The Brodie West Quintet: Meadow of Dreams
Ansible Editions
Adams, Dunn & Haas: Future Moons
Ansible Editions
Ansible Editions
This inaugural trio of Ansible Editions releases bodes well for the Toronto-based upstart, which based on the evidence traffics in a take-no-prisoners brand of outsider jazz. All three, available in digital and twelve-inch clear vinyl (100 copies) formats, embody the boundary-pushing spirit of the label philosophy, none better than the EP-length 727 / 16 from High Alpine Hut Network. At its core, the group comprises Christopher Shannon (bass, electric piano, synthesizers, percussion), Benjamin Pullia (synthesizers, percussion), and Jason Bhattacharya (drums, percussion, electric piano), but the trio's added guests to flesh out the two shape-shifting explorations on the group's twenty-minute debut, specifically Robin Hatch (electric piano), Tobin Hopwood (guitar), Joseph Shabason (tenor sax), Nathan Vanderwielen (percussion, synthesizers), and Lauren Runions (percussion).
Interestingly, when Shannon and Pullia initiated the project, they intended to explore house music in some abstract and cosmic form, but the addition of Bhattacharya pushed things in a more open-ended direction. The molten collages play like some modern-day spawn of Live-Evil, Dark Magus, and On the Corner, with producer Shannon picking up where Teo Macero left off. After the opening “727” emerges from a psychedelic fuzz bath, the Davis connection asserts itself in a heavy groove smeared by fragments of guitar, electric piano, and sax. Though trumpet's not part of the instrument credits, moments surface that evoke the sound of Miles's scorched-earth horn. As mentioned, the material often changes direction, and, consistent with that, “727” eventually moves into African-driven territory and following that dub-techno, of all things. On the flip, “16” wends as adventurously, with Hopwood, Shannon, and Bhattacharya powering the muscular pulse and others battering it with shards. Think of it as some throat-scalding cocktail of avant-rock, electric jazz, and electronics—not for the faint of heart. There was a time when Miles was as fixated on Stockhausen as James Brown, and it's easy to hear the prime movers of High Alpine Hut Network embracing that sensibility in their own project.
As adventurous as High Alpine Hut Network's core trio are Kieran Adams (sampler, drum machine, drums), Matthew “Doc” Dunn (keyboards, electronics), and Andy Haas (reeds, electronics), all of them members of Toronto outfit The Cosmic Range and operating on Future Moons under the Adams, Dunn & Haas moniker. The three bring interesting backgrounds to the project, Dunn having released a number of folk records under his birth name and Haas a one-time member of Martha and the Muffins (“Echo Beach”). Opener “Tulips for Cygnus” eases the forty-two-minute set in on a gentle wave of ambient-psychedelic sprinkles and a soprano sax-accented pulse, the vibe free-floating and the players embracing abstraction. “The Eye Listens, The Ear Sees” emerges from similarly woozy origins with electronics and treatments put to full effect in directing the dreamlike flow; smears of sax, glissando whistlings, and rat-a-tat combustions form a dense mass that shape-shifts for ten heady minutes. Haas is at his snake-charmer best for "Soft Nebula,” after which soprano sax burrows a path through organ chords and restlessly churning drumwork in “Temple of Time,” as close as Future Moons gets to free jazz. Flip the disc for eight interstellar minutes of careening sax and electronics in the title track, and then take an even longer Black hole plunge via the nightmarish soundscape “Dynastics.” Had it not already been taken, the trio might have opted for White Light/White Heat as the album title, considering the scalding sonics in play.
The release that comes closest to conventional jazz is Meadow of Dreams by The Brodie West Quintet, even if there's still an off-kilter quality to the group's playing and sensibility. Its alto saxophone-playing leader was a member of The Ex when the Dutch band collaborated with Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya, and West has a number of other irons in the fire too, including the duo project Ways with drummer Evan Cartwright. Credited with drums, vibraphone, and acoustic guitar, he partners with the saxophonist on Meadow of Dreams, as do pianist Tania Gill, bassist Josh Cole, and drummer Nick Fraser. Laid down at Canterbury Music Company in February and March 2020, the album follows the group's well-received debut Clips and is a showcase for West's idiosyncratic writing and strong group interplay. In contrast to the other Ansible releases, the quintet's is generally temperate in its explorations (see the ponderous ballad reverie “Grotto,” for example). With bass animating the piece with a loping line and the others embroidering it with brooding expressions and drum flourishes, the ear-catching “Entrainment” exudes something of a spy mystery vibe. “Fortress” trades the opener's nu-bop tone for a jagged ballad statement replete with stop-start rhythms and accents by sax, piano, and vibes. Interspersed throughout the album are three “Inhabit” treatments, the first a rumbling incantation the leader and drummers deliver in a manner recalling The Lounge Lizards circa Voice of Chunk (it doesn't hurt that West's playing recalls John Lurie's serpentine delivery on the disc). The second iteration sees Gill and Cole extemporizing before the third brings the others into the fold for prototypically cubistic counterpoint. If there's one track that embodies the group's aesthetic most vividly, it's the penultimate “Haunt” for the elasticity of its attack. Precursors notwithstanding, West's outfit sounds like little else than itself, especially when each player's personality is strongly accounted for in the group identity.April 2022