When the first Jazzanova records found their way into UK shops they seemed like an answer to the prayers of a scene looking for a way to merge the twin passions of increasingly organic house music with the rush of drum and bass. Somehow, Jazzanova records were unlike those of the other jazz-fixated producers that gone before them. Latin rhythms, in their hands, seemed to have as much in common with Optical and Roni Size as they did with the meandering bossas of Kruder and Dorfmeister.
When they started remixing, their music soared into the stratosphere as the rich texture of all forms of black music were tightened and refined into a crisp digital production that forced jazz into a shape somewhere between techno and UK Garage.
But that was a long time ago, and this album has been expected for at least three years. And that's why 'In Between' seems so oddly anticlimactic. Few of the album's 17 tracks approach the thrill of those early cybernetic jazz experiments. In fact, if you didn't know better, you might be led to conclude that this was Jazzanova's bid for the lucrative post-Zero 7 coffee table market. It's an idea that's reinforced by the fluff of 'No Use' whilst it's also flatly denied by the ingenious 'The One-Tet'. It can still be a thrilling thing to hear these producers at work but rarely do the instrumental tracks tighten their focus sufficiently to really engage.
'Mwela, Mwela (Here I Am)' uses the stuttering afro-rhythms of the West London sound with more complexity than your average IG Culture track. Whilst 'Another New Day' melds beautifully programmed jazz breaks to lush strings in clear homage to a lineage that takes in everyone from Rotary Connection to David Axelrod. But still it's no greater step forward for Jazzanova from those they took back in '98.
Dance music is the most restless genre of them all, constantly needing to shift to excite, to stay fresh and innovate. This album just came too late.
