Tashi Dorji & Tyler Damon - Leave No Trace: Live In St. Louis (Family Vineyard, 2018) *****

 
 

By Lee Rice Epstein

The blog is quickly becoming a Dorji/Damon fansite, but the duo has been consistently releasing such incredible music, it’s hard not to shout out about it. And Leave No Trace: Live In St. Louis sits right alongside Both Will Escape and To the Animal Kingdom (their exceptional trio album with Mette Rasmussen) as a record of a remarkable duo.

Leave No Trace: Live In St. Louis is Dorji and Damon’s third duo album, following a Live At The Spot + 1 and Both Will Escape. It was clear on that first release that guitarist Tashi Dorji and percussionist Tyler Damon had each found a sonic soulmate. Their partnership is patient and focused, with rumbles of fury and joy. Long stretches of experimental deconstruction make up the majority of Leave No Trace: Live In St. Louis, but it’s not lacking in fire. Indeed, the following quote appears on the album’s page: "When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself," Shunryu Suzuki.

“Calm the Shadows” with Damon on bells and metallic objects, similar to the opening of “Both Will Escape.” But here, his rattling, alarm-like rhythm provokes Dorji to very quickly slide in with atonal chords and an early, striking solo. After only 3 minutes, “Calm the Shadows” has already passed become gorgeously harsh, with Dorji’s vibrato leading the duo into the next section. Damon stays low on the drums, eventually taking a relaxed solo around the midpoint. Part of what’s so enjoyable about this duo is just how hard it is to pin down their influences. Dorji melds jazz, improvisation, folk, and drone elements, while Damon combines crashing, rumbling percussive rolls with a wonderfully melodic style. Near the end, Damon begins rolling into bright cymbal crashes, playing against Dorji’s hard-driving finale.

On “Leave No Trace,” the de facto title track, Damon opens with a measured solo, as Dorji gradually fades in, emerging from the spaces between Damon’s drums and cymbals. Highlighting the patience I mentioned earlier, “Leave No Trace” takes its time. Even Dorji’s first big moment hangs suspended in the air, as Damon gradually opens up the piece. It’s well past the middle of the set before it’s clear the duo’s been steadily ratcheting up the intensity for nearly 10 minutes. And then, the bottom drops out, and Dorji takes a restrained solo, with Damon sitting out for a couple of minutes. It’s a dramatic turn of events, and the remainder of the set goes to some exciting new places. The stretch beginning around minute 12 is particularly excellent, and highlights just how much more ground there is for this duo to cover. Of course, I can’t help but look ahead to future releases, but there’s more than enough here. I’ve listened to this album around 5 or 6 times already, and the year’s still getting started.

Purchase from Family Vineyard or via Bandcamp.

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Tashi Dorji & Tyler Damon – Both Will Escape (Family Vineyard, 2016) *****

By Tom Burris

Following on the heels of this summer's “Live at The Spot +1” cassette release on the Astral Spirits label, Both Will Escape both refines and expands on the duo's promise and power.  Separately, Tashi Dorji (guitar) and Tyler Damon (percussion) are forces of nature.  Together, the combination of Dorji's high-end metallic  power-tool skree and Damon's manic-but-earthy hippie clomping are a perfect pairing.  Each has a musical spoon in the other guy's soup to begin with, resulting in a collaboration that seems almost brotherly.  Different interests and approaches, same dynamic makeup.

Opening with a percussion invocation, Damon plays a melodic groove on metal bowls and drums onto which Dorji's delay-drenched treble plucking easily hops.  A deity appears in the form of a loop of pulsating noise, which sends Dorji off to build a wall of sonic plaster & casts Damon in a total blur of freedom.   (I swear the first 8 minutes pass in about a minute and a half.)  Damon experiments on the last few minutes of the track with chains and silverware and metal bowls and car keys and Allen wrenches while Dorji gradually winds down the metal drilling.  I have no idea how these guys manage to make this clanging metallic shrapnel sound warm and inviting, but they certainly make it so.  Must be some magic brother shit.

On “Two Rabbits” Dorji shoots off a monstrous two-note attack Glenn Branca would be proud of, then launches into a full-scale onslaught as one-man-army Damon unleashes his complete arsenal.  Everyone is dead by the 3.5 minute mark.  So much for warm and inviting.  The subsequent dirge begins with a behind-the-bridge, early-Sonic-Youth loop to which Damon adds a wash of cymbals.  Dorji improvises some pretty-ish chords over it, slowly building another wall as Damon attempts to cover every piece of his drum kit simultaneously.

Take Leah-era Magik Markers & add Adris Hoyos and you have the jumping-off point for the first half of the glorious stare-into-the-sun beauty of “Gate Left Open,” which begins the B side.  Halfway through Dorji takes a solo skronk fest, all bedpans and ice picks.  Bad Moon Rising loops enter along with deceptively light grooving from Damon.  Again, Dorji adds chords and Damon picks up the pace until the piece concludes with a sudden and perfect crash.  Then straight into the spindly and prickly “Kudzu Weave,” Damon joins Dorji's cut-up loop by putting emphasis on various aspects of the groove with playful brushwork.  An inspired turnaround happens via some backwards looping from Dorji while beautiful waves of percussion roll into shore, moving the music into territory usually associated with Matthew Bower or Marcia Bassett.  Absolutely stunning.

Dorji is clearly the leader on this session; but earlier this year I saw Damon play with Manas (Dorji's duo with drummer Thom Nguyen) at The Spot and Damon steered the ship for most of the set – and the result of this dynamic  shift was every bit as exciting as the music on Both Will Escape.  I'd say expect great things, but they're already happening.  Magic brother shit has arrived.

The Spot 2015, same show Astral Spirits released

Manas Trio, The Spot 2016

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It Came From the Midwest: Smash Yr Head on the Jazz Rock

Greetings from the land of corn and the non-colors of brown and gray.

By Tom Burris

Tyler Damon – Softened Skull CD-R (Yoke, 2015) ***½

Indiana isn't exactly known for it's cultural edge – our homophobic twat of a governor just tried to legislate discrimination under the guise of some ridiculous fantasy called “religious freedom” - but the Spot Tavern in Lafayette thankfully stands in bold opposition to just about everything this corn-fed wasteland represents.  On a recent trip there, the opening slot was occupied by a duo known as Keith Jost (bass) and Tyler Damon (drums).  Jost was great and the two played with the kind of authority that only years of familiarity can birth – but Damon totally blew me away.  This guy is a serious drummer; and it was apparent within seconds that he had the creative vision to take his skills, sounds and tricks wherever he desired.  You like Corsano, Rosaly, Daisy?  Damon's on that level.  Seriously.

Softened Skull is the first release on his Yoke label, which looks to be a very promising venture.  The disc is a relatively short outing, offering a brief overview of Damon's talents.  “Reference Tone” begins with Damon playing a bowed cymbal, ending quicker than you can say pop tatari.  Then a garbage avalanche tumbles downhill toward your dazed placeholder.  Over the next 20 minutes all kindza shit rattles my old man cage.  Some drunk clangs a dinner bell maniacally while a lone Tibetan monk slowly rings his prayer bowl.  A flying saucer ascends into a black sky, its engine sputtering as it moves further into space – courtesy  of some hellish cymbal bowing.  Some huge contraption falls from space, creating a crater in the earth, from which acoustic reverberations rise.  (I don't know what the hell is going on here, but it sounds like a wall full of dinner plates falls onto a trampoline lined with skillets.)  After this, a black & white Kurosawa ghost chases something through a black & white rice field.  The man does all of this with a drum kit.

