Connan Mockasin was started by musician Connan Hosford with their initial release Forever Dolphin Love in 2010, and album which was apparently crafted in jest and made to be released by Hosford’s mother. Connan Mockasin has since toured with Radiohead in New Zealand and performed with Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac. Mockasin’s new album Jassbusters Two released earlier this month on Mexican Summer.
Jassbusters Two is the subsequent release following Jassbusters, one of Mockasin’s most popular releases. The album maintains all of the qualities present in a Mockasin album, but lacking the standout tracks such as “Hey Chocolate” or “Faking Jazz Together.” That being said the album is a breezy, somewhat slippery jazz inspired jam throughout maintaining pace with the rest of Mockasin’s work. Songs like “Maori Honey” and “Flipping Poles’” begin to lean into the catchiness listeners have grown to expect from Mockasin but, for many, fails to capture that quality which sets his music apart or makes the album memorable.
Notably, the second track on the album, “K is for Klassical,” is a riff off of Bach’s “Air for G string” with clear reference to the piece with a feeling of lament brought by the slow, wandering timing. This is followed by the single “Flipping Poles” which does some interesting things with the bass and “In Tune” where we hear some actual lyrics—I think.
The production on Jassbusters Two is tastefully crisp and lends itself to the instrumental qualities and hints of sensuality and nostalgia intersperse the music, as is par the course for a Mockasin album. This one, particularly though, sounds more like something you’d hear playing faintly in an empty elevator, or in the empty frozen goods aisle at the supermarket. Finally, somebody has provided easy listening for the weirdos!
While it’s not the band’s most well received work the album is alright, just not much worthy of note going on here, it doesn’t step out of place or produce much sense of particularity, rather the whole thing just kind of wafts around back there in the ambiance. It’s pretty good, given one has the taste for it.
Rating: 7.0/10
