The entrancing jazz experiments of Ruud Voesten continue with his latest and quirkiest release ‘The Crypto Shuffle’. With broken rhythms, dark humour interspersed with pockets of light, Voesten’s latest release is an immersive piece of jazz that sucks you in and keeps you hooked throughout, making you wonder what just happened when the maddened saxophone line utters its last note.
Based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Ruud Voesten is an extremely interesting jazz drummer. After listening to his latest challenging release ‘Goesting’ a couple of months ago, I was chuffed when I got to listen to ‘The Crypto Shuffle’, which turned out to be less challenging, but somehow more chaotic. I don’t know how. Starting with a perky part on the tenor saxophone from Wietse Voermans that doesn’t prepare us for the complex rhythms that are about to ensue, the start-stop line seems lost in time and space, composed enough to stand on its own feet, but utterly disoriented in the best of ways. Voesten’s drum part and Tijs Klaasen’s double bass soon enter, introducing the piece’s full rhythmic grandeur. The piece then proceeds to go through multiple sections of tasteful improv, hard-to-read rhythms, and easy-to-feel motifs.
The mixing and production of the track by Wessel Oltheten of Fattoria Musica studio is genuinely warm and balanced, putting the wooden nature of the genre, and the intricate breathiness of the brass instruments exactly where they belong. ‘The Crypto Shuffle’ is a thoughtful piece of jazz that is masterfully quirky and with a gravity that continues to put Ruud Voesten and his compositions in a very high regard among all his peers.