Mister Re

my favorite recordings right now are ones that don't seem to give up their mystery.

have been spinning Tyshawn Sorey's that/not nonstop recently and i feel constantly magnetized by it, though i never really feel like i'm exhausting any of its weirdness. such a strange record, really. i put it on my top ten of 2007 for Time Out NY at the last minute and i'm really glad i did.

Sorey is a young drummer-pianist-composer from NYC. he talks in the liner notes of that/not about how he wants to defy the expectation that his record will feature his drumming in particular. instead he goes way, way in the opposite direction. it's a mood record; if it's about anything, it's about staying still, holding back, etc. most of the two-disc is scored for trombone, piano, bass and drums and Sorey includes all these really slow, enigmatic pieces that just sort of drift along. they're beautiful, but also unsettling. the music is so subtle that it just completely slips by if you don't listen close. it's jazz-related, but strikes me more as some really eccentric sort of chamber-pop at times: stately, ominous, grand in a really muted way.

themes flow in and out of improv. the record can seem static and then comes some moment of brilliant architecture. Sorey's incredibly patient drumming steers the whole thing with unfathomable calm, often w/ just one dry ride cymbal tracing a super intricate arc. the stillness of this thing is just so luxurious and unusual. you imagine score sheets that are miles long, the entire band playing in a trance, in a black room, the lights dim. space-trance-slow-prog-jazz-pop with a strange, untraceable flavor of moody electronica; somber yet droll and stylized and futuristic. it's a new thing entirely, i think.

*****

Carbonized is that super strange and eclectic Swedish avant-metal band i mentioned a while back. finally got a track uploaded here:

Carbonized - Night Shadows

this is from the Disharmonization album, another disc that doesn't stop not making sense. in this track, crunchy, ham-fisted death-thrash moves into lo-fi prog like Voivod meets SST, which then meets otherworldly lounge music and bare-bones psych. intensely eclectic, but not at all "clever" or gimmicky. it's a logical composition and just a really purely experimental document. whole album is sick if you can find it.

*****

i also wanna say that great things are afoot w/ two of my friends' bands. Yukon has just closed a chapter, documenting the last insanely intricate and gorgeous math-world-prog-pop songs penned w/ sadly departed guitarist Denny Bowen, and Dysrhythmia--Stay Fucked's billmates at Cake Shop th'other night—- has written some blast-off new stuff. vanguard progressive heaviness. please support both organizations.

*****

also Veedon Fleece by Van continues to amaze. have relished sharing that w/ Laal...