The release of Detergent, the debut album from Ryan Ebaugh (tenor saxophone, detached mouthpiece), Matt Crane (borrowed drum kit, brought cymbals), and Cameron Presley (guitar, amps with stuff on the speakers, volume pedals), is a welcome opportunity to praise Liam Stefani’s scatterArchive label. Stefani launched it as Scatter in 1994, as a physical label, dedicated to musical improvisation in its many forms, with a particular focus on non-idiomatic free improv. Over the 30+ intervening years, this has remained the primary focus. Then there was a curated series of live “scatter“ events (late 1990s to mid 2000s). The majority of these live events were recorded (onto DAT and ADAT) and these became the source of several digital releases, and “scatter“ became “scatterArchive“, with an active bandcamp page for archival recordings and digital versions of the out-of-print “scatter“ physical releases. “As the name changed, so did the business model. It was no longer reliant on each physical release selling enough copies to finance the next physical release, no longer having to wait for payments for orders to come through from distributors and shop/mail order outlets. It was now possible to remove the commercial aspect from the label, becoming a non-profit organization“, says Stefani. Without the physical object, it also became possible to release high quality digital work quickly, more like an online periodical publishing a new weekly issue. The direction of the label has shifted subtly over recent years to include more archival releases. However, the intention of the label is to feature less-known musicians as well.
Cameron Presley - although he has been on the scene for quite some time - and Ryan Ebaugh belong to these lesser known artists. Matt Crane is possibly the best-known name in this trio. From his punk rock days in the early 1980s to his discovery of jazz and his collaboration with Ornette Coleman to freely improvised noise music with his duo Carpet Floor he has been involved in all kinds of avant-garde music. Nevertheless, it took a long time for this trio to come together. “Sometime in the late 1990s, my old band Upsilon Acrux played a show with Carpet Floor“, says Presley. “That show stuck with me.“ About 25 years later he started playing music again after a longer pause and met Ryan Ebaugh. In a way, Ebaugh’s sax reminded him of the Carpet Floor show and this is how Matt Crane came into play.
And let’s be frank: The result of their collaboration is nothing short of sensational, because musical worlds collide here. In the opener “Tongue” sounds swirl around in confusion, while a saxophone gone wild rages against this cacophony in the style of Mats Gustafsson. The guitar roars or lets fragmented tones hiss into nowhere, reminiscent of Masayuki Takayanagi’s noise attacks. For three quarters of an hour, the music roars, booms, howls, moans and groans at every turn. Every now and then, for a few seconds, it seems as if the three want to redeem us when you think you can hear a little melody. But no! Detergent is a monster. No, not figuratively speaking, I mean it literally. It grabs you by the throat with the first note, chokes you, and then whirls you around. It’s like sitting in the engine room of an ocean liner in heavy seas while hearing the death cries of someone being keelhauled by the captain. You don’t believe me? Then just listen to “Shell,” the second track. After four and a half minutes, the guitar and drums mercilessly beat everything into the ground. It’s speed metal, industrial, death disco, free jazz - all in one. It’s music that’s always at the maximum level of intensity. Not for wimps, but for fans of Painkiller, Throbbing Gristle, Napalm Death, and Test Dept. I’m sure John Zorn loves it. What a motherfucker of an album!
Detergent will be released in November, 24th. It’s available as a download and on cassette. You can buy it and listen to it on the scatterArchive bandcamp site:
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/
The cassette is available here: https://sndhls.bigcartel.com/
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