A new record from the experimental rock collective Grinded Grin was released in March and is a must-listen (in my humble opinion) for psychedelic music lovers. Charlatan is a wild seven-track instrumental record that melds stoner rock and experimental jazz into an incredible melting pot that could be called “stoner jazz fusion.”
The Grinded Grin collective is from Koprivnica in Northern Croatia, and its members change depending on the vision of each record. The collective delves into post-rock through improvisation, often through metal and into free-jazz weirdness.
Grinded Grin was formed by Aleksandar Vrhovec in 2005. After a 13-year hibernation, it was reanimated like Frankenstein’s monster and shaped in various forms. For Vrhovec, the idea of the collective is to gather the most suitable local musicians for any improvisational scenario.
After the release of Fledge in 2023, Grinded Grind was once again disbanded, and, this time, Vrhovec set about creating a conceptual album that follows the career of a charlatan. Charlatan is a story in seven songs that leads from the realization of charlatanism, attempts at tricks, perfecting them, uncovering the network of deception, and withdrawal.
The new record was recorded with the help of top foreign musicians, including drum samples by Linda-Philomene Tsoungui (The Mars Volta), Josué García on trumpet, and Michele Fortunato on didgeridoo. Among the local musicians, Vedran Momčilović is again on saxophone, and for the first time in Grin, Marin Mitić on guitar and bass (Mycena).
Charlatan is a mind-bending piece of stoner-meets-jazz-meets psychedelia that The Third Eye has been mesmerized by lately. The wild saxophone playing on many tracks is punctuated by free-form synthesizer freak-outs and electric guitar playing that sounds like the work of a virtuoso schooled in music theory.
Each song features intense playing that feels like it’s running so hot it’s about to explode and burst at the seams. The sounds are progressive and could almost be categorized as “math rock,” knowing the music was improvised makes it even more impressive. Charlatan is a heady trip, for sure. The record’s grand finale is “Epiphany’s Exposure,” a masterful twelve-minute-plus composition.
If you like Charlatan, dive into the rest of Grinded Grin’s work, including their 2023 album, Fledge, which we covered here at The Third Eye. The collective makes the types of space-out jams that true heads should surely love. Enjoy!
Check out Charlatan by Grinded Grin on Bandcamp here.
You can support Grinded Grin by finding them on Bandcamp or Facebook.
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