* * * *
'Downhill brass tumbles introduce a disturbed, widescreen mindscape...WorldService Project fill the stereo spectrum. Emotional and aural dynamics justify their assaultive approach.'
Nick Hasted, Jazzwise Magazine - May 2018
‘…tapped its massively power rock jazz attacks. Led by keyboardist and vocalist Dave Morecroft, a witty performer with entertainer qualities, the punchy unit (who is dressed in uniforms but has no doubt about its pacifist attitude) leads the way.’
Radiobremen.de, March 2019
'Everything is always different, the ingenuity still seems inexhaustible even after a decade of successful band history and a road trip with over 40 concerts in the US. Depending on your own listening history, many things echo: Frank Zappa, yes, Ian Dury, clear, The Small Faces, The Ex, etc. WSP is not one of them and not everything together, but rather the time not yet collected.'
Friendsofalan.de, March 2019
'Intense beats, groovy music and irreverent humour...'
The Indian Express - December 2018
‘full of humour, clenched-fist aggression, sinister role-playing, verve and energy…..an edge of the seat spontaneity that was invigorating to witness….display a raucous passion for their art…the album as a whole, has an infectious melodic appeal…. a series of invigorating compositions….infectious enthusiasm for their music is spellbinding’
Dutch Progressive Rock Page - September 2018
* * * *
'...like a British-humorous variation of Hildegard lernt Fliegen…but with a rockier spirit between Metal and Prog…music between discipline and chaos, with a touch of humor and political satire…look forward to a live performance.'
*Pirmin Bossart - Jazz n’More 2018
‘A powerful and very adventurous sound…the sound meets at the crossroads of the energy of rock, punk and funk rhythms with the sounds and melodicism of jazz...thanks to the technical quality and expression of the musicians’’
Battiti, Radio3 Rai, Italy - March 2019
‘The sound cosmos of WorldService Project goes well into the brain or in the legs and is still tricky. The dancing or reverently listening audience gets carried away and the plenary believes that this performance is in no way inferior to the one from two years ago in terms of freshness and innovation. The band around the wise mastermind Dave Morecroft has lasting qualities.’
betreutesproggen.de (Germany) - September 2018
'WorldService Project are still one of my favorite bands that combine the styles of avant-jazz, punk, chaos, and eruptive cannon blasts that are waiting to happen… Serve is a big giant juicy steak that is cooked well made for the five-piece to raise even more hell again this year… Hands down another return for the five-piece to get the ammunitions up and running by making sure that it’s ready for some loud rapid firing.'
Echoesanddust.com - October 2018
‘…both the soloist contributions and through a super-tight collective…. WSP does not deal with anything that is near indifferent or bland…. WorldService Project is jazz for rockers and rock for jazzers…’
torhammero.blogg.no (Norway) - September 2018
‘...the loudest and the most entertainingly aggressive jazz one may encounter!...WorldService Project’s fusion includes moments of crystal pure Zappa-like paranoia, dancing funk moods and modern European jazz, mixed up with few but majestic melodic bridges… [they] really stand out because of their wild dynamics, their overwhelming energy and their limitless feel-good vibes… the band’s energy was beyond words and the gig was over under the screams of a fully satisfied audience. A fantastic band with whom you can dance, bang your head or observe, all wrapped up in an exciting, happy package!'
againstthesilence.com - October 2018
‘…must-see artists include U.K.’s WorldService Project (December 5th), who blend punk ethos with jazz improvisation’
+
‘If you ever wondered what punk rock, blues and jazz would sound like if played at the same time – you only had to make your way to the Bacardi Arena and catch U.K.-based WorldService Project show you how it’s done. The band pushed hard on songs such as “To Lose the Loved” and “Fire In A Pet Shop.” Exuberant trombone parts and spiraling saxophone work by Ben Powling summed up WorldService Project’s emphatic set’
RollingStoneIndia - December 2018
'This opening segue also encompassed powerful, but often complex, punk jazz riffing, an engaging keyboards and bass dialogue between Morecroft and O’Hara and the first solo statement from Powling… “precision anarchy”….a neat encapsulation of what WSP do. All these guys are superb technicians but they play with fire, passion and energy too. WSP remain a vital and exciting live experience…. hard edged and uncompromising and the playing universally excellent'
Ian Mann, thejazzmann.com - April 2018
'...another set of great tunes. No real changes are in evidence, nor are any needed. It’s like the band is a machine that Dave Morecroft feeds musical ideas into, turns the crank, and out comes something wonderful… Arthur O’Hara’s bass anchors the tunes with heavy funk that threatens to inspire involuntary devil-horn hand signs. Morecroft himself provides keyboards, but you’ll hear no clean, precise, jazzy licks here. His electric piano growls and crunches, reinforcing the riff or injecting chaos in turns… This is a complex and well-oiled machine, and as far as I can tell, it produces no pollution or undesirable by-products, just 100% satisfying music.'
