The long-running Chicago free-rock trio Mako Sica currently comprised of Przemyslaw Drazek (trumpet & guitar), Brent Fuscaldo (guitar) and Chaetan Newell (drums & piano) are joined by free improvising legend Hamid Drake on drum kit, tablas and frame drum for a beautiful and rich album of genre merging, spiritually warm, primarily instrumental music, inclusive and persuasive.
Format: LP Condition: New Released: 2018 Country: USA Packaging: LP Tracks 1-2 Recorded at Electrical Audio by Taylor Hales. Additional Recording /Mixing at Jamdek by Douglas MaloneTracks 3-5 Recorded and Mixed at Jamdek by Douglas Malone. Additional Recording/Mixing at Polytonal Productions by Chaetan Newell.
Brent Fuscaldo-vocals, electric guitar, classical guitar, thumb piano, bass, harmonica, gongs, floor tom
Chaetan Newell-congas, electric piano, grand piano, hi hat, sleigh bells, teponaztli, timpani, cello, upright bass, viola, drum kit, native american flute, organ, tambourine, orchestral bells
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"Brilliant, inspired and somewhat surprising collaboration between Chicago's premier free-rock trio and the truly legendary percussionist, Hamid Drake, who has played with everyone from Don Cherry to Peter Brotzmann to Lee Perry.
This collusion was precipitated by Matt Jackowiak, a mutual friend, who thought a merging of their sounds might make for an ecstatic explosion. This feeling became mutual after they played a show together at Constellation. The set mixed Mako Sica tunes with improvisations that took everyone to places they hadn't expected, and the trip was deemed an utter success.
Ronda was done at two sessions, scheduled around Hamid's insanely busy work schedule. The first was at Jamdek with Douglas Malone at the board, the second was at Electrical Audio with Taylor Hales. The Electrical session allowed the players access to a host of additional instruments, so the sonic palette on "Dance with Waves" and "Emanation" is wider and somehow more cosmic than usual.
But the whole album has an extraordinary depth and width of sound. Even the great songs Mako Sica has had in its set for a while like "The Old Book," gain whole new levels of otherness here, and the material based in quartet improvisations, like "The Wu Wei," explores wild new territory for the band.
Ronda (named after a town in southern Spain with a famous 18th Century bridge crossing a deep gorge) is the first span connecting the disparate musical worlds of Mako Sica and Hamid Drake. Let us hope it is but the first of many."-Byron Coley, 2018
"Mako Sica (meaning "bad lands") is a three-piece band from Chicago formed in 2007. With two members (Przemyslaw Drazek and Michael Kendrick) formerly of the band Rope on the Family Vinyard imprint and a new singer (Brent Fuscaldo), the group combines dissonant, classical-influenced arrangements with wordless, mantra-like singing and a bluesy rhythm section. In the spirit of Chicago's explorative artists such as the legendary Sun Ra, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and even US Maple (whose guitarist Todd Rittmann recorded Mako Sica's debut), they create a sound that is all their own. Mako Sica uses guitars, drums, trumpet, and at times extra percussion and electric thumb piano to produce songs in the vein of Amon Duul, Hex-era Earth and the out-there reaches of the Impulse Records catalog. The band uses a group-mind aesthetic and an uncanny dose of negative space that charms the listener to be a part of the music."-Mako Sica Bandcamp page