Review CHOREOMANIC ‘Choreomanic’

Dutch bass player Joost van der Graaf is known from his time with bands like Dew-Scented. His bass can be also heard on Pestilence’s latest album ‘Exitivm’. In 2020 Van der Graaf started with Choreomanic a solo project and the self-titled album is the debut.

Musically Choreomanic has not that much to do with the mentioned bands. This project has more of a progressive funky twist also underlined by saxophone and trumpet. Still, it’s rock music creating the foundation for each of the songs with the bass in focus. The debut is basically an instrumental album although three of the tracks includes vocals. The opener ‘This is Not a Drill’ is such a tune. Driven by strong groove the vocals are more of a narrative instrument than real singing. ‘This is Not a Drill’ is a good start into the album that showcases the various influences of the Dutchman.

The darker sounds of Choreomanic come to forefront with songs like the sinister ‘What You Get’ before ‘Red Flags’ starts with a marching-like sound frame. Each of the twelve songs is creating a certain unrest with the listener since so much is happening. There are layers and twists that cut the flow into pieces and there is the dominant bassline that keeps it still together.

Listening to Choreomanic is a manic manic experience. It’s like the musical hallucination that is spread out over 37 minutes. Fans of Zappa, Mr. Bungle and Infectious Groove could become friends with ‘Choreomanic’ while everybody else might have a need to challenge mind and eardrums a bit more than usual. Stretching the frames, that is what this longplayer is all about.