KWJAZ is the self-titled first release off of RANGERS‘ Brunch Groupe label. Cassette sold out quick, vinyl due on Not Not Fun this summer. In the meantime it’s starting to pop up online …

We’re totally mesmerized, as are plenty of the cassette-psych underground bloggers out there (Simon Reynolds shouting it out too). Undulating fog production similar to Rangers, but less guitar and more jingle-jangle meandering-percussion and smooth-ethno-ambient-jazz vibes warping through the haze of two 20-minute sides. Simultaneously one of the most pleasant and utterly disorienting things we’ve heard in quite awhile. Like Rangers or Sun Araw there’s plenty of easy reference points (the dude says he likes Dilla, Reynolds hears Jon Hassell, sounds to our ears like a bossa-friendly cousin to mellow Marble Surf-mode James Ferraro), but none of that captures the whole of this weird new sound.

Perhaps represented best by its cover art: Some kind of monolithic root-beast casts its sad gaze downward as a cartoon smoke-worm evacuates the empty husk in its arms, a toothy grimace showing under its Ray-Bans. Cloaked figure looks on from nearby ledge. Yeah, that’s kinda what this sounds like.

Probably gonna get some play on Inter-Dimensional Music this Sunday on KRTS. Until then, here’s Keyboard Cat sitting in with KWJAZ.

“Inter-Dimensional Music” floats through the Far West Texas air every Sunday night at 93.5 FM from 9-11pm (CST), and is often available streaming live online at marfapublicradio.org.

The above image is from the Bottomless Lakes, a series of desert cenotes near Roswell, New Mexico.

Here’s what we listened to on 5 December 2010:

Farmland Fantasy by Atlas Sound from Bedroom Databank Vol. 4
Ripley Station by Swanox from Dawnrunner
Gordon’s Theme by Dylan Ettinger from New Age Outlaws: Director’s Cut
Alfa (Dusted) by Arp from The Soft Wave
Moving Apart by Mark McGuire from Living With Yourself
Gudene Vet + Snutt by Lindstrom & Prins Thomas from II
Departure From the Northern Wasteland by Michael Hoenig from Departure from the Northern Wasteland
Echolocation by Pocahaunted from Threshold
Solar System Is My God by High Wolf from Ascension
Makes Sense to Me by The Fun Years from God Was Like, No
Paper Windmill by Mountains from Mountains
Primitive Associations/Great Mass Above by Growing from The Soul Of The Rainbow And The Harmony Of Light
Ke Ala Ke Kua by Dolphins Into The Future from Ke Ala Ke Kua