Flat Earth Society - Boggamasta III (2021)

For more than twenty years, Flat Earth Society Orchestra, the flagship of slightly deranged Belgian jazz, has wreaked havoc on national and international stages, with musical programs bursting at the seams, defying genre labels and confounding listeners with their multi-colored spazz jazz razzmatazz. Highlights? Too many to keep up with, really, but Boggamasta I (2017) was definitely one of them.

Bandleader Peter Vermeersch and David Bovée (an early member, returned to the fold) expertly gave birth to the album’s main character, the power addict and megalomaniac Boggamasta, who steered the eager and willing turbo orchestra to new areas of musical debauchery and connivery. The combination of XL band arrangements and this newly-found grit and growling groove worked like a charm and excited alert audiences and press all over Europe and South America. Jazz? “Yeah. Well, you know, like, kinda.” One London Jazz News reporter exclaimed: “It certainly is not music that should be judged with jazz criteria.” Splendid!

The freshly brewed Boggamasta III won’t satisfy those looking for answers, as our slippery lawbreakers concocted another batch of coruscating compositions and deceptive tales. Most of the classic FES references - Ellingtonia, viral smalltalk, Zappa, 21st century frenzy - remain intact, but are navigated through labyrinthian urban jungles and fiercely updated traditions. Boggamasta III oozes in generous gulps, drawing dazzling imaginary patterns, travels the spaceways with maps that unfold as they go along.

Make no mistake: even in its third decade, Flat Earth Society excels at creating deliciously unreliable music, full of absurd angles and thrilling twists. It’s a method, a raison d’être that remains as fresh and vital as ever and never fails to surprise. A tightrope act, voluptuous musical film and a cemetery polka combined, Boggamasta III is another triumph for Flat Earth Society and Bovée. And in case you’re wondering where Volume II went to: “It’s been three years since the first one, time’s running out.” Flat Earth Society stays ahead of the curve. By any means necessary.