HurdAudio Rotation: Music of Growth

Sleeping People: Growing. 2006-2007. Temporary Residence: TRR123.

Kasey Boekholt: guitar
Joileah Maddock: guitar
Kenseth Thibideau: bass
Brandon Relf: drums
Amber Coffman: guitar

Sleeping People takes musical patterns as a building block and pieces together tight structures built upon oddities. Odd meters, odd juxtapositions and tightly fitted asymmetries. At the same time they also rock. Building these patterns with the instrumentation and sonic language of electric guitars, bass and drums they manage to scratch the cerebral itch without sounding rigid. Mining grooves that both confound and invite the tapping foot. I've been looking forward to having this disc come back around in the rotation and find that Growing has grown on me. If the world actually made sense these guys would be saturating the culture with this intelligent and inviting sound.

Elliott Sharp/Tectonics: Field & Stream. 1998. Knitting Factory Records: KFR-227.

Elliott Sharp: doubleneck guitarbass, electronics, drum programs, tenor saxophone
with guests -
Zeena Parkins: sampler, little green drone guitar
Frank Rothkamm: drums 'n bass

Tectonics is Elliott Sharp's deliriously off-center, thick and subverted stab at electronica. The result is vivid, intense and oddly somewhere between danceable and not. Heavily processed textures develop with Sharp's guitar work or tenor saxophone placing a welcome anchor in the sound. At other times it veers noisily without anchor into a collision of groove and noise. This music probably wouldn't show up in any club, it's far too listenable to bring a crowd to their feet. But what it does do is bring a welcome layer of grit to it's clean beats.

Ornette Coleman: The Empty Foxhole. 1966 (re-released in 1994). Blue Note Records: CDP 7243-8-28982-2-1.

Ornette Coleman: alto saxophone, trumpet, violin
Charlie Haden: bass
Denardo Coleman: drums

Denardo Coleman is Ornette Coleman's son. And at the time of this recording he was all of 10 years old. Which became the focus of this release when it came out in 1966. On the face of it, it is difficult to reconcile putting someone so young in with the greatest bass player in the world for a session with the prestigious Blue Note label. Billy Higgins he isn't. But then Ornette Coleman's trumpet playing isn't exactly Don Cherry. His violin technique is certainly unlike anyone else. This music does stand up to repeated listening. Ornette Coleman was working with a sound here. And that sound works with this mix of experience and youth. The contrast of Ornette's virtuosity on alto compared to the ragged qualities of his trumpet and violin playing do match the contrast of Charlie Haden's sure presence against the budding technique of Denardo Coleman. The whole thing has to be absorbed as a sound. Harmolodic playing isn't an exclusive club reserved for the extremely well practiced. It only demands a willingness to play from within and that's on here in spades.

HurdAudio Rotation: Whole Number Ratios, Additive Patterns and Math Rock

Michael Harrison: Revelation: Music in Pure Intonation. 2007. Cantaloupe Music: CA 21043.

Michael Harrison: piano in just intonation

The fingerprints and breath of Lamont Young's Well Tuned Piano feels close at hand at the start of this piece. The just intervals and "tone clouds" of standing waves are at once a familiar texture and compositional device associated with Young. But the formal construction is entirely Harrison's. And it is the undeniable sonic beauty of this particular piano (I believe it is an adapted Schimmel that I once heard Harrison play live) that is recorded with incredible clarity on this release. The cascading crescendos add a dynamic touch to this music as it builds toward an astonishing conclusion. With deliberately articulated phrasing this becomes a work that allows the "pure intonation" to become enmeshed within every harmonic crevice of the music without obscuring the impressive compositional details.

Philip Glass: Volume II: Orchestral Music. 2007. Orange Mountain Music: 0047.

Days and Nights in Rocinha (1998)
performed by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies: conductor

Persephone (1994)
performed by the Relache Ensemble
Joseph Franklin: director

Philip Glass has built up his career out of a sound so identifiable - and undeniably "pleasant" - that it manages to attract and repulse at the same time. The tonal progressions modulating around pedal points along a steady pulse makes for a music full of hooks that effortless draw the ears in. The early works of Glass revolved around a repetitiveness with an edge. While later works have softened up many of the static textures in favor of lush blankets of sound. These orchestral works from the 1990's come from a period just after the mushy middle with their soft contours. The material is - as always with Glass - familiar to a fault. Yet completely enjoyable. Days and Nights in Rocinha in particular is excruciatingly attractive. One is tempted to admire and reject this music at the same time. In the end, one can't help but listen.

Sleeping People: Growing. 2005. Temporary Residence: TRR 123.

Kasey Boekholt: guitar
Joileah Maddock: guitar
Kenseth Thibideau: bass
Brandon Relf: drums
Amber Coffman: guitar

Progressive rock is alive and well in the clean, irregular beats of Sleeping People combined with a sonic vocabulary informed by the San Diego punk scene. There's something satisfying about grooving to a beat that juts off with odd stops and turns and heady structures. This is music that appeals to the physical, rhythmic propulsion while teasing the brain with unusual structures. There's some intricate guitar work all over this recording combined with tight drumming. Party music for people ready to dance to prime numbers. Enthusiastically recommended.

Swarms of Locusts and D-Zs: Apocalyptic Days at the Ottobar

Sleeping People/The Zs/Yip Yip/The Locust
November 21 @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD

My brief encounter with the Zs performing the music of Earle Brown in Philadelphia left me curious to hear this intense 4-piece anomaly in their native environment. The black, grimy confines of Baltimore's Ottobar is exactly the high volume ecosystem that gives rise to the no-wave brutal minimalism of the Zs. And they were even more fascinating as they pursued the extremes of noise, quiet and the unlikely synthesis of experimental chamber music and hardcore punk traditions.

The Zs perform in a tight, box configuration facing each other over music stands and reams of notated scores. This constant visual communication allows them to execute rapid fire unison lines with blisteringly rehearsed precision. It also places the saxophonist with his back to the audience and conveys a calculated indifference toward stage orientation. The uncompromising music that pours out - sometimes in heavy bursts punctuated by deliberate silences - is at times passionately unpredictable and repetitive. It is also stark and profoundly appealing music.

The first set of the evening featured the progressively cool music of Sleeping People. From the moment they started peeling off patterns in 5/8 time I was hooked by this tight, odd-meter quartet from San Diego. There was a great fluidity to the way Sleeping People would carve time into asymmetrical units that kept the attention on the sound as they didn't visibly sweat the counting.

I have to give props to Yip Yip for their props. The black and white checkered pattern on their custom cases, backdrop and outfits was visually amusing. The Orlando-based duo of vintage, analog synthesizer players enhance their sound with a customized contraption of cymbals, alto saxophone and drum machine. And every time I expected their sound to wear out its welcome they managed to rock a little harder. The drifting intonation of the old school oscillators and their odd transitions were incredibly endearing.

The final set featured the abrasive assault of The Locust. Like Yip Yip, costumes are a big part of the live Locust experience. I respect that even the guy working the sound board at the back of the room and the photographer floating around the Ottobar for shots from all different angles were each dressed as Locusts. The cut of the masks around the mouth enhanced the effect of insect-like mandibles as the keyboard player and guitarist issued their scream-heavy vocals. The Locust pour on the kind of hardcore sound one expects when waiting in line at the Ottobar as the mosh pit of slam dancers and stage diving finally materialized around the pounding aggressiveness of their music. It was amusing to hear such punk vocals issuing forth from the Moog synthesizer player. And they certainly had the transfixed attention of the local celebrity attending the show. About half way through their set their material began to wear thin for me and I had to flee the constant barrage of high decibel angst.