This disc seems to be a condensed demo to show the range of Damon's talents, rather than a full-blown “statement” & that's just fine with me.  The pieces are short, yeah – but I wouldn't say they're under-developed.  There's a shit-or-get-off-the-pot aesthetic that displays a mass of  ideas quickly.  And now that this recording exists, I expect we'll be going on many more trips with Mr. Damon that will build upon this sturdy framework.  A highly respectable debut from a phenomenal talent. 



Get the download or buy the CD.

Hyrrokkin – Sephfus 7” (New Atlantis, 2014) ****

Warped mind-melt from monstrous power-trio Hyrrokkin, which hails from Yellow Springs, Ohio.  They are led by the terrifyingly agile guitarist Ed Ricart, alongside the ball-slicin' rhythm section of bassist Paul Larkowski and drummer Brett Nagafuchi.  Ricart sounds like Zoot Horn Rollo with slightly less shrapnel, but tons more freedom and distortion.  There are enough rapid twists and turns on “Sephfus” to make you scream for Satan's carny to stop the ride – but you won't mean it.  His toothless head is laughing out bong breath so hard he won't hear you anyway.  As a whole slab, this noise sounds like the children of the corn melted an old Nels Cline Trio cassette in a church fire and it came out sounding like Thin Lizzy at the wrong speed.  That's high praise indeed around these here parts, Geddy.

Flip this thing over and you get percussionist Doug Scharin's remix, which favors the intensity of the ball-slicers over the guitar, which punches in occasionally from King Tubby's yard.  The second half rips guitar riffage and dumps the rhythm section for a feedback ride.  That this track was even considered for a versioning sounds insane.  Not only does Scharin rise to the challenge, it's impossible to pick a preferred side!  The A & B sides are clearly marked, but it's a double A-sided single as far as I'm concerned. 

Check it here.

Upsilon Acrux – Sun Square Dialect CD (New Atlantis, 2015) ****½

Disclaimer:  Upsilon Acrux is from the West Coast - not from the Midwest.  Their label is based in Ohio though.  And this album could easily serve as the soundtrack to Gummo II, should such an awesome atrocity exist.  Reason enough to be included here, I say.

I'm one of those jokers who thinks rock music is best when it's played (poorly, of course) by androgynous, unkempt buffoons who can barely tune their instruments.  One chord or less.  Bands for whom the adjectives “grating” and “skronk” are not only terms of endearment, but describe the ultimate goal of music.  No Wave came directly from God as far as I'm concerned – and not as punishment, as the philistines would have you believe.  So trust me when I say I am not generally a fan of prog rock, math rock, or metal.  But lo, Upsilon Acrux have built their monolith upon these three genres – and it is good!

The band has been around for years in various conglomerations, unbeknownst to my ignorant ass; and that becomes glaringly apparent by the conceptual genius and execution that blasts out of the speakers over the first few minutes.  Studious metalheads hold a sound clash with the warring factions blasting broken segments of old Soft Machine and Deep Purple records at each other through Marshall stacks with ripped speaker cones.  Now take that concept and have it played by The Magic Band in a biker bar. 

The song titles alone are worth the admission price.   “Hey Motherfucker You Ever Fuck With a Salvadoran?!” might swipe its name from an outtake from the first Harry Pussy record; but it sounds like Slayer doing something from Yes' Relayer (but so much better).  “Dogshit on the Shoulders of Giants” is fun, but not as fun as “Smells Kline,” which.. makes me appreciate the deep(shit) conceptual groundwork that much more.

“Old Dusk Seas: Odyssey” is 14 minutes of compete insanity.  The drop and then build-up that occurs halfway through is blissful enough to make you forget your own name.  The zig-zagging the band constantly takes on “Pitch Mountain: Maps” sounds completely organic and right – like every maneuver is obviously the best route.  “Never Don't Give Up” sounds like down-tuned Deerhoof. 
I should also mention the sense of melodicism that is bubbling under the surface of every track.  It's easy not to notice because the math and muscle are so dazzling...  but once the novelty wears off, those melodies have been underneath the whole time, digging into your subconscious mind, bringing you back again.  This music was built to last.  And not only that – and here's the part that totally impresses the hell outta me – there is something in this music that even the very best rock music never contains: richness.  Honest-to-God richness.  Like jazz, Maynard, good ol' rich jazz...

Check it here.

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Tashi Dorji & Tyler Damon – To Catch A Bird In A Net Of Wind (Trost, 2020) *****

By Tom Burris

Let's cut to the chase. Dorji & Damon are rooted in rock music, not jazz. Like most of us, the jazz influence came later for them - after spending years of their lives immersed in the noisier end of the rock pool. Maybe I'm presuming too much, but I believe we all got here through similar – if not identical – channels. With that said, I am happy to proclaim that To Catch a Bird in a Net of Wind is Dorji & Damon's rock masterwork. Running through early Velvets to Sunroof!, everything you ever loved about rocknroll noise is elevated here to the highest plateau of tinnitus glory. These are improvised compositions constructed before your very eyes - and they remain standing as compositions for repeated listening pleasure. Summary: This is an excellent investment in recorded improvised music for your quarantine life.

This album was recorded live at Elastic in 2018 by Dave Zuchowski (and mixed by John Dawson) so you can trust that the sound is righteous. It's split between two long pieces, one on each side of the LP. The intro to the title piece begins with a Mahayana Buddhist invocation based on rattled bells and a White Light/White Heat guitar drone, setting the perfect tone for the events that will soon transpire. Dorji begins to add melodic figures on the top strings, which sound a bit like a Japanese shamisen. Damon's toms rumble before he gradually accelerates and spreads the beating onto the entire kit. As the melody stretches into looser chunks and higher intensity, Damon pushes back hard. Surprisingly, the inevitable collapse happens quickly.

The second movement of the title track begins with what we now recognize as the “proper” Dorji/Damon model: Damon's brushes flutter on the snare and hi-hat while Dorji plays behind the bridge in his now practically trademarked clang. Out of this emerges a looped E-string rhythm as some Derek-Bailey-meets-Sonic-Youth metallic skronk sprays over the top. As always, Damon is perfect, tumbling on toms, bashing cymbals for emphasis in all the right spots via telepathic brother magic. This music reminds me of what it was like to encounter Confusion-era Sonic Youth up through Sister for the first time. It was the only music that made visceral sense during the mid-80s. I'm getting that same buzz here in the BLM/COVID era with this record.

Flip the record over and you have “Upon the Rim of the Well” tearing your face off immediately, as Arto Lindsay & Lydia Lunch's hellchild scrapes and claws its horned head outta the womb while Andrew Cyrille tried to beat it back into the.. uh.. “well”. The birth eventually happens, but the child simply wants to beat on a pan while Ikue Mori pays the happy couple a visit and winds up accompanying the little tyke on her huge old floor toms. One big happy No Wave family.

Second movement. A Spanish dude obsesses over getting the “wrong note” part of Neil Young's “Southern Man” solo down perfectly as Damon taps on cans of spray paint. MGM's cartoon icon Crambone adds a little sparkle to the flat matte as WB's Speedy Gonzalez traipses through the sand mandala the monks started constructing during the invocation on Side A. Arto makes a final appearance: “You guys know I'm Brazilian and not Spanish, right?”

How can these two continue to improve upon this brilliantly intuitive construction? It's beyond me – and yet they always outdo themselves. I have to stop asking this question – and figure out a new way to heap praise onto these guys. Album of the summer, if not the year. Damn!