Jon Davis, expose.org - August 2018
‘…you’d need a heart of Stone not to be won over by WSP’s crazy combination of comedy, social comment and precision chops.’
Garry Booth, Jazz Journal, May 2018
'WorldService Project has attracted attention worldwide with their exciting and edgy blend of music — combining punk's abrasive attitude with jazz's improvisatory essence… the forefront of the global punk-jazz scene with their wild polyphonic melodies.'
Prahlad Srihari, firstpost.com (India) - December 2018
‘…musical irreverence derives from a blend of impactful punk rock, stimulating funk, authoritative heavy metal, and light jazz… a crescendo of distorted harmonies with vocals and horn outcries atop…The rebellious attitude of the quintet is well alive.’
Jazztrail.net - April 2018
‘…a quintet but has the pull of a big band…reveals attentive listening to the music of Frank Zappa…manages to hit the mark: this, in a few lines, what we say in the first measure this tasty album branded WorldService Project…. gratifies the ear and the belly.’
Alberto Bazzurro, allaboutjazz.com - August 2018
‘…we are still in the territory of the WSP, an area in which you enter on tiptoe and you do not know what can happen… a profile of elegant experimentation and brought to excess, our advice is to enter the fantastic "wonderland" of the WorldService Project.’
Marcello Zinno, Rockgarage.it - June 2018
‘…a work of great personality, a recognizable mix of chaos and discipline, of ferocity and humor, through which avant-funk, punk and free-jazz are dosed with wisdom. The band's shows are imbued with theatricality and a kind of cathartic energy and this intensity is rendered with particular mastery in this new chapter of their discography.’
Musictraks.com - April 2018
‘WorldService Project delivers another powerful punk-jazz manifesto, walking the tightrope between discipline and chaos.’
Shinybeast.nl - April 2018
‘…the quintet has elected to "sharpen the sabre of our political wit," serving up a darker, more directly engaged vision of their characteristic mixture of prog-rock rhythms and jazz-fusion themes. It isn't really the 'punk jazz' they're calling it, except in the renewed intensity of its political disgust; musically, it's still their recognisable mixture of Cardiacs and Flat Earth Society, with knotty riffs and sequences of daringly-related chords dotted with 'Diablo en Musica'.’
AJ Dehaney, jazzwise.com - May 2018
‘…quintet's energy is almost comparable to the aggression and energy of a heavy metal band, but rather from the point of view of a jazzman who wants to scare the purists… WorldService Project also know how to convince on their fourth album…wonderfully intricate lines, supremely supported by the crisp and thumping bass and the powerful drums… WorldService Project show with Serve once again that they belong to the spearhead of progressive jazz rock. Great music!’
babyblaue-seiten.de, (Germany) - April/June 2018
‘…lavishes music that oscillates between Jazz-Fusion, progressive rock, free jazz, world-Music, a music that is difficult to classify in a genre, but which is at the same time affordable, fun and especially unique of its kind…reach an audience open to musical pieces that are both experimental and technical, but where the concern for the melodic frame remains omnipresent… Through its complex and refined pieces "SERVE", carries the listener in a musical journey that offers some freedoms, revealing all its acuity and all its authenticity. So frankly, if you like eclectic, adventurous and groovy compositions, WorldService Project has produced this album for you and everyone will find it!’
Progcritique.com (France) - May 2018
‘…between spiteful progpunk and jazzcore somersaults from the always airy and catchy look. A very entertaining record, which combines great technical ability, an unobserved vision of music and a healthy attitude to liberating…record remains worthy of your attention and certainly the band live is to be seen.’
Thenewnoise.it (Italy) - November 2018
‘…a work of great personality, a recognizable mix of chaos and discipline, of ferocity and humor, through which avant-funk, punk and free-jazz are dosed with wisdom. The band's shows are imbued with theatricality and a kind of cathartic energy and this intensity is rendered with particular mastery in this new chapter of their discography…’
pitbellula.com (Italy) - April 2018
‘…in a mixed situation of metal riffs, Frank Zappa extravaganza and a subtle to juicy jazz rock you may especially the unexpected expect….Fantastic demanding music.’
wienerzeitung.at (Austria) - April 2018
‘…a veritable metal-punk-jazz inferno with unusually heavy guitar and obligatory grunts…also an ignited and dark thunderstorm closes in…choppy rhythms…chaotic solos…everyone puts the pedal on the gas to the finish line…’
Marius Joa, Bad Alchemy (Germany) – June 2018
‘…sharp brass solos, aggressively tough rhythm group work and the bravura sound of keyboards… the more I listened to Serve, the more interesting it became! In the musical recipe selected by Mourcroft and his colleagues there is some kind of difficult to explain attractiveness. Challenge yourself!’
