve decided to give fans a taste of what’s to come by releasing a 2nd EP & the first in a new trilogy.
“Eyes on Me” officially gets the EP started by crossing over elements of jazz & funk music for nearly 5 minutes whereas “Take Me With You” picks up from there to give off more of a rhythmic jazz-rock vibe generally. “Weird & Wonderful” brings some funkier grooves back in the mix colliding them with BADBADNOTGOOD’s signature jazz sound to finish the 1st half that is until “Mid Spiral” begins the 2nd leg of the EP going straight up electric jazz fusing both funk & rock this time around. “Last Laugh” happens to be another jazz fusion composition turning the rock influences down although you still have some guitars popping up occasionally & the funk influences up while “Your Soul & Mine” closes Mid Spiral: Chaos giving us 1 more jazz-funk joint.
These guys’ potential was always shown best through the original compositions on their first couple LPs in my opinion since tracks like “Improvised Jam” or “UWM” stood out to me the most during my adolescence & even now all this time later are some of my favorite songs that’ve pieced together in the last 14 & a half years they’ve been actively making music. BADBADNOTGOOD however has been giving us 1 consistent body of work after another over the last decade in III, IV, Talk Memory & now you can add this newest EP of theirs onto the ever-growing pile. It predominantly stays within the band’s jazz fusion wheelhouse in terms of overall sound with additional jazz-funk & jazz-rock undertones sprinkled in.
Score: 4/5
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