The ever-shifting lineup of jazz/no-wave/avant/aberrant improvisers The Flying Luttenbachers, anchored by drummer Weasel Walters, brings multi-reedist Matt Nelson, two guitarists (Brandon Seabrook & Henry Kaiser), bassist Tim Dahl and Brad Laner on synth for an aggressively informed and excitingly unpredictable album of superb playing and possibly bad intention; recommended!
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2019 Country: USA Packaging: Jewel Case Recorded at Menegroth with Colin Marston and Seizures Palace with Jason LaFarge, June-August 2019.
Personnel:
Weasel Walter-drums, percussion, guitar, bass guitar, electronics, electric sitar
"Imminent Death is very different in many ways from the previous Luttenbachers releases, but then again, you could consistently say that about most of them. The group has always followed the direction set by its leader Weasel Walter, and reflects his desire to create music of a determinately less common quantity in any given era. The Flying Luttenbachers have always been staunchly committed to making artistic statements which defy current trends and seek the expression of personal truth, mania and iconoclasm. This offering is a record Mr. Walter has pondered and thought about making for 30 years - finally, here it is, and it is quite a cathartic exorcism. (The next one will probably be nothing like it as well, so please consider this just another oblique chapter in the ever-morphing saga.)
On 1997's Gods of Chaos album, the end of the universe took place. On 2019's Imminent Death, the unforeseeable happens as the cosmos prepares to self-destruct yet again! On these seven long tracks, stretching over 70 minutes, there is a deliberately linear/horizontal dread to the procession, based on hypnotic repetition of motifs and a straight ahead rhythmic minimalism only hinted at briefly for moments in the band's past. On top of this propulsive, unrelenting foundation erupts wild asymmetry in the form of virtuosic extended soloing by multireedist Matt Nelson and guitar players Henry Kaiser and Brandon Seabrook. The quintet interaction is jagged, frenzied and sometimes bluntly sparse, each player choosing their moments of personal explosion or laying back and serving the mood and modus operandi of each piece as needed.
The album opens with the brazen wallop of "Praalude". Kaiser's psychedelic, slobbering lead work stuns while the band pounds away on one chord for ten dark, brutal minutes. "Get The Fuck Out (GTFO)" follows in a more spartan fashion as the band tosses hard angles and shocking silences at each other in a precarious counter-maintains variety andtension for fifteen bracing minutes. "7 and 7 Is Not", based on a simple, but lop-sided one bar riff, is another feature for Henry Kaiser, but this time his maniacal, sustained shredding absolutely burns the barn down to the ground. A different kind of rigor emerges on the following "Grants, Residencies and Trust Funds", opening with the burbling synth programming of Brad Laner. This extended form features rapidly shifting ensemble sequences pitting the various members of the group against the electronic foundation while the frantic speed picking of Brandon Seabrook hurls itself defiantly across the fragmented, spiky landscape.
"White Wine and White Lines" consists of a single merciless syncopated rhythm section figure driven to insanity by Matt Nelson's electronically effected saxophone spray as well as some confrontational air-raid-siren analogue synth emissions. "Serial Plagarism" is another pitstop into desolate sonic lands, a reverberate, moody lurch broken up by insectoid shards of aberrant activity from the frontline players. Imminent Death concludes with "The Stomp", a repetitious bass/drum riff with layers of chaos from the whole group superimposed on top, switching rapidly between the nightmarish gamut's of twisted guitar abuse, modified woodwind glossolalia, rude electronics and spastic percussion.
This album's gold medal goes out to Matt Nelson in particular, who handles soprano, alto and tenor saxophones as well as bass clarinet, juggling them all adeptly and constantly elevating the proceedings with his high velocity chromatic articulation and knotty melodic invention. "Imminent Death" is an album of focused themes and variations telepathically elaborated on by this group of journeyman improvisers/musicians. The communication is deep and the ensemble is unified in their intensity, invention and power. Drown in the darkness ..."-ugExplode