The Squid's Ear Magazine


CP Unit (Pitsiokos / Seabrook / Dahl / Walter): Before the Heat Death (Clean Feed)

Chris Pitsiokos' Unit with electric guitarist Brandon Seabrook, electric bassist Tim Dahl, and drummer Weasel Walter turn in a fiery and demanding album of compelling free jazz, using traditional jazz structures but turning them on their head in joyfully unconventional ways.
 

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Personnel:



Chris Pitsiokos-alto saxophone

Brandon Seabrook-electric guitar

Tim Dahl-electric bass

Weasel Walter-drums


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UPC: 5609063004083

Label: Clean Feed
Catalog ID: CF408
Squidco Product Code: 23387

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2017
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded by Jason Lafarge at Seizures Palace January 20th, 2016. Mixed and mastered by Weasel Walter. Produced by Chris Pitsiokos.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"With only 26 years of age, alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos is the face of the new generation of musicians who are changing the New York scene. Wild, fierce and raw, his personal playing style is making waves all around, and it's not a real surprise to find in his Unit some of the most adventurous figures active in the frontier between jazz and rock, namely Brandon Seabrook (Peter Evans, Anthony Braxton, Seabrook Power Plant), Tim Dahl (Child Abuse, Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, Pulverize the Sound) and Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers, Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, Cellular Chaos).

On previous releases, which include musicians like Philip White, Ron Anderson and Kevin Shea, or as a soloist, he's been committed to the expansion of the possibilities of his instrument, pushing it beyond its limits under the influence of noise music and extreme contemporary composers like Iannis Xenakis and Helmut Lachenmann.

For this project he wants something else: to play jazz with all its formal aspects, using the melody-improvisation-melody traditional structure but stuffing it with his experimental aesthetical vision. "Before the Heat Death" is the consequence, equating what we usually recognize as jazz with bizarre and even unique materials. It's so exciting that you start jumping like crazy in your living room."-Clean Feed


Artist Biographies

"Chris Pitsiokos (b. 1990) is a saxophonist, composer, and improviser. His music combines the intensity and immediacy of extreme rock forms and noise with the lyricism and forward propulsion of jazz and the abstract detail of contemporary classical composers Iannis Xenakis and Helmut Lachenmann. Chris has had the opportunity to perform/collaborate with Lydia Lunch, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Kevin Shea, Brian Chase, Henry Kaiser, Mick Barr, Marc Edwards, Brandon Seabrook, Paul Lytton, Tim Dahl, Philip White, Guerilla Toss, C. Spencer Yeh, Ikue Mori, Nate Wooley and Weasel Walter. Chris has performed throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, and the US. His records can be found on Clean Feed, New Atlantis, One Hand Records, Carrier Records, Ug Explode, and his own imprint, Eleatic Records. In addition to performing and composing music, Chris was a long time DJ at WKCR-FM and has been producing concerts in Brooklyn and Manhattan for four years."

-Chris Pitsiokos Website (http://www.chrispitsiokos.com/bio.html)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Described by Spin Magazine as "An apocalyptic, supersonic general of the banjo..." Brandon Seabrook has made a name for himself in the New York avant-garde music scene as an explosive guitar and banjo performer, relentlessly committed to immediacy and precision.

Seabrook honed his terror-inducing riffage skills at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He has since performed extensively in North and South America, Mexico and Europe, as a solo artist, bandleader and collaborator. He has been summoned by the likes of Anthony Braxton, Elliot Sharp and Joey Arias for his unpredictably spiked approach to improvisation and impeccable caterwauling. He has been profiled in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Magnet Magazine, Fretboard Journal, NPR and The Wire.

Seabrook Power Plant, the nuclear trio donned "a manic clusterfuck of merciless banjo torture" by the Village Voice, is Brandon's brainchild, blending the brutal energy of punk-rock with the intricate execution of through-composed avant jazz. The band has released two albums to much critical acclaim. Time Out New York praised the band's eponymous debut as "not only one of the most baffling experimental releases of the year... also one of the best."

Brandon is an accomplished solo artist, named Best Guitarist in New York City by the Village Voice 2012. In 2014, New Atlantis Records released his first solo album titled Sylphid Vitalizers. Noisey called the album a "dissonant guitar army...(with) mind-blowing prog-rock complexities - all at mind-numbing breakneck speed."

Brandon is currently working on two new albums with his noise-prog trio, Needle Driver and a new sextet featuring immoral, percussive compositions under the name Die Trommel Fatale. This recent work is a poly-rhythmic exploration of the dark side of the drum, layering cello, bass, electronics, voice and guitar against dichotomous drummers."

-Brandon Seabrook Website (http://www.brandonseabrook.com/bio/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Tim Dahl is a professional electric and double bass player, vocalist, keyboardist and composer living in New York City. He is best known as the bass player of the noise-rock band Child Abuse and Lydia Lunch's Retrovirus. He also writes and performs for the jazz ensemble Pulverize The Sound.

Dahl has toured extensively throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. He has performed with many notable musicians, composers and performers including Yusef Lateef, Archie Shepp, Eugene Chadbourne, Tatsuya Yoshida, Von Freeman, Stanley Jordan, Mary Halvorson, Malcolm Mooney, Marc Ribot, Brian Chase, Hamid Drake, Elliott Sharp, Weasel Walter, Marni Nixon, Peter Evans, Kevin Shea, Mick Barr, Lydia Lunch, Jan Terri, The Bureau of Atomic Tourism, Ava Mendoza etc.

As a bass player he is notable for unique style and technical savviness. Clifford Allen of Tiny Mixtapes' wrote "Tim Dahl [...] approaches his well-worn axe with a battery of pedals and loops, combining determinate speed with murkier sonics to create a landscape not unlike a harsh, speed-freak variant on Hugh Hopper."

Dahl currently lives in Brooklyn and is an active member in the music scene there."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Dahl)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Weasel Walter (real name Walter Wyzowski) is a composer and instrumentalist who founded the band The Flying Luttenbachers in Chicago in 1991 with a current member of Cellular Chaos and Behold...The Arctopus. Over the years, The Flying Luttenbachers included noted Dylan Posa, and Michael Colligan, while creating a body of music drawing equally from no wave, death metal, gamelan, noise music, hardcore punk and modern classical. Walter moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, where he formed the latest of many Luttenbachers lineups, remaining on percussion with the addition of bassist Mike Green (Burmese), and virtuoso guitarist Ed Rodriguez (ex-Colossamite, Gorge Trio). Singular guitar phenomenon Mick Barr (Krallice, Octis, Orthrelm) joined the group in 2005. The Flying Luttenbachers ceased to operate in late 2007. On November 25, 2009, Weasel Walter announced that he was moving to New York City to join the band Behold... The Arctopus on drums and will be writing "new, more extreme material from scratch." He also formed Cellular Chaos with Marc Edwards (drummer), Admiral Grey and Ceci Moss."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_Walter)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Fried 3:11

2. Quantized 4:28

3. Death In The Afternoon 5:43

4. Ballad 4:16

5. Guillotine 1:41

6. Supersax 3:23

7. Wet Brain 6:17

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Quartet Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Clean Feed

Search for other titles on the label:
Clean Feed.


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