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Kuzu - Hiljaisuus (Astral Spirits, 2018) *****

By Martin Schray

In yesterday’s interview, Tom Burris highlighted drummer Tyler Damon and rightfully praised him as one of the most promising musicians at the moment. His collaborations with guitarist Tashi Dorji are especially examples of outstanding resourcefulness. As a duo they’ve been playing together since 2015, both coming from a punk subculture background (hardcore for Dorji, skateboarding and punk rock for Damon). That’s why it’s no wonder that loudness, a certain DIY attitude, furiousness and intensity are key elements of their music. Their previous works, Leave No Trace: Live in St. Louis and Both Will Escape, which both received 5-star-reviews on this site, are perfect examples of this. With Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, the two have already expanded the duo format before and the results were an equally excellent self-titled album as well as the wonderful To the Animal Kingdom.

When Damon moved to Chicago, teaming up with local saxophone wizard Dave Rempis seemed to be a logical move, and it turned out to be the proverbial match made in heaven. On Kuzu’s debut LP, which was recorded in 2017 at Elastic Arts in Chicago, Rempis fits perfectly in Dorji’s and Damon’s vortex-like dynamic.

The music on Hiljaisuus is a game of recurring structures. Harmonic islands consisting of staccato and repetitive patterns are used as springboards and fixed points for further improvisation. “Fontanelles 1“, for example, starts with bowed cymbals and arpeggiated guitar chords before Rempis creeps into this structure with mournful lines reminding me of a wounded to death Peter Brötzmann playing John Coltrane’s “Alabama“. Dorji breaks up this structure and after seven minutes the trio reaches a first peak of intensity, with Damon playing dark, almost cymbal-free rolls. Soon Dorji and Rempis agree on one of these aforementioned repetitive unison patterns, they cling to it and open it up as soon as it seems useful. Dorji’s cold, metallic, and percussive tone is often foiled by Rempis’ and Damon’s extreme emotionality - contrast and imitation being further creative tools the trio makes use of. This way, Rempis, Dorji, and Damon invent an enormously tight pallet of sounds, energy being another compositional constituent. In “Gash“, the last of three tracks, the trio generates a constant ebb and flow, starting from coarse chopping that builds a massive, compact wave of sound creating an atmosphere that is tense to the breaking point. Finally, the piece returns to the beginning of “Fontanelle 1“, where everything started.

Hiljaisuus is the Finnish word for silence, but the music on this album is the most eloquent silence you’ve ever heard. In yesterday’s interview Tyler Damon said that Kuzu was planned as a one-off. Let’s hope that the album sells well so that there might be further tours and recordings. It’s one of my favourite albums this year and not only for fans of Last Exit and The Thing feat. Thurston Moore I’d say it’s a definite must have.

Hiljaisuus is available on vinyl and as a download. You can listen to the album and buy it here:



Watch Kuzu live here:

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Tyler Damon & Tashi Dorji – Soft Berm (Magnetic South, 2018) ****

By Tom Burris


Recorded live in Bloomington, IL in 2017, Soft Berm is a lo-fi, monophonic cassette that will probably be discussed in hushed tones in the very near future. “Yeah, well did you ever hear Soft Berm?” One of those. The cassette is already long gone, but the download can be had on Bandcamp. (For now.) I also want to make clear that this cassette is not the starting point for getting in on the Dorji/Damon craze; but it is absolutely essential for those of us who have been indoctrinated.

Opening with moody 80s Sonic Youth clang, the lo-fi atmosphere immediately asserts itself as a positive. By the 3.5 minute mark, Dorji and Damon are already in the zone & the now familiar gorgeous drone and violent crashing of waves are in full bloom. The pure joy of these sounds overwhelms.

Seven minutes in, Damon takes a solo using a pair of what sounds like wicker shakers. Dorji chimes in with dissonant plucking. Something is weaved into the guitar strings so the sustain is gone, making everything a percussive stab. There are occasional plucks on the lowest string (tuned lower than an E), which is not muted as it booms out loudly. Once the energy level picks up again, Damon's manic groove kicks down so hard Dorji is forced to clang in time. Feverish.

An otherworldly approximation of Beefheartian ethno trashgroove dominates later on with Dorji looping a bit and adding atmospheric additions over the top. (Damon does not get enough credit for being such a master of groove, btw.) A crazy storm starts brewing with howling and wind chimes clanging together. It finally hits, blowing over everything in sight. The post storm rubble doesn't leave much to work with though, and the last several minutes feel tagged on. But you'll still look through the smoke to see what's happening.

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Dave Rempis with Reid/Abrams/Daisy/Damon – The COVID Tapes (Aerophonic, 2021) *****

By Tom Burris

2020 was a bad experience for everyone. And if you were a musician you pretty much lost your gig. Recordings don't pay enough to sustain any of our outcat heroes – and they couldn't get together in a studio to record anyway due to the unpredictable nature of a potentially fatal virus wreaking havoc on all of humanity. We know what happened next; and although it wasn't ideal it was still great. We got to see things we never would have seen otherwise, most likely. Highlights of the online streaming concert experience included watching chickens walk on processed sound sources in Aaron Dilloway's house and getting up close and personal with Dave Rempis in his practice closet in the Unity Lutheran Church in Chicago. A new and different world wields new and different experiences – and streaming concerts helped soothe and/or stimulate most of us in a time of need - players, promoters and listeners alike.

For his solo closet sessions, Rempis got back to playing standards quite a bit. It appears that going back to one's roots happened frequently for people during 2020. I logged more time listening to the Stones, Velvets, Dylan and old blues records than I probably had in the last 20 years. There's comfort in them there grooves. It's where I came from. It's home. So it's not surprising that Dave dug up the old standards to cope with the new and shitty world that was being heaped upon us and repeatedly made worse by a U.S. government that mismanaged literally everything in sight – and that also doubled down on the incompetence with red-faced belligerence whenever it was called out. Good times. My sincerest best wishes for the people of Brazil and India, who are still in the heat of it all. What can we do other than throw money at the problem? This could become an entire essay that would take away from the matter at hand – but we are all unfocused as the US and Europe slowly open back up to something resembling “normalcy”. Everyone I know is stressed and questioning almost every aspect of their lives. The one thing I think we can all agree on is that we should never go back to the way things were before. We should use this time as an opportunity for positive change. We could do worse than to use the model of the streaming concert as an example of how to cope – and move forward. Sound naive? Then you weren't there. Beauty counts. Kindness counts. Musicians and venues brought it and we paid for the experience in kind. It benefited everyone who participated. We got through (most of) the pandemic together via computer screens, which as I said before isn't ideal, but it's what we had & it did the fucking job. Now if we could figure out a way for some of these folks to make a decent living from their art... Onward!

Where was I? Oh yeah, Rempis and standards. These solo pieces are an absolute joy. Joe McPhee's “Knox” kicks off the first disc with a succinct introduction to the approach he'll take on most of them: long, soulful, sometimes mournful tones that alternate with perfectly timed blasts of inspired freedom. “Just A Gigolo” is played slowly and sweetly. Legato – not at all punchy like Monk's version(s) but just as effective. Rempis says it's an appropriate tune for his online performance hustle. Not sure I agree as it feels more like a gift than a business transaction. He flutters his way through “On Green Dolphin Street” like he was born to play it, constantly flowing between melodicism and free ecstatic lines of ornithology. The closer for the entire double-disc set is Duke and Strayhorn's “Isfahan,” which shows Dave's apparent love of the melancholy standard in blazing lights. It's a stunner. He could have easily compiled a solo disc of these, but I think I like it better in this format: solo tracks alternating with group collaborations. Breaks everything up nicely.

