Nomad War Machine and Susan Alcorn - Contra Madre LP

I feel like I’ve only just started to dip my toe into the discography of the late Susan Alcorn since her passing in January 2025. A master of the pedal steel guitar, it seems safe to say that Alcorn did more than anyone else to extend the lexicon of the instrument into the broader uses of it in both ambient and free improv we hear today.

This posthumous album captures her alongside a new Philly-based guitar and drum duo called Nomad War Machine in a combo of free improv and metal that’s also steeped in the tonal and rhythmic systems of Arabic music. Passages of insanely beautiful suspended notes from Alcorn are met with James Reichard’s detuned and detuning guitars that then switch into frenetic extended playing matched with Julius Masri across the kit drumming, even with a few double kicks thrown in there.

The hype-obi that comes with the LP notes Alcorn’s budding interest in death metal as a new point of exploratory departure. Really, it’s not that absurd of a premise; with so much free music also leaning on intense rhythm sections meeting with soaring lead lines and rhythmic slippages. If you break it down that way, there’s a fair bit of that approach underpinning this LP, with the trio whipping themselves into cacophonous frenzies alongside  detours into down-tuned doom.

No many other free improv records that would enable the odd headbang! -Mitch