Jazzquad.ru (Russia) - April 2018
'...the leading specialists of Brit 'Punk -Jazz' and are one of the most exported live acts in their field. Their energetic live shows have taken them to festivals across the world.'
Indivibe.com (India) - December 2018
"Like Downton Abbey run by anarchists...a mesmerising combination of brutality and dark humour. Their live sound, blending bleeding chunks of free brass noise with the ironic sentimentality of tracks like ‘Requiem for a Worm’, has only got better. The razor-sharp rhythmic edges are polished, the ensemble is painfully slick, and you can smell the rubber burning from their stylistic handbrake turns."
Matthew Wright, Jazzwise – February 2015
"I’ve been fortunate enough to see WSP perform live on a number of occasions...All of these performances have been intense, exciting, energetic, high octane affairs with WSP really ‘going for it’. A WSP gig is a thoroughly entertaining and invigorating listening experience."
Ian Man, thejazzmann.com – June 2016
"It’s the soundtrack to some unmade war epic where the soldiers are shaking, sharing smokes and screaming before they storm the proverbial beach, pillage the village and finally go down in a gory blaze of glory"
Frank Spignese, Japan Times (Japan) – September 2016
"And a true delight was the set by the British jazz act WorldService Project who produced a strong, long-lasting impression on the audience. The band was pure force, full of rhythm and stage presence, but they also connected well with the audience. The British musicians even had time for a Brexit joke, which the public liked a lot."
Tatiana Vinichenko, Isaac Diaz Carpio, Alterock (Estonia) – April 2017
"This was a gig that grabbed you by the scruff and didn’t let go. Highlights were many: lead single Fuming Duck was all careering melodies and slamming gothic bombast, while Requiem for a Worm was an exercise in delicate detail that built to a fuzzy, head-spinning crescendo. A gig that kicked jazz up the jacksy, then, and was all the more impressive for it"
Jane Cornwell, Evening Standard – May 2016
"The epic and anthemic live sound of World Service Project is both thrilling and heart-wrenching, with a theatrical live performance thrown in for good measure, as one of Europe’ s finest live-acts"
radioandmusic.com (India) – November 2016
"Odd meter, acceleration, rhythmic and melodic somersaults, and almost heavy metal and sweetness contained in the most unexpected points. One comes out listening in the end happily dazed, and believing that good music will never die if there are energies, ideas, passion skills to be played at the right time"
Guido Festinese, discoclub65.it (Italy) – May 2016
* * * *
'Five and a half years since the highly Zappafied outfit made their debut with the fairly obscure Relentless [For King & Country] is their most lucid work...There’s heavy jam-kindled brainstorming aplenty, keyboards that might as well be crossdressing as guitars that up the textural ante and ideas meter considerably'
Stephen Graham, marlbank.net – April 2016
“The pace is always on their side, like a well-oiled machine that never misses a beat...A record that sets you in motion without needing to unplug the brain”
Angelo Tomosello, ewriters.it (Italy) – June 2016
"The third album of Worldservice Project continues exactly on the same wavelength as their previous work. The eight pieces, mixing free jazz, prog and rock, gives birth to a communicative live album that easily creates an interactive relationship with the listener. A complex and dynamic album that manages to maintain a direct and immediate attitude.”
Francesco Cerisola, iyezine.com (Italy) – May 2016
"Beneath the patina of anarchy and instrumental catastrophism almost every song has its catchy melody and despite the smaller formation at five "full" members, they are full-bodied and possess overwhelming energy"
Maurizio Pupi Bracali, distorsioni.net (Italy) – June 2016
"For King And Country is a punk-jazz album that has a strongly energetic background, a good sense of rhythm and confirms WorldService Project as a coherent and strong musical reality. RareNoiseRecords still hits the mark!"
Fabio La Donna, Impato Sonoro (Italy) – May 2016
"...the new album transforms the outrageous WSP's punk jazz into something more complex that embraces a more witty technique [...] and certainly more intellectual than usual."