The collaborative tracks here were recorded at Margate Park in Chicago, with the exception of “Toron” with Tim Daisy, which was laid down at the Sugar Maple in Milwaukee. “Toron” is a standout, beginning quietly as a bicycle wheel's spokes are struck with playing cards (not literally) accompanied by a wheezing threat. Rusty squeaks and junkyard pounding follow, building tension until Jazzbo the Snake Charmer shows up for a slow musical poem before the snake dances its way out the hat. And what a dance! Daisy matches Rempis' loping, fast lines with precision and fire. Rempis gets a solo spot in the middle that is inventive as hell, free as the blazing sun – then Tim re-enters swinging like Klook, the snare accents so infectious you can't help but move your feet. They kick back and forth between swinging bop and unhinged freedom like it's nothing – and it's incredibly exhilarating. The remaining collaborative tracks have more of a bootleg feel to them, which works incredibly well aesthetically. The outdoor setting lends itself to a flat sound, but is perfectly rounded out by the environmental sonics that inevitably slip into the recordings. The trio that Rempis has with Joshua Abrams and Tyler Damon on “Skin and Bones” sounds like a modernized version of the classic Sonny Rollins Trio to me – and I'm not exaggerating. Tomeka Reid and Abrams form automatic chords effortlessly on “In The Wild,” which Rempis weaves swift lines above – perhaps an homage to the birds present that day. Cicadas attempt to take over by the end of the piece, and there is a natural response from the musicians. “Glitch” is probably my favorite of the collabs and features percussion wunderkind Tyler Damon. He takes a nice long stretch to feel his way toward an addictive groove before Rempis joins in, with Damon adding incredibly interesting variations on the groove. Clyde Stubblefield and ecstatic Trane. Then suddenly there is calm. Long notes from Dave and wind chimes from Tyler. Builds to an interstellar storm, but more BYG than Impulse. The last several minutes barrel out like absolute best of the freedom sixties. Superb.

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Sam Weinberg/Tyler Damon/ Henry Fraser – Foment (Amalgam, 2019)****

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

Once you become familiar with anything, it’s not easy to be impressed by whatever new derives from it. It’s a natural process I guess. Being a fan of free jazz and collective improvisation as a way of expression, the their ethics plus the everyday functions that come from it, you are exposed to many different recordings and ideas. It’s a free thinking music with libertarian ideas per se. One that has produced masterpieces, wonderful recordings of music by some of the most important renegades of 20^th century’s music. It’s hard, sometimes impossible, to leave all this knowledge of the past behind and listen to with new ears, without prejudice even, anything new that comes out of what we nowadays call the ever expanding universe of free jazz. It gets even more difficult, I dare say, to evaluate the new stuff, great recordings coming out to us on a monthly basis. The comparisons are always there while the expectations are most probably high.

Sam Weinberg, apart from being one of my favorite wind players at the moment, falls into most of the aforementioned categories. Following this review, tomorrow, you will find a very short interview plus another review of a very different recording, one that proves that Sam struggles to broaden his horizon. On Foment though, we hear two long free jazz tracks of collective improvisation. His comrades are Henry Fraser on the double bass and Tyler Damon on drums and percussion. Continuing onto my earlier thoughts, listening to so many people (especially in jazz) who are so articulate and demanding with their playing, makes me always focus more on the interaction of the musician. We are talking about collective improvisation in any case.

Improvisation is a practice that comes from everyday life. Whenever it is not a mannerism to be sold in corporate ways, it includes ways of thinking, interacting and playing that produce spectacular results. There are moments in Foment when their interplay belongs to the great recordings of free jazz of the 60’s and 70’s. The two long tracks, Sleet and Bait, are full of the trio’s struggles to communicate. A communication that involves each other but also the listener, you and me. On Sleet their playing is more aggressive. The sax lines are fiercer, the bass offers us the rhythmic abnormalities of plucking and whatever other verbs are out there to describe the double bass. While the drums of Damon are a constant highlight. He is in the middle of things from time to time, either accompanying (in a linear dialogue with the bass) Fraser, or following up a sax phrase. Even though this is an antithesis, his playing is probably the highlight of Foment. On Bait, they seem to get lost in a trance and follow each other lines, sometimes even getting close to melody.

I do not have a clue of how Foment, in terms of spacing and room recording, was recorded. What they produce though declares vividly that this is a stellar recording of three artists interacting on a non hierarchical basis. Go for it all you good people reading these lines and, as always, support small labels.

@koultouranafigo

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Mette Rasmussen / Tashi Dorji / Tyler Damon - To the Animal Kingdom (Trost, 2017) ****½

By Eric McDowell

In 2015, Mette Rasmussen and Chris Corsano released one of the best albums of the year. In 2016, so did Tashi Dorji and Tyler Damon. What made All the Ghosts at Once (Relative Pitch) and Both Will Escape (Family Vineyard) so powerful, in part, was the fresh, fluid energy with which each half-drums duo improvised. Nor did either album take the risk of over-relying on its audience’s powers of attention, choosing instead to grab hold of the ear and lead it on irresistibly. As organic and necessary as these musical dialogues seemed to be to the musicians involved, they were like oxygen to their listeners—easy to take in, hard to do without.

So when To the Animal Kingdom was announced, it was only natural to wonder how these two great duos would survive colliding together. Reconfigured as a trio (it’s tempting to imagine what we’d hear were Corsano on the recording) the saxophonist, guitarist, and drummer come together in a way that epitomizes John Corbett’s description, in A Listener’s Guide to Free Improvisation, of what happens when a group of two improvisors becomes three: “Take the duet and add an X factor.” But that’s not to suggest that Rasmussen’s contributions feel “added” on to the existing Dorji/Damon duo dynamic. In reality, any one of the three can be heard functioning as that triangulating “X factor” at any given moment. In this way, in Corbett’s words, the “possibilities” multiply “exponentially.”
For one obvious example, the title track opener finds Rasmussen and Dorji engaging in a kind of high-intensity joust for almost a minute before Damon enters the fray with abbreviated tom rolls. From there he continually shifts the collective dynamic, adding density, volume, and color to escalate his playing as if to drive a wedge between his two companions—or between us and them. When he tapers off in the middle of the track and again closer to the end, he pivots the context in a way that the trio formation, per Corbett’s “X factor,” is especially primed to benefit from.

Another of Corbett’s comments—that “the trio has an approachable level of complexity”—proves true here, too. As with much free improvisation, part of this complexity comes from the musicians’ playful take on their roles in the trio. While he can certainly pummel and thrash the kit, Damon can also bring a sometimes delicate melodicism to his drumming, the chiming gong-work that opened Both Will Escape in evidence near the beginning of “To the Heavens and Earths.” At the same time, Dorji and his metallic tone tend often toward the percussive, whether stabbing (as on the first piece) or more intricate (as on the night-music opening of “To Life”). And isolating Rasmussen often reveals an amount of repetition in her playing that’s surprising, given the overall effect, balancing lyricism and rhythmic patterning.

The result is sensitive but athletic improvisation that has the flexibility to pull in multiple directions at once without violating the boundaries of the three improvisors’ distinctive voices, at times no doubt approaching, to borrow once more from Corbett, the level of “sublime communication.”

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Tyler Damon & Dave Rempis – Full Yum (Park 70, 2018) ****½

By Tom Burris

Another out-of-print cassette review for ya. But you can get the download on Bandcamp and listen to it on your phone – which is how you were gonna listen to it anyway. And if you're even remotely interested in Kuzu, you'll need to stick this in your phone immediately. Rempis and Damon are perfect foils for each other, their dynamic making it often impossible to tell who is leading who for much of the set.

“Give You The Good Taste” (Side A) kicks off at full tilt and keeps that momentum up for long enough to make you wonder how much longer they can do it – but eventually it lands on a hard bop Blue Note session. For about two minutes. Then it's interstellar spacemen trampling all over your dad's record collection in a way that I can only describe as radical free music perfection. Damon is giving Rempis everything he's got and Dave throws it right back in Tyler's face with some added – and it escalates like this until the end. Just... wow.

