The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear




Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Paul Flaherty & Randall Colbourne 
  Ironic Havoc
  (Relative Pitch Records) 


  
   review by Jeph Jerman
  2015-04-06
Paul Flaherty & Randall Colbourne: Ironic Havoc (Relative Pitch Records)

Straight-ahead sax/drums improvisations from this long running (25 years!) duo. The playing here could perhaps be typified as an example of the old school American approach, with no leanings toward either the British atomized style or any extended techniques.

By turns romantic and melodic or fierce and insistent, Flaherty will often start a phrase with a mellow tone only to feed it through a grinder and shred it. One of my favorite moments comes about 3 minutes into the first piece, where he ascends beyond the upper reaches of his horn and whistles, the sound taking on a definite electronic tinge. At the ten-minute mark of the same number, both men start stomping hard before coming to a melancholy close. There are long moments of horn gargle and fast and hard drumming, where it's difficult to keep track of the instruments as separate entities and things blur into a mass of hyperkinetic sonic motion.

During brief solos we get to focus on the beautiful timbres of Colbourne's vibrating metal and plastic or the grit and grain of Flaherty's horns � impassioned soliloquies during conversations between two old friends overheard. These guys made some of the first independently produced out music records I was exposed to as a lad, and I'm truly glad to find them still at it, giving us examples of sane behavior in ever more chaotic circumstances. We could hear this music as a testament to the rightness that human interaction sometimes exhibits.





Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Doyeon Kim (
w/
Sorey/
Maneri/
Fraser):
Wellspring
(Tao Forms)



Jurg Frey/
Apartment House:
Clarinet Quintet
(Another Timbre)



Tom Challenger/
Evan Parker:
May Spring
Last a Lifetime
(False Walls)



Bobby Bradford/
Mark Dresser/
Hafez Modirzadeh:
Sonic House Reunion
(NoBusiness)



John Zorn (
w/ Julian Lage/
Gavin Riley):
Seven Sonnets
(Tzadik)



[ahmed] (
Thomas/
Grip/
Gerbal/
Wright):
Play Monk
[2 CDs]
(Otoroku)



Michael Formanek (
w/ Hawkins/
Halvorson/
Fujiwara/
O'Gallagher/
Doxas/
Almeida):
New Digs
(Intakt)



Sylvia Lim:
Flare
(Another Timbre)



Ava Mendoza:
Alive Alone,
Alive Together
(Burning Ambulance Music)



John Cage (
Wegmann/
Debacker):
Two2 (
1989) for 2 Pianos
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



Myra Melford/
Satoko Fujii:
Katarahi
(RogueArt)



Matthias Muche
Bonecrusher:
Densities -
for 12 trombones
& percussion
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



Columbia Icefield (
Wooley/
Alcorn/
Mendoza/
Sawyer):
A Silence Opens
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Marta Warelis (
w/ LaMar Gay/
Baars/
Ng/
Haker Flaten/
Rosaly):
Still Life
With Lemons
(Relative Pitch)



Klaus Lang/
Apartment House:
Geschrieben In Wasser
(Another Timbre)



Machinefabriek:
Samen
(Machinefabriek)



Ivo Perelman/
Damon Smith:
Duologue:
Core of Existence
(Squid Note Records)



Marty Ehrlich:
Cartographies of Flight:
Lines Set Afloat
Towards Hope
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)



Mike Westbrook Orchestra:
The Cortege
Live At The BBC
1980
[2CDs]
(Cadillac Records)



JOSILEMI (
featuring Joe Fonda/
Silke Eberhard/
Emil Gross):
Hear This
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (60787)