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
Facebook: Squidco Sales



Heard In

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


  Fred Moten / Brandon Lopez / Gerald Cleaver 

  (Relative Pitch) 


  
   review by Nick Ostrum
  2023-03-14
Fred Moten / Brandon Lopez / Gerald Cleaver:  (Relative Pitch)

"Art don't work for abolition
Art works for bosses like you and me."
-Fred Moten

So begins "the abolition of art, the abolition of human freedom, the abolition of you and me," the first track of Fred Moten, Brandon Lopez and Gerald Cleaver's self-titled 2022 release. It is a perfect entry point to what follows, as the three contort sounds and words in ways that are as powerful and perplexing as those first few lines. Abolition of what? Does "for" in the first line denote "towards the objective of," "in favor of" or "under"? Even once that meaning becomes clear in the second line, the pronouns dangle. Does art work for bosses as you and I do, or are we the bosses who create and deploy the art?

One could go through Fred Moten's poems line by line like this, as he wends partial pop culture reference into declamations of the military-prison-industrial complex. His verse is invariably potent and incisive. It is also calmly rhythmic. Moten's delivery rarely betrays emotion, at least through dynamic range, but lays an unembellished cadence with a control that brings all focus to the words, and pauses, rather than the volume or pitch. In a sense, the words speak more than the speaker. Behind him Brandon Lopez and Gerald Cleaver assume the collective role of laying waves of thrumming ambience, but also of prodding the pieces forward. And, at times they drift to the fore with a force and (a)rhythmicism that would stand even without Moten's interventions. They play with each other as much as they support Moten. The result is propulsive and dark.

At times, one expects to hear a sax or trombone cutting through the soundscape. But part of the strength lies in that very absence. The listener can focus on the deep tones of Lopez and Cleaver's loose rhythms. And of course, that means the listener can also home in on Moten, who takes on the front-man role, replacing melody with meter. And Moten is a hell of a poet. As pieces such as "a poem for black art" indicate he is steeped in the Black Arts movement and Amiri Baraka, and that influence comes through in his free-flowing aphorisms, his heavy use of alliteration and assonance and his paring New York School casualness with biting social observation and critiques of unbridled capitalism, consumerism, militarism, education, structural and physical violence, and much more. Despite any due homage, however, this is hardly Black Dada Nihilismus 2.0. (Admittedly, it is hard to listen to this without thinking of the New York Art Quartet and Amiri Baraka at certain intervals.) Rather, this is rooted in that tradition, but is also vitally and urgently contemporary, and something wholly its own. A must-have, as far as I am concerned.







Comments and Feedback:



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

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Kim Jae Jung:
Shamanism
(Relative Pitch)



Joe McPhee/
Susanna Gartmayer/
John Edwards/
Maria Portugal:
Monster
(Klanggalerie)



Signe Emmeluth/
Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten/
Axel Filip:
Hyperboreal Trio
(Relative Pitch)



John Butcher/
John Edwards:
This Is
Not Speculation
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Izumi Kimura/
Lina Andonovska/
Dominique Pifarely:
Seven Dreams
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Jerome Deupree/
Sylvie Courvoisier/
Lester St. Louis/
Joe Morris:
Canyon
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Marc Baron/
Eric La Casa:
Contrefacons
(Swarming)



Francisco Lopez:
Untitled (
2021-2022)
[2 CDs]
(Bu Lang Tribute Cake)



Eventless Plot |
Haarvol:
The Subliminal Paths
[CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Innovo Editions)



Akmee:
Sacrum Profanum
(Nakama Records)



Karl Evangelista Quintet
feat. Bobby Bradford and
William Roper:
Solace Angles
(Asian Improv)



Sveio:
Latent Imprints
(577 Records)



The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters (
Rasmussen/
Mitelli/
Rezaei/
Koenig):
The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)



Dan Brown/
Dan Reynolds:
Live At
The Grange Hall
[unauthorized][CASSETTE]
(Sacred Realism)



Matt Mitchell:
Sacrosanctity
(Obliquity)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
[VINYL]
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Mary Halvorson Septet:
Illusionary Sea
[2 LPS]
(Firehouse 12 Records)



Darius Jones:
Legend of e'Boi (
The Hypervigilant Eye)
[VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Aum Fidelity)



Irene Schweizer/
Rudiger Carl/
Johnny Dyani/
Han Bennink:
Irenes Hot Four
(Intakt)







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. (8180)