“Classic Aftertaste” (Side B) begins softly (yes) with a somewhat rhythmically stiff pattern, which gradually loosens and swings more as it develops. The interplay between the two is so deep the music starts to swing like a motherfucker, dancing itself into a frenzy. Rempis is perfect here. Nothing is out of place and everything he does serves to elevate the music – and his partner's reaction to it. And as before, Damon is inspired to the point that he always throws more back in than he receives. The music moves between grooves and free ecstasy, always balancing on the line between structure and freedom – finally culminating in the last minute when 60 seconds of total freedom sound entirely composed.

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Kuzu - Lift to Drag (Medium Sound, 2019) ****½

By Taylor McDowell

When two atomic nuclei fuse, it is often accompanied by the release of huge amounts of energy. The result can be both beautiful and violent, like the fusion that occurs at the center of our own Sun. I think Kuzu was formed with similar results. The Tashi Dorji-Tyler Damon axis has alone proven to be one of the more earthshaking guitar/drum duos in recent years. It’s become clear that they have found a genuine camaraderie in one another, as any of their records will testify to. In the other corner, there is Dave Rempis - that indefatigable force of nature coming out of Chicago. He’s got a creative well, no, geyser that has resulted in high-volumes of seriously good music from a number of seriously good projects.

Dorji (guitar), Damon (drums and percussion) and Rempis (saxophones) joined forces in 2017 with brilliant results. Their debut, Hiljaisuus (Astral Spirits, 2018) was a very well-received ass-kicking that quickly became a favorite - rightfully voted third in the 2018 Happy New Ears polls. It was the gorgeously harsh intersection of incendiary free jazz and noise rock. Ironically, their initial meeting was supposed to be just a one-time ordeal. But, according to Damon in an interview , they knew they had something special after recording Hiljaisuus. A tour of Texas and the East Coast ensued in the fall of 2018, which brings us to Lift to Drag.

Taken from a performance at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, Lift to Drag consists of 80-minutes of improvisation at its finest. The two extended tracks leave ample room for this trio to seize rhythmic or melodic ideas, construct wild grooves from it, only to burn it down in strident anarchy. It’s a glorious process to witness. The first track, “Spilled Out,” begins ominously with Damon malleting out a steady rhythm on toms. Rempis joins in on tenor, oozing melodic lines, while Dorji feels out a similar path playing single-note runs with an eastern flair. The whole thing begins to boil in a captivating Persian-like groove until it erupts into a maelstrom of overdriven guitar and thrashing toms, crescendoing at around the 13-minute mark. Damon is going nuts, provoking the tethered animal that is Dorji’s snarling guitar, while Rempis screams and bellows. Oh, the raw emotion! Dorji utilizes feedback and distortion to engulf any remaining silence that might escape Damon’s impenetrable wall. Other times, Dorji’s picking becomes metered and percussive - letting hollow, metallic notes ring out to create a drone. A great example of this occurs around 19:20, when Dorji plays a droning bass under a Geiger counter picking pattern. Damon, a masterful purveyor of groove, lays down a satisfying swing while Rempis sings a vibrato-laden melody in a fashion reminiscent of Elvin and Trane.

Rempis switches to baritone, and the group begins the second set, titled “Carried Away,” in hushed tones. After a couple of minutes of quieter ruminations, Rempis cuts loose a battle cry that opens to gates to mayhem. One thing I can’t help but notice is how Dorji seems to offer more melodic material on Lift to Drag than he does in Hiljaisuus, in addition to the rhythmic, percussive and textural elements. It’s another facet of his playing that helps drive the mood at any given time, and also makes him a good sparring partner for Rempis’s melodicism. A great example of this takes form around the 12-minute mark. Rempis (on alto now) and Dorji mutually agree on a tonal palette. Rempis’s playing, with a warm and articulated tone, is simply gorgeous and unforgiving all at once. Dorji introduces a slow, staggering bass melody that perfectly compliments Rempis’s lines while contrasting Damon’s triumphant and tumultuous thundering. Damon is thirsty for blood though, and drives the piece to a breaking point until he drops out, leaving Rempis and Dorji to wander through the ruins and ashes. It takes some rebuilding, quiet at first, even becoming a bit ecstatic. But dynamics shift often with this group, and I often forget where the hell we even came from because the present is so engrossing.

I’m not going to lie, I would feel pretty betrayed if Kuzu were actually a one-time ordeal. They’re that good. And it’s clear that the magic they first experienced on Hiljaisuus is the real deal because Lift to Drag really cleans up. If you’re even slightly intrigued what a cutting-edge, hard-driving trio should sound like, then pick up both of their records now.

Lift to Drag was available as a limited cassette tape, but is still available as a digital download.

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The Free Jazz Collective Interview: Tyler Damon

Tyler Damon

By Tom Burris

Tyler Damon is a lifelong percussion student and a master craftsman – and a collaborator in the truest sense of the word. In three years I've seen this man present ideas and techniques I never imagined anyone could extend or advance – and he's often done exactly that himself within the span of a few months. This isn't just empty hyperbole. I've seen him do it! The first time I saw Damon play he was “onto something really great,” as I remember saying to my friend Nick while the band was packing up. The second time I saw him – which couldn't have been more than a few months later - he was already there. And this rate of growth is still happening on the regular. There may be a legendary deal with the devil in there somewhere, but I don't have that story here – and I don't really wanna know anyway. Most subsequent experiences have left me shaking my head in disbelief, wondering if there will ever be a wall big enough to contain the guy. And there isn't any particular style you can pin on him either. Hell, you'll see him laying down the sort of righteous hippie clomping that every soft-spoken Hoosier hayseed gargles White River bong-water to – and then at the very next gig he comes off like a one-man spastic kitchen percussion orchestra. And while variety and technique are important, how many drummers do you know who can make the sky sleet silverware and still be 100% dedicated to a work of collaborative improvisation with other sentient beings? The creation of the collaborative work is The Most Important Thing, no matter how dazzling the musicianship. That his stick-work never overpowers his cohorts is paramount. Everything Damon plays is about collaboration and creation. And maybe I'm wrong, but if there isn't a musical statement to be made or sought out, I'd expect him to just not play. But as he's always in search of the next frontier, don't expect him to sit anything out in the near future. Or possibly ever, if our luck holds out.

The following conversation topics include (but are by no means limited to):
Circuit des Yeux, Astral Spirits, Dave Rempis, Tashi Dorji, Muyassar Kurdi, Daniel Carter, skateboarding, Darin Gray, Marvin Tate, Thee Open Sex, Chicago, Bloomington

FJB: What was it that finally made you go ahead and make the move to Chicago? 'Coz I've been bugging you about it for at least two years...

Tyler Damon: I'd been thinking about it for at least that long. I mean there were a lot of things. There was no great straw that broke the camel's back. I mean playing with Circuit des Yeux has put me in a position where I'm pretty plugged in with work immediately. We're still in an album cycle right now so that'll taper off at some point – not just for me, but for all of us – and it's been a bit amorphous. Like back in November and January when we did some dates, Cooper Crain was in the band but he also put out a Bitchin' Bajas album around the same time so they're sort of on an album cycle with that too. We have Andrew Scott Young from Tiger Hatchery and a host of other projects playing bass – I really love playing with Andrew & I'm sure we'll do some improv in the near future, I hope. Whitney Johnson (Matchess) has been playing viola & Whitney is no real stranger to the improv world – and Haley (Fohr), for that matter, has always had one foot in that (outer) world too. So that felt like a really good foray into Chicago. Y'know, I really don't have a permanent place to live here right now so maybe this interview will help me find one! People have been very kind and welcoming – but I'm still getting my footing. I don't know. I feel like I've been in this transitional period as a human being for two or three years. I feel like I'm getting away from your main question, but basically the main catalyst was not having a whole lot of reasons to stay in Bloomington (Indiana) & having more work in Chicago.

