Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton

Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton- Difficult Messages Vol. 5 Live in Los Angeles (Self Released, 2024) 

Wolf Eyes x Anthony Braxton - Live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023 (ESP Disc, 2025) 

By Nick Ostrum

Disclaimer: I absolutely loved Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton’s 2006 live release Black Vomit. It was a monster. Seeing the erstwhile collaborators were at it again, I simply had to listen.

As you might expect if you’ve followed Wolf Eyes’ hundred-plus releases over the years (or if you just pick up an album intermittently here and there as I do) Difficult Messages Vol. 5 Live in Los Angelesis a different beast from Black Vomit. (Of course, the same could be said in relation to Braxton’s extensive catalog.) Wolf Eyes, now shorn to the core duo of John Olson and Nate Young, are still pummeling away into a noisy abyss, but they have evolved over the last twenty-years. The harrowing metal is gone. The wall-of-black-noise is pushed to the background in favor of clanky DIY electro-atmospherics. For his part, Braxton wails like rending steel as Olsen and Young catch, manipulate and layer his lines, apparently in real time. (Braxton’s long-term relationship with Supercollider doubtlessly prepared him well for this.) At times, such as the end of Difficult LA Three, the music sounds howling overlain with a dirge to some long-lost group of passengers caught in the steerage of a sinking ship. They have to be lost in this case, as the foggy steampunkt aesthetics take what could be punch-in-your-face harsh noise and rein it back to something more subtle, less assaultive, and less clear. The sound evokes something of memory, or the past, or some haunting present. (As I wrote that, I just heard Braxton mimic a fog-horn 3:51 into Difficult LA Four, then again and again, breaking through the hiss and thud that form the backbone of the track. There must be something to this idea of mental haze and the struggle for clarity.) At a concise 25 minutes, Difficult Messages leaves the listener wanting more.

Live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023is that more, ranging from the smoldering ambient textures to ferocious and abrasive flareups. This one, like Black Vomitbefore it, made my ears ring, but only at points. Much of this comes from Wolf Eyes, who has long basked in that extreme, though with less fervor lately. Braxton contributes his singular toolbox of clucks, honked overtones, and tight and uniquely spiny scale-runs. He also spends a lot of time off his horns, listening to the dark Lost-in-Space environments Olsen and Young scape. Olsen and Young are credited with electronics, vocals (Young) and pipes and harmonica. The latter two must account for some of the additional saxophone lines that pop up in various places to counter and complement Braxton’s. The ultimate effect, however, is much like that in Difficult Messages, wherein someone seems to be capturing and redeploying snippets of what Braxton has played. The result is disorienting, transportive and, well, cool.

So, that’s it. Two more albums from a collaboration that was likely conceived of two decades ago as a one-off event. It worked the first time, and it works on these recordings, as well, just with less abrasive combativeness. That can happen over time, as flavors settle and deepen, heads calm, and attentions shift from shock to nuance. And, as these albums attest, that evolution can be a good thing, especially when the aggressions of twenty years ago are not entirely abandoned, but, as here, harnessed and transformed.

Difficult Messages is available as a download from Bandcamp. At some point, a hand-painted box-set of four hand-cut picture disc 7”s was available, too, but those enviable days have unfortunately passed.

Live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023is likewise available on Bandcamp as a CD and download. (The LP of this release, albeit in a less elaborate package than Difficult Messages, is already sold out on Bandcamp, though other outlets seem to have copies.)