Do it for the Gram today: An easy laid-back groove is here predominantly the feeling from the Danish drummer Jeppe Gram who knows how to deliver a pared-back loose David Lyttle-like sound and also proves a good writer because his pieces, all very much grounded in the 1950s and 60s bop-and-beyond world cooled down so never frenetically treated, contain a demonstrable consistency. Gram stays true to his vision in other words. The horns are very vintage and serve the pieces and the mood in a functional way. I don't care too much however about 'For the Love of the Old Beat' the weakest track but apart from it The Doldrums is a very decent effort overall. Double bassist Anders Krogh Fjeldsted kicks off the title-track which is kept to last. On it cornetist Tobias Wiklund's tradist splutters prove a surprising foil to the darker modernistic mood where Gram's strength as a writer is most convincingly deployed. SG