Tell me a bit about the new trio with Dave Rempis and Tashi Dorji...

...the Kuzu thing – I mean, at the time that was just a one-off. Tashi and I both love Dave; we love his playing and we love him as a person. I was playing duo with him. Dave did that solo CD Lattice and that tour where he basically traveled around... (I interrupt like an idiot. Turns out Tashi also played a duo set w/ Dave on that tour in Asheville, where Dorji lives.) So both of us were sort of familiar, beyond just being friends, so it seemed like the next logical step.

So when was it decided to pursue Kuzu as a project?

When that recording that Dave Zuchowski did turned out so good! I'm sure it was sort of bubbling in the back of our minds “yeah, this is something we should consider” but when Astral Spirits wanted to do an LP of that stuff... that one was really easy. There's a mobile recording studio that Dave does along with his partner Wendy and it's multitrack so it's mixable, which is a huge step up from the typical Zoom improv recording. People might not know but the Mette Rasmussen trio stuff that Tashi and I did is a Zoom recording. I mean, a lot of records are. I think that's sort of a “scene secret”. There are some mastering engineers that do some remarkable work, like Lasse Marhaug, who made the To The Animal Kingdom record with Mette and Tashi sound the way it does.

The first time I saw you play was with Keith Jost at the Spot. You were opening for...

Rosaly and Rempis! That show sticks out in our minds because of the crowd that night.

Yeah, everybody was bunched around Rempis and Rosaly.

Yeah, that whole vibe was much more like a rock concert than it was a typical improv chin scratcher. That's not a dig, but you know... the energy was quite different.
[ Watch a short clip from this show]

How long prior to that show had you been out playing improv? 'Coz I know you'd been out doing rock band stuff with Open Sex...

I consider Open Sex to be an improv group.

(Backpedaling) Well it is kinda improv but it's also structured too, like Velvet Underground rehearsal tapes or something.*

Haha, yeah – you're not wrong. It's working within a stricter set of parameters than most free improvisation. But for that reason I think it's hard for me to really pinpoint the moment... I think I started doing it when I was college. I used to be really heavily into skateboarding – street skateboarding, in particular. Well you can do that alone. Or you can do that with a group of people – and you can collaborate as much or as little as you want and you can sort of carve your own path out. I feel like skateboarding has shaped my outlook in a way that has led to this point. And so it's hard to define the moment, aside from thinking about when I quit skateboarding due to injuries. I decided if I wanted to keep drumming I couldn't keep breaking my appendages. Or bruising my tailbone or worse! When I was in my mid to late teens it became clear that these were my two things (skateboarding and drumming) that I'm into doing and that I might actually be able to take somewhere. But then it became pretty clear that you can skateboard for how long? I'd be waaay past my prime at this age – I'm 31 – but I can keep drumming. So the choice seemed simple. And drumming can cause those long-term injuries but you're probably not gonna break your arm doing it.

Yeah, you're not likely to do something that won't allow you to play drums anymore.

Hopefully! But yeah, I feel like these two paths coalesced in a way. And how I felt about skateboarding - and everything that came my way when I was out in the street doing that - bled into my drumming practice. And then when you realize that there's a whole world of people out there doing it ( improvisation) and expanding on what your idea already was about that is really empowering, I think.

What was it like when you realized that there were other people doing that? Did that blow your mind?

Yeah, but... I think the first proper recording of free jazz or improvised music I listened to was Ornette's Free Jazz album; and that's only because somebody in my middle-of-nowhere library in southeastern Indiana had curated the cd collection to have things like that album, Captain Beefheart, Mothers of Invention, things like that... 'coz I was already pretty dialed into punk and metal and all of the subgenres thereof. I felt like I was moving onto the next level of “being extreme” or something but in retrospect it seems I was just interested in finding something that allowed for a broader range of expression. Y'know, in metal there's not a lot of room for this other emotional content.

Right. That's a good way of putting it.

Y'know, for better or worse, I appreciate all sorts of forms and formalism but I think that when I realized that was a possibility and it started to bend my ear in this other way – because I was recognizing maybe... I don't know. New patterns start to emerge in everything. When it ceases to be purely mystical, maybe you can see the process. Or you become more aware of a theory of how people are even approaching this kind of playing because you read about it or you become aware of certain players. You start to recognize individual styles. Or even strange idiomatic kinds of things that start to pop up like “What is considered Free?” Which is inevitable. I was sort of like a stubborn child in some ways and always wanted to things this other way. No matter how tried and true this method was... even though I'm right-handed, maybe I'll try it left-handed from the outset because I'm stubborn and contrarian in this certain way. The short answer to all of that would be that sometime around college I got burnt out on technical playing and unnecessarily complicated music. So my boss and friend at the record store,** Heath Byers, gave me a Cold Bleak Heat*** cd called It's Magnificent But It Isn't War and that was the closest thing I'd heard at the time that less spazzy and formal in its way than, say, the early Hella records. That must've been 2005, 2006 maybe?

How old were you when you started playing drums?

I got my first drum at ten but I don't think there was any point in my life when I wasn't drumming on something. There's at least one photograph of me kind of like in this little circle way where I have all of these pieces of toys and furniture from around the house and maybe I've got a pencil and a chopstick.

Was there any particular music that inspired you initially?

I'm not sure. My parents got me started early on my own record collection because I think they understood that I needed my own music. They understood that generationally and individually. My dad comes to shows now. He saw Peter Brotzmann. It's cool. To get back to your question though, the first CD I ever chose and purchased myself was Pearl Jam's Vitalogy. I guess I was eight to ten years old. Before that I was just getting things from the library.

The library saved my life. That's small town Indiana stuff.

It was the Cincinnati Public Library though. It wasn't until middle school that I wound up in Indiana. That's just one example. I can remember my dad bringing me Sonic Youth's Experimental Jet Set Trash & No Star from the library. And Nirvana.

I want to talk about the duo of you and Tashi. When was the first time you played and how did that happen?

Some people I knew in Bloomington had brought him to my attention. Some other friends had met him on tour & said I should check (his music) out. It really struck me – a lot. So I wrote him and said “I'm really into your playing. Hope we can play together sometime” - something to that effect. I don't know if Tashi saw a video of me or heard the first solo tape I did, but it ended up working out where he was coming through Lexington around March 2015 & he invited me to play a few shows. Lexington was the first one and Lafayette was the second one.

And that was amazing. I thought you'd been playing together forever.

Yeah, you were at that one too! You'd probably know better than anyone what's going on with this duo. Probably better than Tashi and I.

I doubt it.

You definitely witnessed it in a way that I'll never be able to see it.

I definitely felt like I was at the right place at the right time, that's for sure.

That Lexington one was at the Green Lantern Bar and I played solo & Tashi played solo and then we played a short duo that I put out (a recording of) in a really small CD-R run called First Meeting. It's also on Bandcamp. I wanna say that Robert Beatty**** recorded that. I'm not sure because I don't think I credited him when I put it out. Anyway, that was the first time and I felt really ecstatic after that. Like “I can't wait to do this as much as possible!” To know that two nights later I'd get to do it again, my mind was completely racing about it and I just had that many more ideas and saw that much more potential. To even have the second night to think about it and actually not play...

On earlier free music performances...

I was playing improvised (music) since 2010 or something. But not in a way that felt like (I was) where I wanted to be, so I wasn't taking it out very much. I was playing with Darin Gray***** already and that was a big one for me as well. Darin and I haven't been able to get together the way that we've wanted to the last 2 or 3 years, but there will be more of that in the future too. I really, really like playing with Darin as well. It's a similarly exciting experience. And I think that was probably where I cut my teeth in a way that made me feel like I could bring that to the public sphere and not feel like I was way under where I wanted to be or something.

