Since its founding exactly ten years ago, the Jazzrausch Bigband has united seemingly contradictory things: techno, jazz, classical music, underground and electric halls, concert halls and clubs, young and old. There’s no such thing as impossible. To this end, the band often spans wide arcs, works programmatically like a classical orchestra and processes themes from literature, philosophy, science and classical music. You could call it ‘crossing the border’ – for bandleader and trombonist Roman Sladek it is rather “a gigantic nerd excess.” On the new Jazzrausch Bigband album, ‘Bangers Only!’, however, everything revolves around the small form: Thirteen ‘bangers’ or hits that should not be missing from any concert or any playlist. Everything in song format around three to four minutes, always to the point, often full on the twelve, completely re-recorded and produced. Almost half of the songs are fan favourites, such as the chart-worthy ‘Moebius Strip’, the funky ‘I Want To Be A Banana’ or the brass thunderstorm ‘Punkt und Linie zur Flächen’. The other half is new, the list of ingredients Jazzrausch bring is typically long for big bands: techno, disco and funk beats, thick brass walls next to wide, airy surfaces, plus singing, spoken word and improvisation. New are Euro-Dance bonds, garish and juicy like Hubba Bubba chewing gum the first time you bite into it. Nevertheless, it never gets too sweet, because the band and their chief composer and arranger Leonhard Kuhn manage a balancing act: You can always hear a real, completely un-ironic love for all these contrasting styles, but also the joy of deconstructing and tearing down, the constant alternation of fun and seriousness. And ‘Bangers Only!’ shows that the band has found an unmistakable sound of its own, which is now very familiar to their large and colourful fanbase and which connects everything into a big, round whole. Since its founding, the Jazzrausch collective, which currently consists of 35 young musicians, has played almost 1,000 shows in 15 countries. In addition, including ‘Bangers Only!’, there are 12 albums, nine of them on ACT. And since the beginning of 2024, the band has had a permanent home: the imposing, newly opened BERGSON Kunstkraftwerk in the west of Munich. This is something like a physical manifestation of the Jazzrausch idea. And the fact that the band acts as the house ensemble here draws a line back to their beginnings in 2014 as Artist in Residence at the Munich techno club ‘Harry Klein’. Why does what once started small also work on a large scale? Because there is something familiar and at the same time something new to discover in this music for everyone, no matter where you come from. And because the intensity of this music makes it so easy to get involved with it.