About

Their latest album, Ill Considered 5—their fifth in two years, and one of two new albums this month—was created during a studio session in London. The band built the compositions around sketches and themes, with each musician feeding off the energy musical cues of the other to build self-contained sonic worlds, rich in mystery, sensuality, mischief, and darkness. The songs are driven by a wide percussive palette, drawing on everything from traditional syncopation to Middle Eastern-style drumming. It’s frenetic and subtle in equal measures, and an impressive canvas for the soft wail of the saxophone, the low-but-strong hum of the bass clarinet, and the staccato ripples of both the electric and the upright bass.

The group’s strength is generating a wide range of emotions from two extremes: minimalism, and the wild experimentation that incorporates elements of electronic music. On the melancholy album opener “Calling,” the percussion, sax, and bass seem to execute a kind of tentative slow dance. Album standout “Incandescent Rage” begins with a haunting, minor key conversation between saxophone and bass clarinet, but explodes into a jungle-meets-drone composition that could easily soundtrack a car chase in a noir film. All of these elements work together to create an album that demands attention—music swathed in dense atmosphere, and as alive as the most vivid of dreams. – Bandcamp Daily