You were doing shows with Keith Jost when I first encountered you.

Yeah, that was another regular thing I was doing before (playing with) Tashi. For about maybe a year. But he relocated to New York / New Jersey & then was back in Bloomington for awhile but he then transitioned pretty heavily into writing. And I think he's actually back in New York again now doing a lot of writing. I miss doing that though; it was a lot of fun.

How did you go about doing that cassette last year with Daniel Carter?

That was arranged through my friend, Muyassar Kurdi. She's from Chicago, lives in New York now. The first improv show I ever played up here in Chicago she set up for me. I played solo on that occasion. It was at the Hungry Brain before it reopened.

Oh wow. Just throw you right in.

Yeah, Marvin Tate was on the bill too, which... super heavy cat. So that's actually what I remember most about that show, Marvin Tate. Great. So after Muya moved to New York, Tashi and I had played a tour out there & that's where we were ending and were heading back to Asheville. Muya set up this little session in her dance studio, Woods Cooperative, in Queens. And from what I understand, I don't know Daniel super well – I mean, my experience with him was absolutely wonderful – but I think he plays all day every day. His calendar is just full of music, wherever that may be and whoever that may be with. I mean, he was just really open. He was super cool. It was cool to be brought into the fold in that way & I felt really humbled by it – and it changed my playing, y'know? That's how I feel about it.

Touring. What do you have coming up?

I've got some more Circuit des Yeux stuff as the year goes on & that will be cool for sure. There will be a Texas-only tour for Kuzu in August.

I noticed all the dates were Texas. How did that happen?

Sonic Transmissions festival & Astral Spirits. (Both are based in Austin.) Sonic Transmissions I understand to be Ingebrigt Håker Flaten's festival and it sort of happens over a period of month serially. So it just worked out that we could be there for it in August and then we decided to rent a car and see if we could build some dates around that. The great drummer Dane Rousey from San Antonio helped out and is gonna play some of the shows as well. I don't think Tashi has ever been to Texas so it's interesting to think that we're gonna go there and play 4 or 5 shows. I think we're playing in Beaumont, which is the most interesting to me.

Are you an official member of Circuit des Yeux now?

Well it' s Haley's outfit so the structure of the band is at her discretion. I recorded on the last record and that went great. But Haley may be working on something right now, I don't know what, but I'm not currently recording with them or anything. I am given a lot of liberties in terms of what I play. I very much feel that I was invited to be a part of Circuit des Yeux for my playing, which feels really nice. That's evident to me about the other players in the band so I'm making an assumption about myself!

Rempis, Dorji & Damon have just wrapped up their U.S. Tour (and played in more places than Texas) & the debut Kuzu LP, Hiljaisuus, is out now on Astral Spirits.

Also released Summer/Fall 2018:
Soft Berm cassette on Magnetic South w/ Tashi Dorji
Full Yum cassette on Park 70 w/ Dave Rempis
White Horses LP on Sophomore Lounge w/ Thee Open Sex

and finally Tyler Damon on the Free Jazz Blog

Footnotes:
*I saw Thee Open Sex play in August and on that occasion they sounded a bit like the Butthole Surfers covering Amon Duul. One chord for a solid hour that was mostly peaks with maybe a couple of minute-long valleys.
**Landlocked Music, Bloomington, IN
***Mid-2000s Out/Improv supergroup consisting of Matt Heyner, Chris Corsano, Paul Flaherty, Greg Kelley.
**** https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/all-of-the-best-new-psychedelic-album-covers-are-made-by-the-same-guy/2017/01/19/fa489522-d76d-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?utm_term=.56eb1145c015
*****bassist with Jim O'Rourke, On Fillmore, Tweedy, Yona-Kit

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Dave Rempis / Jason Adasiewicz / Joshua Abrams / Tyler Damon -Propulsion (Aerophonic Records, 2024)

By Martin Schray

I recently bought Ballister’s self-released debut Bastard String (from 2011), an album that is relatively rare. After listening to it for the first time, I was amazed at how much Dave Rempis still sounded like Peter Brötzmann back then. And it’s even more astonishing how varied his playing has become over the years. This can be recognised very well on his new album Propulsion. The band presents Rempis on saxophones (as usual), vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, who is known for his work with the aforementioned Peter Brötzmann, bassist Joshua Abrams (of Natural Information Society fame) and Rempis’s long-term musical partner Tyler Damon on drums.

From the very first note it’s remarkable how melodic and spiritual Propulsion is. This becomes particularly clear on “Egression“, the second track. Rempis begins with a minimalist solo, with Abrams lingering on a monotonous riff in the background (something he also likes to do with Natural Information Society), which remains dry as dust and thus forms a clear contrast to Rempis’s vibrato-laden sound and the extremely high registers the saxophonist uses here. In the second part, the rhythm section pushes Rempis up a mountain, from where his full sound then floods the land below in the most marvellous way. He sounds like Trane in his late phase, less gospel-like, more controlled instead, but just as passionate and heart-warming. The liner notes say that “this recording also catches the band at a moment of major emotional impact“, which might explain said emotionality. Propulsion also “documents the final concert of more than 900 shows that Rempis curated and produced as part of a weekly Thursday-night series of jazz and improvised music that stretched for more than twenty-one years from 2002-2023.“ This band therefore not only represents the four individual musicians, but is also representative of the state of the art of the Chicago scene. The music is not an “Ephemera“, as the third and final track is called, but a promise of what is yet to come. It’s the music of another America, not that of the neoliberal populists, but that of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and Joe McPhee. We will need it. Perhaps more than we realize.

You can buy and listen to Propulsion here:

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Kuzu - Purple Dark Opal (Aerophonic, 2020) *****

By Taylor McDowell

Kuzu hit the road in the fall of 2018 following the release of their debut album, Hiljaisuus (Astral Spirits, 2018). The refreshing and exhilarating sounds pressed into that initial recording were like a fanfare for one of the more exciting new groups of today. But, if we know anything about these three musicians, rather than resting on their laurels, they instead rolled up their sleeves and got to work. On Purple Dark Opal, we find them on day 15 of a 20-date tour - taken from a performance at Milwaukee’s The Sugar Maple in October 2018 (recorded just four days after Lift to Drag ).

For those of you who don’t know, Kuzu is Dave Rempis (saxophones), Tashi Dorji (guitar) and Tyler Damon (drums). They are the kind of group that refuses definition and shrugs off categories (understandable if you consider the breadth of their individual backgrounds). I can picture an iTunes algorithm crashing while trying to sort them into a genre (good thing Aerophonic doesn’t distribute through iTunes, or Amazon for that matter). They are a chameleonic creature: loud and messy, nimble and thorny, melancholic or ecstatic. Despite their disparate backgrounds, individual personalities, or unruly tendencies, they evidently filter it all through a singular concept to achieve that “Kuzu sound”. Purple is the result after putting that concept on the bandstand for 15 nights.

Purple consists of a single track, “To The Quick,” that sprawls for nearly an hour. It all begins in earnest with Damon’s solo percussion before Rempis and Dorji join the fray. As might be expected from an extended performance, the trio navigates a series of valleys and peaks and explores different configurations as if to turn over every stone along the journey. It doesn’t take much to get this group fired up. Rempis has a knack for motivic development as he manipulates creative rhythmic/melodic structures overtop Damon’s inventive stickwork and Dorji’s jagged attacks. He often trades fleet and blistering lines for gut-punched cries, or vibrato-laden hymns that carry severe emotional weight. As they dial up the heat, Rempis’s playing becomes an impassioned frenzy. During these heated moments, Dorji, the trickster that he is, uses mimicry as a tool and picks up on one of Rempis’s scalding rhythmic phrases to add to the chaos. Throughout all of this, Damon is the tenacious force that keeps the band boiling with his everywhere-at-once presence and impressive stamina. He also has a way of injecting a tight swing or quick-witted groove in the middle of a firestorm that leaves listeners tapping their toes or shaking their heads like, “how did he do that?” Surely the outpouring of his rhythmic ideas inspires his fellow bandmates into action.

