In 2024, I reviewed the debut album by Galician band, Juzz. You can read my thoughts by clicking on the button below:

Now, via those fine chaps at áMARXE, we have Juzz II, which you can obtain via the Bandcamp page at https://amarxe.bandcamp.com/album/juzz-ii

I described the band in my review as having a heady mix of jazz, psych, space, blues, heavy rock with some spellbinding noises and instrumentation. The lineup of Rosolino Marinello (tenor sax); Virxilio da Silva (guitars and composer); Álex Salgueiro: Vox Continental, Mellotron, OB6, DX7, flute; Xan Campos (Rhodes & Poly D); Felix Barth (bass); and Iago Fernández (drum) have provided us with five new pieces of music, which we discuss now.

We open with Das Cabinet, a bright start, the keyboards pumping out a sort of retro-pop ditty before the guitars enter, and we then are treated to the first blast of Marinello’s tenor sax. The choral effects are lovely, and this whole track is a counterpoint to those who state that there is no soul, no tunes in such music. They are wrong. There are parts of this song which frankly demand a dance, before the three minute mark when we enter the more fusion state of play, a throbbing bass, some complex percussion work, and a guitar which swirls and whirls across the range of sound, this giving way then to the accessible main theme before we get a final passage of serious rock intensity, the volume on the foundations turned up to the max, a guitar riff which would grace many a long-haired metal festival. Sweeping, panoramic, this gem is embedded below for you. Absolutely superb.

Nostalxia Adolescente (Teenage Nostalgia) follows, an epic track just shy of eleven minutes. There is a dissonance to the opening keys, and you are again reminded of how well Barth and Fernández couple as the root of this band’s sound. I remember being an angry, sort of lost soul as a teenager as I struggled to make sense of the world I was growing up into, and this track captures this perfectly, the sax contemplating, but it cleverly remembers the joyful times as well, the discovery of love, the sheer energy of being alive, and da Silva is perfect as his guitar dances around the keys, bass, and percussion, and those quieter moments in one’s private bedroom space, ruminating about what has happened and what is to come, and here Salgueiro provides a sublime flute lead against the background of gentle psych effects, so some musical contrasts between chaos and highs and all that occurs in between. Music used as a human commentary, and to terrific impact.

This gem is followed by Supernova, which I played on my radio show a couple of weeks ago. The guitar which introduces us is eery, and this mood is continued when the sax provides us with a glimpse of what it is like to stare into the vastness of space, some great rhythm grooves underneath. The keys shimmer halfway through, the journey taking on an even more ethereal quality, unaccompanied in the void, a riff building, though, in the background, and the calm is then broken by the collective in a burst of noise, the stellar event taking place, but in such a short burst of energy, the guitars representing the pulses of energy shot out into the ether. This track is a delicious jazz psych number.

Alto do Paraño is the penultimate track, one I believe refers to a Galician mountain climb. I have embedded this track below. I just love the delicate sound the guitar produces before we get that rhythm section introducing the band, the sax and keys blowing a gentle wind on our intrepid walkers. The bass melody on this is simply wonderful. The voices, sax, effects, all provide us with a sense of wonderment at the views of this beautiful part of the world, a sense of serenity and oneness with nature. The sax extended solo is to die for, so chilled and so comforting. This track is a serious contender for this website’s “instrumental of the year”.

We close with Despois do Final (After the End), and is the shortest piece here, just over four minutes in length. Against the backdrop of the delicate keys, the guitar takes charge, a great exercise in art rock composition, again proving that melody can be at the forefront of jazz fusion. As we progress, the band come together and expand the whole piece, bringing a very good album to a wholesome conclusion. The closing notes, by the way, have a nice nod to Duke-era Genesis.

Juzz are a very good band, and this second album shows they are on a great upward trajectory. It is simply wonderful and comes with the highest recommendation of this writer.