Hey what do we got in the toolbox? I’ve the itch to write: “much more than a simple pair of Tongs” and consequentially we’ve an heterogeneous artifact taking inspiration from a bunch of different influences. Forget my crappy humorism but it was just one simple way to introduce the basic concept of bands like this, infact we’re speaking about a sort of advanced fusion or at least about “fusion the way it had to be”, somehow we could speak of a sort of Spaceway Inc plunged in a jazzy-rock-electronic salsa, if the sound is not exactly the same the modus essendi is undoubtedly similar infact you hear different quotes coming from different genres scattered here and there in what remains a jazz dough. Soft-groovy parts mixed with jazz-rock rides like, James Taylorian fragments mixed with afro-american venatures, complicated passages evolving into neo-classical music portraits. If a band has a sound and you can bet they have it, imagine a really warm jazzy/rock/groovy double bass (sometimes electric bass) pulsing on a really calculated drumming which according to my opinion betrays a strong rock and percussionist training, saxophonist/clarinetist plays with a strong afro-american accent and they dress the salad with a whole bunch of electronic tricks. Differently from what many may expect from a band like that you hear this is a collection of compositions and not a series of impros, as I’ve said you hear their way of writing songs is very premeditated but still not too angular like early Zu, when they’re soft they have the goddammit jazz feel and when they go for the rock/loud parts they have the volume like Ruins, Vandermark 5 or something in that vein. Despite that many wonnabies out there sold their soul for the last trend (come on, is it black metal?…power-noise?…weird-folk?), this music is the result of several influences and underlines the historical importance of towns like Chicago in crossing the boundaries of genres and styles, we’re talking about the hometown of Art Ensemble of Chicago, Tortoise, Rob Mazurek, Ken Vandermark and a zillion of other great names. Well recorded, well produced and well played, I guess that has to be undoubtly filed under “interesting debut”. [read original review]
Andrea Ferraris