IndiePerCui Webzine (Italy) – March 2016
"...creating something more complex that punk jazz, a sound path that reinvents itself and the punk jazz scene with an originality which gives meaning to this new release. Constantly on tour around the world, they clearly do everything above with a very direct, vital and visceral approach which makes it even more honest and credible"
Viola de Soto, Debaser (Italy) – June 2016
"Our crazy 'stage animals' do not get tired of pursuing a dream...A musical style that tries to be unique, an evidence of a new taste. A hungry proof of truth, where the unreal is banned and where, in some ways, the pureness of intention is the engine that drives the scene"
IndiePerCui Webzine (Italy) – March 2016
* * * * - Album of the Week
“… a powerful quintet…resemble a scientist at work on some mad scheme in a garden shed absent-mindedly applying jump leads to an unsuspecting squirrel while listening to Keith Emerson”
Stephen Graham, marlbank.net – May 2013
“…stompingly raw and punky…a riotously entertaining live-band…highly creative”
John Fordham, The Guardian – September 2013
“…a procession of odd-shaped things, tumbling out driven by heat… knows how to reinvigorate familiar chords”
Ivan Hewitt, The Telegraph – July 2013
* * * *
“…a thrilling listen…plenty of variety, intelligence, irreverence, excitement plus of course some terrific playing…I love this band”
Ian Mann, thejazzmann.com – July 2013
* * * *
“Music of WSP is in fact painfully danceable and cacofonically eclectic. In the moment of the development of playful melody and rhythmical games, there is energy blasting between the musicians. Glitch bass gives punkrock energy and clicks, claps and shouts make the whole music demonic. It is game with the listener - if you go into the musical high, you stay begging for mercy.”
Monika Okroj, Jazz Forum (Poland) – July 2013
“The collective crunch of that rhythm section underpinning lively brass is great, but applying their acumen toward a zany sense of humour goes a long way toward making the music a lot of fun, too. Mingus understood that. So did Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Frank Zappa. As does Mostly Other People Do The Killing today. Like those guys, Worldservice Project plays seriously complex music but they hadn’t forgotten about the main mission in music is to entertain their audience, to make them smile….Fire in a Pet Shop makes me smile.”
S Victor Aaron, somethingelsereviews.com (USA) – August 2013
“If you want to be surprised, to laugh, to live in the Pacman decade...Menagerie WorldService Project will become a favorite…a level of instrumental technique of deadly accuracy”
Carole Massin, citizenjazz.com (France) – September 2013
“Fire In A Pet Shop is an eccentric, vibrant plate full of life and guts like you in the world of jazz and beyond can never have enough of”
Guy Peters, enola.be (Belgium) – July 2013
“…aren’t simply challenging the definition of jazz – they’re chasing it down a side street, wrestling it to the ground and calling for back-up”
Cormac Larkin, The Irish Times (Ireland) – June 2013
“This record is seriously intense fun, in the Frank Zappa vein…but with a wonderful sense of no-holds barred exuberance and humour.”
Laurence Jones, thejazzbreakfast.com – June 2013
“…irresistibly exuberant…explosively, climatically rumbustious…admirably vibrant album”
Chris Parker, London Jazz – June 2013
“…what a joy! Kickass new wave jazz…literally had me jumping around the room”
Steve H, Bebop Spoken Here – May 2013
“European jazz need have no fear for the future...WorldService Project is rocking and typically British, a la 2012”
Jan Granlie, Jazznytt (Norway) - 2012
“An irreverent blend of face-slapping funk, odd metered grooves and a clutch of catchy, zizagging melodies all to dazzling effect. Possessing the jagged edge of Led Bib and some of trioVD's playfulness it's WSP's P-Funk undercurrents that promise big things lie ahead for them.”
Mike Flynn, Time Out London – 2012
"And, as jagged and sharp-cornered as so much of Morecroft's music was, there was, indeed, a party atmosphere from a band that was clearly having fun as, in the same tune, [De-Frienders] broke down into a polka beat that evolved into a disco beat...But silly is good, especially when you've a group this talented, this together and this promising...There's no
doubt that WSP is a group with promise, [a] band that's doing everything right, and deserves all the acclaim it can handle...Stay tuned: there's clearly plenty more to come"
John Kelman, allaboutjazz - 2012
“…I’ll tell you, I like this record a lot.”
Stuart Maconie, BBC 6 Music - 2012
"WorldService Project are the Led Bib you can dance to...capable of injecting some good old-fashioned fun into the UK jazz scene"
Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise, March 2011
"...rock and jazz that’s not jazz rock in the old 1970s sense…a tougher tone, a more adventurous grouping of atonality, hardness and riffing complexity. Prog meets punk...a minefield of twisting, squirming, jolting and japing contortions…clever stuff, but never too smug. Roughshod barnstorming was the chosen method, heavy boots stamping all over charts of finesse...great energy throughout a set that left the crowd breathless from concentration. No slackening was allowed. No pauses for thought. Until post-gig, of course; then the substance penetrated the collective mind."
Martin Longley, allaboutjazz - 2013
"restless and ironic...an acid fusion swept away by the rock denominator and asymmetrical vibes...sumptuous awesomeness...unequalled experimentation"
rockgarage.it, (Italy) – 2012