Pyramid is Jaga Jazzist’s ninth album in a career spanning four decades, but their debut on Flying Lotus’s Brain­feeder label.

Jaga Jazzist wrote and recorded the four lengthy opuses of Pyramid in just two weeks. “The most important thing is that we didn’t want to over-analyze every musical idea” says co-founder and drummer Martin Horntveth. “We wanted to follow the first and original idea and keep the freshness.” For a band which has never settled on any one sound or style, the continuity lies in their constant willingness to evolve, experiment and improvise. This approach has helped them to make a more immediate and driven record that combines their typical sonic adventurousness with some of the most potent grooves of any Jaga Jazzist release.

Pyramid is Jaga Jazzist’s first self-produced album and it meant a change in the way they operate. On the one hand, there were lots of different voices jostling to be heard. On the other, they didn’t have an independent figure to make a call on whether something was a good idea. “It was hard but felt natural to do ourselves, as five of us are producers and make records for a living,” Horntveth says. The result is an album that feels more collaborative than ever.

Jaga Jazzist fits nicely in the Brainfeeder stable. Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington: the pre-eminent talents affiliated with the Los Angeles label are equally firmly rooted in the headier aspects of jazz, without any inclination to undertake anything as obvious and predictable as respecting a musical tradition. Add a dash of electronica, a hint of the orchestral scope of film soundtracks and more than a bit of the more sprawling end of post-rock aspirations (the guitar-led sections nod subtly towards Tortoise), and you have a fairly decent idea of the direction this particular Pyramid is pointing.

Pyramid is an exciting new entry in Jaga Jazzist's dis­cography – relentless in its exploration of a variety of styles that seem rooted in jazz but are not limited to the genre. It evokes a certain vibe that can certainly come off as retro-leaning, but at the same time, this is a band unafraid of innovation and forward-thinking.