| Fred
Frith and Larry Ochs (Rova) have been collaborating for many years
and have an ongoing project called Maybe Monday. The fine young
rhythm team of Devin Hoff and Ches Smith have worked with Nels Cline
in different bands and Ches Smith seems pretty busy on numerous
projects like Ribot's Ceramic Dog. I don't know trumpeter, Darren
Johnston, but I would imagine that he met Fred Frith at Mills
College. Darren and Larry co-produced this fine studio disc.
Although this is an improvised session, it has that wonderful
magic glue that these serious and seasoned musicians are so
successful at. « Passing Fields » starts with spacious guitar and sax
sounds, but soon the rhythm team kicks into a powerful groove. As
Frith locks into the rhythm with some bold noise guitar, both horns
spin furiously above. Frith sounds a bit like Sonny Sharrock jamming
on an electric Miles session. Each piece explores different
combinations of players. While « Dawn and the Flat Irons » begins
with haunting trumpet and contrabass, soon the rest of the quintet is
simmering along. One of the great things about this disc is that
Darren's trumpet and Larry's saxes work so well together, in similar
tonal areas. Fred Frith is the perfect middle man, balancing between
the horns and rhythm team perfectly, whether dealing in dark colors
and shades or occasionally soloing underneath or with the spinning
horns. On a few on these pieces, Frith gets a chance to lead and
stretch out and turn the quintet inide-out into a strange twisted
(prog ?) rock unit. These pieces fall somewhere between Massacre and
Material, yet they are still unique in their own way. Great things,
fellows ! - BLG
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