Search - Gregg Bendian, Jeff Gauthier, G.E. Stinson :: Bone Structure

Anti-Smooth Champs (with apologies to Greg Taylor)

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 02/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Their publishing company is called Radical Moodswing Music. They record at Mad Hatter Studios. In La La Land, CA.Does this tell us anything useful about their music?Yes. It's all over the map. And kinda crazy. And often quite funny, esp., "Lock It Down" (Why? Are the music Nazis out to steal, suppress, or lock it up? By the way, Jeff Gautier gets never-before-heard sounds from his electric fiddle), "Faded Sun," with its mock-beat sensibility, including some Eugene Chadbourne/Derek Bailey rhythm guitar from G. E. Stinson, some very strange fiddle sounds (only Eyvind Kang produces weirder ones), and leader Bendian's inebriated bongo-beats, and "Mutoscope," with its multireferential LA weirdness, esp., Bendian's way-over-the-top virtuoso drum bashing, Stinson's wah-wah/fuzz wonders, Stuart Liebig's maniacal e-bass, Gauthier's crazed fiddling, and the daxophone-ish outro. But it's all rather humorous. And fun, in a faux-Goth kinda way.The basic vibe is head-bangin' jazz, a music with few analogs. Perhaps John Zorn, though this sounds nothing like Naked City. Perhaps some obscure melding of speed-metal and out jazz.With the publishing credits going to all four band members, I'm thinking this entire disc is group improv. Of a very demented sort. Talk about your anti-smooth jazz. These guys are the new heavyweight champs.Maybe more fun to play than to listen to, it's still something that ought to be experienced at least once, if only to say you've encountered the Ultima Thule of a certain kind of out jazz. Just make sure the kids are not around or in bed. You wouldn't want to contribute to corrupting their aesthetics, a federal felony . . ."