The Exu — The Exu

The Exu are a Leeds-based jazz trio that mixes bebop and free jazz- taking influences from grunge, death metal, hip hop, & experimental music. As far as I can gather this self-titled CD album on Discus Music is the band's debut release, which features twelve tracks.

The trio is made up of James Mainwaring- saxophones, Dave Kane- double bass, and Emil Karlsen- drum'. The CD comes presented in a glossy and black four-panel digipak- which features a series of neon & stage light set abstract photos. The album can be purchased directly here.

I must say from the off/ first few plays this self-titled very much grabbed me, which one doesn’t often say with jazz records, as more often than not they take a little time to sink in/ appeal. I think it’s the blend of urgency, decent melodies, and a few more surprising moments that make the whole thing so instant/ appealing.

We open with “Riddle Me This” which shifts between urgent sax note pumping ribbed with tight bounding bass and smashing drum rolls, to more moody bass wonders and smoky warbling horn work. There’s the steadily cascading drumming, horn flirt ‘n’ bay, roaming bass bounding of “Pancakes”.

In the second half, we go from the steady pounding almost strung-out rock groove of “Kurt( For Kurt Cobain), with some great baying ‘n’ shifting horn soloing and nicely steady percussion & bass blends. The rapid and urgent “Bug Glass” with its cymbal crashing drums, warbling to baying horn work, and taut/ tense bass presence. Onto the taut opening bass wonderings, slow horn wavers, and stark but moody percussive slides and silvers of “In That Case”.

The Exu certainly is an engaging debut album- with the trio working wonderfully together to create a worthy/ fairly varied selection of tracks. I look forward to hearing how they develop, and may even drop in to see one of their shows- as from their site they seem to be fairly actively touring around the UK.