Energetic peaks are followed by cooler, probing sections or a chance to experiment in a duo configuration. One such example forms 16-minutes in when Rempis drops out. Damon and Dorji exhibit an intricate level of interplay as they tap and clatter around each other in kinetic harmony. Dorji has an eclectic bag of tricks that he uses to manipulate a variety of clicks, scrapes, twangs, and booms from his guitar. He frequently employs pulsating drones that emulate summer-night cicadas or a mechanical cadence that become denser with the use of a looping pedal. While intensity is a mainstay for this band, they seem quite at home navigating through the more introspective sections - whether it’s a slow-burning dirge, a meditative calm of bells and breathy whispers, or a nervous rhythmic breakdown. They achieve an overall sense of momentum by the way they pass around rhythmic ideas: collectively running with some, using others to contrast the narrative. Do this almost intuitively at breakneck speeds and you can begin to understand how they achieve such an exceptionally tight sound.

So what is Purple Dark Opal? It is the sound of an extraordinary working band really hitting their stride. As a listener, we get the sense that these three have become intimately familiar with each other since Hiljaisuus. Like three old friends playing a high-stakes game of poker, they are embroiled in musical gamble that could derail in an instance of hesitation or failed bluff. But for all the runs, flushes and an all-in mentality, there is not a wasted minute where we catch them floundering. For existing fans or newcomers to Kuzu’s music, Purple Dark Opal is an essential recording that showcases this group’s prowess when left to their own devices. We should also tip our hats to recording wizard Dave Zuchowski for his brilliant work on both Purple and Hiljaisuus, among countless other albums. A live performance this good deserves to be heard in the highest of fidelity, and Dave delivers.

Purple Dark Opal is available as a CD from Aerophonic Records, and as a digital download from Bandcamp.

You can catch Kuzu on tour this March.

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Kuzu – All Your Ghosts In One Corner (Aerophonic, 2021) *****

By Tom Burris

Expansion was happening in Kuzu's music before COVID shut the world down. The band was wrapping up a short U.S. tour right as the world's doors were being locked. The music that was created on the last two nights of that run, which the band members knew would shut them down for a long time, is documented on this disc. That openness, that expansion that was opening up their sonic world would be taken from them in a matter of hours – and often the anger, apprehension, and doubt about it all explodes in every direction. It's the sound of raging artists destroying their most advanced works in the face of an impending void because what the fuck does any of this mean now?

There is also a looseness that's not quite been this loose before. Yes, it's the comfort of playing with your brothers; but it's also the feeling of trying to ignore the tension that surrounds everything too. It's only relaxing on the surface when Tyler Damon does a lop-sided, lazy swing on the drum kit to Dave Rempis' slow reeding down the midnight 1970s Bowery sidewalk. Tashi Dorji throws in an occasional guitar pwang! while his amp buzzes. They're half of the Lounge Lizards on the nod. A little painful, but rest assured it hurts them more than it hurts you. It's the sound of DEPRESSION, full tilt. And then like Kaoru Abe waking up on a stage with a sax in his mouth, “Scythe Part 1” rips into the ether and then calms and then rips again, this time with a blinding, eye melting intensity that will have you feeling around your cheeks for blood and eye yolk.

“Part 2” doesn't provide much relief. Damon & Rempis sound like James Chance beating up Big Bird while Dorji chases 'em around with a hot fire poker. A drunk and bitter Tex Avery producing children's television. Dorji has the guitar fueled with far more distortion than Sharrock or anyone else even remotely associate with the word Jazz. He wrangles with an extra loose string underneath Rempis' overblown cries when things get winded. Out of nowhere, there's this image of Rempis thinking “fuck Chance; what if LYDIA played the sax?!?” Everything speeds up. The lights in the room get brighter, threatening to pop. But then the possession subsides a bit, with Rempis playing some sustained notes. The spirit trance hasn't been completely broken – and that becomes crystal clear when Rempis' fire music shoots through Damon and Dorji's house of mirrors like a flamethrower. Dorji's volume pedal dance combined with Damon's rapid clanging as the house burns down literally makes me dizzy.

At the point where Rempis is honking Morse code, Dorji plays with a radioactive device, and Damon beats the metal bowls covering the heads of electric chair death row inmates, it finally hits me that this is the most intense music the group has ever released. Then again, there is this artful spaciousness they've been crafting and attempting to present that nearly always precedes the chaos throughout. Maybe that's the reason the intense bits burn so brightly. Hard to tell. Even after multiple listens. Art reflecting the burning world, I guess. Hard not to do that when your ass is on fire. What you gonna do without your ass?

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Kuzu - The Glass Delusion (Astral Spirits, 2021) ****½

By Martin Schray

In her book In Praise of Risk, the French philosopher and psychotherapist Anne Dufourmantelle, who sadly passed away far too early in 2017, deals with the concept of suspense at a central point. For her, it means to hold your breath and to look with as much attention as possible at what is simply there, at what offers itself to you in the presence of things. According to her, suspension is not a standstill of time before the event, it’s the event itself. It’s the beginning of inner time, since the decision has in fact already been made, only no one has known it yet.

Compared to Kuzu’s latest album, The Glass Delusion, there are some interesting parallels. The band - Dave Rempis (saxophones), Tashi Dorji (guitar), Tyler Damon (drums) - feels its way forward with an idea of where the improvisation should go to, they stake out their field. In the process, the music resembles a conception that has become sound, that does not touch the ground and seems to refuse to take any direction. It’s perfectly open, it remains in an exciting uncertainty - for the musicians and the listener. Rempis and his colleagues seem to enjoy to dwell in this exciting position for as long as possible, because it forces them to remain tense for something unexpected that can happen at any moment. At the same time, it’s important to avoid prefabricated schemes, to stay as far away as possible from the big, worn-out gestures, answers and platitudes (as to Kuzu this would mean punk rock jazz). Rigid certainties must be avoided, though it’s still necessary to act. Yet, this state isn’t one of anxious or hesitant waiting. The music doesn’t have to point towards a goal, the state of suspension itself is the event.

The beginning of the first track “It Simply Becomes Jammed Part 1“ and the last track, “Gnash“, are perfect examples of this. They bookend the improvisation and the guitars flicker over single notes, the sounds pearl like shards of glass on the floor. The saxophone carefully feels its way from note to note as if it was lost in a timeless space, while the cymbal shots ricochet through the room and the drum brushes tremble like hummingbird wings. It’s like a sonic mirage in a desert. Yet, there is direction. Tyler Damon pushes the band relentlessly forward in “It Simply Becomes Jammed Part 1“, there’s a straight, irresistible rock groove. But it’s not the goal everyone is heading to, you’re rather reminded of a tense, exciting interlude. It’s the moment which is reminiscent of the former Kuzu albums - Purple Dark Opal, Hiljaisuus, and Lift To Drag. Here the band is as intense as usual, they are energetic, repetitive and straight into your face.

However, the real quality of this album is a different one. Compared to the Kuzu albums before The Glass Delusion the most self-reflective one. We get to know a different band, a tender one that displays the more sensitive and dramatic sides of their musical identity. Very surprising, very recommended.

The Glass Delusion is available on vinyl and a download.

It’s available from the label's website, where you can also listen to “It Simply Becomes Jammed Part 2“:

or from the Downtown Music Gallery.

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