I try my best not to speak in hyperboles….but this album floored me on my first few listens. One of the most enjoyable LPs I’ve heard this year.
A loose collective (this album featuring 17 members!) operating out of the Midwest that was originally a power electronics group known as Doberman- the addition of everyone’s favourite memelord John Olson (AKA Inzane Johnny AKA Wolf Eyes) into the regular rotation brought the “Crazy.” A slew of small-run releases have followed but thanks to Digital Regress we finally have an LP in store!
A woozy mix of free music that most immediately recalls the nexus formed around figures like Peter Brötzman, Bill Laswell, and Sonny Sharrock, but brings it into 2020. Overblown and verb’d out saxes/homemade wind instruments over spaced out and feeding back electronics. No solos, no climactic moments. It’s “free” music that never meanders, gets bogged down, or tied up in cliches.
I guess part of the appeal is also that it reminds me of some of the various local punk adjacent acts of the past few years: the deconstructionist rock of Cured Pink’s ‘As A Four Piece Band,’ the throb of last year’s Exek LP, even Yuta and Drew’s saxes on the latest Oily Boys album. -Mitch