Hi, everyone. Bigthiny Sweattano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new series of EPs from BADBADNOTGOOD, Mid Spiral: Chaos, Order, Growth. This is the latest material from Canadian Grammy Award-winning jazz fusion outfit BADBADNOTGOOD, who have been at it for well over a decade at this point. It's been cool to see them grow through their music over the years, how they've changed since the days where they were dropping these raw revisions, jazz takes on instrumentals, on popular and classic hip hop albums from Nas and MF DOOM, Odd Future as well, even tracks from James Blake and the Zelda soundtrack. They have since recorded their own fair share of original jazz compositions and jams, done backing for the likes of Ghostface Killah, lent their talents to game-changing records such as Kendrick Lamar's DAMN., and who can forget the recent viral moment the band had based off of a pitched remix of their track, "Time Moves Slowly" featuring Sam Herring of Future Islands fame, which caught wildfire on TikTok.

The band has been super active lately as well, continuing to grow and push jazz boundaries on their recent Talk Memory record back in 2021. They also dropped a great new EP with singer Baby Rose that is a very classy, well-written soul throwback. They've been on an EP kick as they also dropped a handful of tracks on this Mid Spiral: Chaos record back in May, and they have since followed that up with a few other Mid Spiral offerings, Order and Growth. It's a suite of projects, a trio that are five, six tracks each, and these records see BADBADNOTGOOD in a relatively interesting place. You could say the band is sounding more skilled, mature, and steady than they ever have before. The youthful and explosive punk energy of their early records has pretty much been swapped out with a slick professionalism, something I think is majorly enhanced by the production on these projects, too. I don't know the full story behind how these records were recorded, but it sounds like what BADBADNOTGOOD were going for was this live, straight to tape-type performance vibe that sounds something out of a high-end 70s studio, and they absolutely nailed that energy, too, with a decent variety of styles and influences across this EP as well, from jazz funk, to jazz rock, to samba jazz, a bit of psych jazz, too.

Though I will note, there's not a super vast difference in vibe across each of these releases, which can be good or bad. It certainly makes it likely that if you enjoy one, you're going to like the other two. At the end of the day, there's more that binds them then separates them, which is significant because as far as my own personal taste goes in regards to jazz fusion, I would have preferred something with maybe a bit more sparky dynamic band chemistry going on as opposed to the chill and often laid-back direction that a lot of these tracks go in. There's a lot of grooving on these records, that's for sure, but not necessarily a lot of intense jamming. Still, there are plenty of captivating moments to be had, mostly brought on by colorful production choices or interesting instrumental features. First off, I love these spacy sliding melodies all over the track, "Take Me With You". Sounds like it could be a synth or a theremin - either way, it's otherworldly. There's also the sour and off-kilter intro on the song, weird and wonderful, which does try to embody its title. It certainly succeeds at that in the first leg. But as it progresses, it could have been a bit weirder, especially considering there are some pockets of the track that feel a little porno funk with its sensual groove, 'wah' guitars, and constant chime runs.

There are vaguely exotic and summery rhythms all over the intro track, "Eyes on Me", which ends in a showy display of sparkling lead melodies with a lot of the other instrumentation just being soaked in trippy effects. And the big showy horn harmonies on "Your Soul & Mine" are a major highlight, too, which is a rich, refined, classic piece of soundtrack funk that needs to get synced for a Netflix series ASAP. And while I'm focusing on the first EP here, the moments that felt like the weakest to me were the ones that were led by guitar as the title track of the EP feels like we're bringing some jazz fusion into some Pink Floyd-esque chord changes and a whaling and grating solo on the back end. Meanwhile, "Last Laugh" is passable, I guess you could say. It's just a mild instrumental rock where the drums are really the only thing worth paying super close attention to. It's one of at least several tracks throughout all of these EPs that just feels like it could use something else, some more solos, another piece of instrumentation, or even a vocal.

So from here, with these EPs sharing a lot of performance and production overlap, of course, they have a lot of the same pros and cons because like with Chaos, I think the jams on Order could have most definitely gone harder. Though I will say the record does start strong with the track "Playgroup", which in terms of upholding some stricter jazz standards and just more band interplay, some more interesting solo work, this is more like it. The track contains one of the bigger group performances on all of the EPs as well and really dishes it out for seven minutes. The rest of Order, though, dabbles in a lot of tropical and Latin pastiche with a lot of spicy grooves and hand drums and even flute. Some weird piss take with the vocals going on about "taco, taco, burrito, burrito." The vibes on these tracks, for the most part, are fine.

It's cool the band has reached a level of versatility where they can pull this sort of thing off, but for music in this lane, I don't think what the band is doing is all that terribly gripping or bold. I mean, aesthetically, it's nice, but in terms of execution, it mostly feels like tourist montage music, with "Rewind Your Mind" maybe being the only other track on the thing that is actually pretty evocative due to its spacy production and explorative sax and keys.

Growth is the shortest of the three EPs, and while it is passable, I don't think it adds that much to the songs we've heard thus far. There are a few cuts that just feel like straight up soul instrumentals that maybe would have been better suited for that Baby Rose EP. The stellar cord changes and bass work on "First Love", as well as the horn sections on "Audacia", do have the whole thing starting off pretty strong, though. But then the entire series tops off in a pretty breezy fashion with "White Light", which is really the most idyllic, dreamy, and sleepy cut of the whole bunch.

Overall, I just feel like these EPs are okay with the first one being the strongest. The second one, the weakest. While there are certainly highlights on each one, I just don't see myself going back to any one of them in full anytime soon, especially considering I think BADBADNOTGOOD has released music with more fiery performances in the past. I feel like that's where, again, a lot of my preferences lie and what my ears are really drawn toward. Even if I can acknowledge that as far as production quality goes, I feel like they've really topped themselves on these EPs. That and steady grooves and very chill instrumentation, that's where the magic of these projects lie. I should also note in an aside here, all these projects have been rolled up into one big album compiling all the tracks in them. But personally, I'll sit here and just hope for something a little bit more for the heads or just a bit more fiery and daring the next time around.

I'm feeling a light six on these projects.

Anthony Fantano. BADBADNOTGOOD. Forever.