The New York free improvising trio of Matthew Heyner (Test, Malkuth) on bass, Matt Lavelle on trumpet and clarinet and Ryan Sawyer (Tall Firs, Stars Like Fleas) on drums in the follow-up to their 2005 Utech double CD "Embracing The Tide / Making Eye Contact With God", an impressive release of expressive technique and ritualistic drive.
Label: KMB Jazz Catalog ID: KMB006 Squidco Product Code: 24579
Format: CDR Condition: Sale (New) Released: 2006 Country: USA Packaging: Jewel Case Recorded at Black Dirt Studios in New York City, in the Summer of 2006, by Jason Meager.
"Eye Contact is a trio shrouded in mystery. The musicians appear on the back of the CD in ghostly photo-booth strips. On the inside is a dimly lit picture of the band onstage and one of them seems to be leaping into the audience. Their names don't appear anywhere in the package.
War Rug draws its energy from this elusiveness, telling wordless trickster stories (instruments echo, shape shift and doppelgang) and emulating shamanic rituals (drones, shakers and distant hand drumming) in improvised compositions that claim no overdubs but overflow with atmospherics. Lavelle spends a lot of time on the bass clarinet and tends to handle it like he would his trumpet, trilling fast runs on "Rhinecliff Hotel that favor the upper end of the big horn's range. Elsewhere, drummer Ryan Sawyer (Tall Firs, Stars Like Fleas) and roaring bassist Matt Heyner (Test, Malkuth) demonstrate hardcore punk tendencies, as if Roy Campbell were fronting the Minutemen."-Jeff Stockton, allaboutjazz