Category: Recordings
Much of the music that I’ve reviewed here, usually in some abstracted way, has jazz underpinnings (though that is not the case with all of the other recordings reviewed here). Headbrain, however, is creating intriguing improvisational music that has its roots in rock and ambient music. For me, it’s exciting to step outside my milieu and lis…
Last summer I had the pleasure of seeing Jason Adasiewicz play with Peter Brotzmann at the Vision Festival and it was the first time I had encountered a vibraphone being played by bow. Adasiewicz used the long fibers to extrude vibrant ringing tones from the metal bars, creating something new to my ears. On the solo piece that opens ‘Spacer’ he emp…
There is no argument in my mind that the Bill Frisell quartet(s) that recorded albums like “Where in the World” and “Look out for Hope” were on to something special. Mixing jazz, rock and Americana, they created a lasting and captivating blend of music, and it seems that some of the musicians who worked in these groups revisit the style in some fas…
Apparently they’ve been at this before, but “Departure of Reason” is my first experience with Jessica Pavone and Mary Halvorson’s duo project. Avant-folk/jazz/rock or something, I find it an interesting, eclectic, exciting and rewarding listen.
The album begins with a strident rhythm guitar played by Halvorson. It has a clean, vibrant, a…
Ada is one dirty delicious hell raising improvisation. Within a minute of the sets start, Nilssen-Love’s wash of percussion stacks, Longberg-Holm’s cello stokes, and Brötzmann’s sax sparks the fire. This blazing recording, a single 33 minute set by the Ada Trio, begins full blast, ends full blast, and runs the gamut of intensity between.
A…
It took me a couple spins to warm up to Ingrid Laubrock’s Sleeptheif’s latest offering “The Madness of Crowds”. At first the minimalist grooves on the opening “Extraordinary Popular Delusions” didn’t quite click. However, I think it was because I was trying too hard. I was listening and trying to make up words about the music, I was not letting…
“If not ecstatic, we replay.” An interesting statement and quite a kick-off to the Shinjuku Growl, a recent offering by The Thing with guest guitarist Jim O’Rourke. There is no need for a replay, from humble rattling percussive sounds punctuated by choice blasts from the sax, to the noisy improv that wells up between O’Rourke and drummer Paal …
According to Scott Fields’ website, this recording with Elliot Sharp, Afiadacampos, came out in 2010, which on the cusp of 2012, makes me a little more than fashionably late. Apologies for my tardiness, however, I am pleased to report the music has not aged a bit. I think the first thing that stuck out to me on this recording is just how nicel…
Lisbon Berlin Trio starts with the scratching and scraping of picks across the coils of round wound electric guitar strings. Percussion rattles below and a bowed bass fills the space in between. The muted soundscape grows and soon the guitar is lashing out with distorted chord tones and a disjointed rock-ish melody. By the end of the tune, the …
Novela by Tony Malaby is a real treat. It tantalizes the senses with its complex yet accessible horn arrangements, burns with a restrained energy that propels the soloists and builds so imperceptibly that by time we are half way into the first piece, “Floating Head,” and the piano’s slightly disjointed but flowing phrases come to the fore, we are r…
I suppose that Blixt is best described as a rock power trio. Working with industrial strength rhythms, thickly distorted leads and dark enveloping bass, the trio moves through a series of tough minded improvisations bracketed by short heads. However, as tough and stormy as the tunes may get at times, the musicianship and sensibilities of all invo…
The music starts getting tense midway through ‘Two’ on Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris’ vibrant new duo recording ‘Broken Partials’. Shipp extracts all the sound he possibly can from the piano while Morris, intense and focused on upright bass, contributes a swarm of sound below the piano. Soon, like Shipp, he is digging fiercely into the acoustic …
