By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring two jazz picks, including the collaborative experimental work of Silk Fence’s self-titled debut and Ancient Infinity Orchestra’s thorniest, darkest work yet in IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT LIBERATION!
Silk Fence – S/T
Genre: Experimental, Kraut-Jazz
Favorite Tracks: N/A
At this point, you’d be remiss to ignore any side or solo project coming from a member of SML. Destined to become one of a few modern jazz acts that a current wave of indie rock and pop fans can immediately recognize, the Los Angeles quintet are one of the buzzier crossover artists in several years due to a rapid succession of undeniable live and studio albums and one of the best shows in music, period. As such, everything each member is touching these days feels equally infatuating—from the pulsating, combustible jet fuel production of Josh Johnson’s saxophone opus ANIMATIVE to Gregory Uhlmann’s subtle, woozy guitar noodling on Resavoir’s ABOVE THE CLOUDS. It’s as exciting a collection of musicians to track as any in recent memory.
With his nominatively determined portmanteau of a last name, Booker Stardrum has perhaps my favorite SML side project this year. The drummer is part of a New York-based instrumental trio entitled Silk Fence, which also features Arian Shafiee (Guerilla Toss) on guitar and Justin Frye (PC Worship) on bass and tapes. His magnetically off-center drumming, alongside Frye’s considered, textured atmosphere-layering, become the engine behind the trio’s self-titled debut. SILK FENCE excels at encapsulated improvisation, though that playing arrives closer to, perhaps, the live, proggy experimentation of Taper’s Choices than more traditional jazz music; on the opening 10-minute statement “(A)RT,” the trio are erring more in a space of minimalism, the creeping, slow-rising rhythm section propelling the curious guitar playing on a technical level. Shafiee dazzles throughout, offering a circular hypnosis to “HD” and a growing, primitive cacophony within the 14-minute closer “Statue of LIberty.” The latter track is the album’s apex, carefully and glacially shifting each measure into something intensely propulsive. The album is made up of replicated but never repeated parts slowly building to a sense of completion; the duality of anxiety and relief in hearing its final moments is worth pressing play alone. You can check out SILK FENCE over on Bandcamp.
Ancient Infinity Orchestra – IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT LIBERATION
Genre: Spiritual Jazz, Post-Bop
Favorite Tracks: “Nafas,” “Akshay,” “Illuminations”
With every release, Ancient Infinity Orchestra seemingly get a little bigger—literally. Now up to 16 people, the Leeds-based jazz collective sound as cosmically vast as ever on IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT LIBERATION, living up to their name and then some on the heavier sequel to last year’s IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT LOVE. The big band are mostly that in the literal sense, the fusion of many musical ideas and influences resulting in something more akin to the rejuvenated spiritual jazz wave that Kamasi Washington’s THE EPIC helped reintroduce a decade ago. And while there is no denying the swelling complexities and sonic depth in the production, within the opening minutes of “Nafas” you can hear the uniquely splintered idiosyncrasies to the recording—there’s no polish, no sheen, to the way these many horns and woodwinds delicately fold into one another.
The best passages gnarl and muddy these rich post-bop ideas into something shaggier and looser than their past works, as Ancient Infinity Orchestra overwhelm you with solos and rhythms to the point where the fullness of that many musicians feels inconsequential. In their own words, “Where the previous album focused on healing and warmth, IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT LIBERATION is largely animated by struggle, perseverance and the desire for transformation while still offering a path to betterment. It is music made in full awareness of a fractured world, yet unwilling to surrender to it.”
That relentlessness and struggle is a lot to take in. Highlight “Illuminations” moves from convulsing string parts to singular flute playing, using the trumpets as an ethereal choir of sorts underneath. The composition sways with an uneasiness, each solo macabrely dancing on the edge of a knife, at times the sparsest-feeling on the album yet staggering in its perceived dark power. An actual choir introduces moments later on “Celebrating the Beautiful Lineage of Sound and Hypnotic States,” surrounding the track as a port in a storm of dizzying trumpet and rapid hand-drum playing. While the music dramatically drifts along, each moment hanging with near-cinematic tension, it’s always colossal in construction and intention, capturing a more consistent existential vastness than their previous albums by design. It’s impressive work to get lost in. You can hear it over on Bandcamp.
Comments