Modal Jungle - Kind of Breaks

A dense smoke rises from the floor of an imaginary jazz club, carrying the smell of cold tobacco, spilled whiskey, and damp banknotes. It’s within this cinematic haze that Modal Jungle’s new album, Kind of Breaks, takes place — a masterful intertwining of Drum & Bass, Breakbeat, and Contemporary Jazz. The record sounds like the soundtrack of an unmade spy film — one you can see clearly with your eyes closed.

From the opening moments, the listener is immersed in a universe suspended between the elegance of the past and the electronic tension of the future. The influences are declared and tangible: John Coltrane for his spiritual improvisation, Aphex Twin for fractured rhythmic architectures, London Elektricity for fluid drum’n’bass flow, Hidden Orchestra for cinematic acoustic storytelling, and Portico Quartet for their suspended, intimate atmospheres. Yet Kind of Breaks doesn’t just blend these worlds — it bends them, reshaping them into something radically new: an acoustic experiment that captures the groove and emotional pulse of electronic music without ever touching a synthesizer.

The opener, “Blueprint of the Heist,” is the perfect introduction to the album’s concept. Piano and saxophone converse like two conspirators mapping out a robbery. The rhythm is restrained, the tension palpable. The music seems to breathe before the action — a dark room lit only by the reflection of neon on rain-soaked streets.

With “Whiskey & Silencers,” the tone turns more nocturnal. A jazz acoustic guitar leads the track, oscillating between sweetness and menace. There’s something clandestine in its chords, an echo of old noir films and impossible love affairs. It conjures the image of a weary hitman lost in thought beneath a flickering streetlight.

“Poker Face Trick” steps in with double bass and flute, an elegant duet that plays with bluff and deception. It’s perhaps the most theatrical track on the record: every note feels like part of a gesture, every pause like a knowing glance between partners in crime.

The fourth piece, “July 2nd,” is the album’s most abstract and hypnotic moment. The handpan creates a floating, meditative soundscape, suddenly fractured by rhythmic distortions worthy of Aphex Twin. It’s the soundtrack to a midday escape, sunlight flashing off the metal of a stolen car.

With “Code in Blue Note,” the journey drifts eastward. The shamisen adds a fresh melodic tension — a code to be deciphered, a secret message hidden between the strings. The composition is meticulous, almost engineered, yet always suffused with latent sensuality.

“Smoke in the Mirrors” marks the album’s dark heart. The didgeridoo and brass combine into a deep, uneasy breath, a visceral bassline moving beneath the surface like a snake in a hotel room. It’s the part of the film where the protagonist no longer knows whom to trust.

Finally, “Satin Getaway” closes the narrative with marimba lines that feel both soft and melancholic. It’s the getaway after the heist — the rush through the night with pockets full and heart empty. A conclusion that offers no redemption, only a lingering nostalgia.

Kind of Breaks moves with a stealthy grace, always poised between sophistication and tension. Modal Jungle builds a world where jazz is not a relic of the past, but a secret code for decoding the present. The percussion breathes, the horns tell stories, the strings whisper. Everything is acoustic, yet every sound seems to come from a black-and-white future.

A work of rare coherence and imagination, Kind of Breaks fuses Coltrane’s improvisational spirit, Aphex Twin’s labyrinthine mind, and the cinematic sensitivity of the finest contemporary jazz ensembles. This isn’t just an album to listen to — it’s one to live, like a film viewed through the bottom of a whiskey glass, while outside, the rain keeps falling into the night.

Genre: Drum&Bass, Breakbeat, Contemporary Jazz

Tracklist:

01 Blueprint of the Heist

02 Whiskey & Silencers

03 Poker Face Trick

04 July 2nd

05 Code in Blue Note

06 Smoke in the Mirrors

07 Satin Getaway

September 7, 2025 - ©℗ Tikibar