How weird can “weird” actually get while staying within the confines of a pop song structure? That’s the question I kept asking myself while listening to the latest album from Meatshell—the duo of Andrew Saragossi and Helen Svoboda.
The opener, The Elevator, immediately sets the tone with abstract lyrics that feel like a collision of Swedish pop, electronica, and edgy, experimental jazz. The Kind That Cuts Deep leans further into that tension; it features textured electric basslines playing against vocals that intentionally drift in and out of time. It’s like listening to an argument between Esperanza Spalding and Jaco Pastorius, set to a glitchy, avant-garde backdrop. It perfectly captures that specific “jazz festival” mood—the kind of music you find when you duck into a dark, intimate black-box stage to escape the high-energy chaos of a main stage.
Maximum Anything is a short intermission kind of track which sounds like it was the result a looping experiment, and before it goes any further, we get into the next song.
Scrape It Off has synths, a percussive groove that sounds Brazilian inspired and layered vocals that continue to challenge my ears.
Moving on to High Speed Jockey, the duo explores the tail end of the previous track morphing into something else. The counterpoint between the saxophone and the vocals creates a sonic painting that feels right at home in a musical art gallery.
Bliss provides a nice contrast to the previous tracks, slowing things down a bit in a beautiful way. It has a more relaxing atmosphere which is nice.
Following that we get the title track of the album, The Elevator Child which interestingly seems like the most accessible track so far from a pop standpoint. The textures are nice and the groove works well while still having the experimental sonic elements that we’ve heard on the previous tracks. The saxophone solo is also particularly hypnotic before it goes into a more avant bass and saxophone conversational outro thing.
Closing the album, we have Pressure On Me (feat. Roman MC) which begins with harmonized vocals for almost the first minute before we get an equally choral textured saxophone part. The next part continues with the same choral mood of the opening vocals before Roman MC goes into a spoken word part that feels like a real calm climax to the entire record.
In conclusion, this is an interesting concept record, probably one of the most unique releases I’ve heard in a while. The crossover between experimental and avant elements with pop certainly make it something challenging yet in some ways accessible. To be honest I’m not sure who would vibe with this record. Perhaps someone who wants to listen to something pop but with a dash of weird might just like it. If that sounds like you, do listen to Meatshell – you might just have it on repeat.
Rating: 4/5
You can stream the album here on YouTube Music, Spotify and Apple Music.
The release is also available as a download and CD on their bandcamp page here: https://meatshell.bandcamp.com/album/the-elevator-child
I received a complimentary copy of this album courtesy of Matt of Jazzfuel. Thank you for the CD.
[About Meatshell]
MEATSHELL is the experimental-folk duo of Helen Svoboda (contrabass/voice) and Andrew Saragossi (tenor saxophone). With a shared curiosity for the subtle beauty of things, the pair cultivates unconventional sound worlds, transcending traditional song forms by emphasising the power of story telling through sound. Infused with elements of minimalism, contemporary jazz and free improvisation, the music is intimate, raw and unapologetically honest.
In their individual artistic careers to date, both Svoboda and Saragossi have been steadfast in their pursuit of challenging the orthodox sonic limitations of their instruments. After relocating to the Netherlands from their hometown of Brisbane, Australia in 2018, they formed MEATSHELL as an outlet for shared experimentation and collaborative composition. Inspired by fresh surroundings, the duo have since developed a unique identity and deeply personal approach to song writing and composition, embracing the oddities and expressive flare from their mutual backgrounds in jazz and the avant-garde and recontextualising them into something more holistic and deeply personal.
MEATSHELL’s quirky songwriting style reflects their shared passion for the unorthodox, and aims to illustrate the full emotional spectrum of the human condition. Sincere, beautiful melodies and euphoric grooves are boldly juxtaposed with moments of mystery, desperation and screaming chaos. The music “does not fit comfortably into subgenre molds” (Scott Murphy, Heavy Blog is Heavy 2019), but rather sets out to challenge traditional instrumental roles; Svoboda explores soloistic and melodic approaches upon the double bass whilst Saragossi utilises both conventional and extended saxophone techniques to create density and harmonic richness in support of the often eclectic lyrical content.
MEATSHELL has been steadily building a reputation for their divergent musical thinking and were recently recognised as winners of the 2020 Maastricht Jazz Awards (NL), as well as being selected to participate in the finals of the 2020 B-Jazz Competition (Leuven, BE) and garnering a Highly Commended Award in the jazz category of the 2020 Queensland Music Awards for their debut album “Afar” (2019, MADE NOW MUSIC). The duo were also winners of the inaugural Award for Innovation in Music (2019 – Conservatorium Maastricht) for their debut immersive/ experimental theatre production “Peaceful Co-existence” which they wrote, directed, produced and performed in.
MEATSHELL released their second album “Since Subito” in March 2021 through Sydney label Earshift Music. This album serves as a sonic exploration of the concepts and principles underpinning the cubist art movement, with a particular focus on juxtaposition and simultaneous revealing of various, sometimes clashing perspectives of one idea. With a deeper focus on songwriting, this body of work makes a stark departure from their predominately homogenous and instrumentally oriented debut album “Afar” .
Check out their work and activities at https://www.meatshellmusic.com/
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