The Squid's Ear Magazine


Flying Luttenbachers, The: Imminent Death (ugEXPLODE)

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!
 

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Personnel:



Weasel Walter-drums, percussion, guitar, bass guitar, electronics, electric sitar

Matt Nelson-soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinets

Tim Dahl-bass guitar

Brandon Seabrook-guitar

Henry Kaiser-guitar

Brad Laner-synthesizer


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UPC: 194660030337

Label: ugEXPLODE
Catalog ID: ug77
Squidco Product Code: 28365

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.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"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

Also available on vinyl LP.

Artist Biographies

"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.

"Saxophonist Matt Nelson regularly performs in a far-reaching, motley assortment of musical projects. Described as "one of the more unpredictable virtuosos in New York's underground" by Pitchfork, and "genre-bending" by Tiny Mix Tapes, his output often lies in the gray corners beyond categorization.

Upon graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Gary Bartz and Paul Cohen, Matt moved back to his native Bay Area where he became an active member of the music community. He performed regularly with several bands, among them experimental pop outfit tUnE-yArDs, with whom he recorded and toured extensively in support of their acclaimed album w h o k i l l.

In 2010 Matt relocated to Brooklyn, New York. During his time there he has performed and toured as a member of Battle Trance, GRID, Elder Ones, Premature Burial, Skeletons, and the Weasel Walter Large Ensemble. He also performs as a solo act, where he often utilizes electronics and amplified feedback along with his saxophone, as heard on his record Lower Bottoms. "

-Matt Nelson Website (https://www.mattnelsonsax.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.

"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.

"Henry Kaiser (born September 19, 1952) is an American guitarist and composer, known as an idiosyncratic soloist, a sideman, an ethnomusicologist, and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers. He is married to Canadian artist Brandy Gale.

In 1977, Kaiser founded Metalanguage Records with Larry Ochs (Rova Saxophone Quartet) and Greg Goodman. In 1979 he recorded With Friends Like These with Fred Frith, a collaboration that lasted for over 20 years. In 1983 they recorded Who Needs Enemies, and in 1987 the compilation album With Enemies Like These, Who Needs Friends? They joined with fellow experimental musicians John French, and English folk-rocker Richard Thompson to form French Frith Kaiser Thompson for two eclectic albums, Live, Love, Larf & Loaf (1987) and Invisible Means (1990). In 1999 Frith and Kaiser released Friends and Enemies, a compilation of their two Metalanguage albums along with additional material from 1984 and 1999.

In 1991, Kaiser went to Madagascar with guitarist David Lindley. They recorded roots music with Malagasy musicians and discovered music that, he says, "changed us radically and permanently". Three volumes of this music were released by Shanachie under the title A World Out of Time. In 1994 he made a similar trip to Norway, again with Lindley, recording music that was released as Sweet Sunny North (2 volumes, 1994 and 1996).

Since 1998, Kaiser has been collaborating with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in the "Yo Miles!" project, releasing a series of tributes to Miles Davis's 1970s electric music. This shifting aggregation has included musicians from the worlds of rock (guitarists Nels Cline, Mike Keneally and Chris Muir, drummer Steve Smith), jazz (saxophonists Greg Osby and John Tchicai), avant-garde (keyboardist John Medeski, guitarist Elliott Sharp), and Indian classical music (tabla player Zakir Hussain).

Kaiser has appeared on more than 250 albums and scored dozens of TV shows and films, including Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World (2007). He was given a Grammy Award for his work on the Beautiful Dreamer tribute to Stephen Foster.

In 2001, Kaiser spent two and a half months in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant. He has subsequently returned for nine more visits to work as a research diver. His underwater camera work was featured in two Herzog films, The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) and Encounters at the End of the World (2007), which he also produced, and for which he and Lindley composed the score. Kaiser served as music producer for Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work as a producer on Encounters at the End of the World."

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

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

"Brad Laner (born November 6, 1966 in Los Angeles, California) is an American musician and record producer best known for his work with the shoegaze band Medicine, which he founded and led.

Prior to Medicine, he was involved in avant-improv bands such as Debt of Nature (at the age of 15), Steaming Coils (at the age of 18)-which also featured members of Los Angeles Free Music Society-and most notably the experimental tribal post-punk outfit Savage Republic, which, according to Pitchfork Media, foreshadowed many ideas later explored in the post-rock genre.

He has also been active as a solo artist, recording under the moniker Electric Company as well as releasing two albums under his own name.

His work has been sampled by artists such as Brian Eno (Eno extensively sampled Electric Company's songs on several tracks from Another Day on Earth), and Caribou. He has collaborated with, among many others, M83 on its 2011 album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.

His notable fans include Kid606, with whom he also collaborated."

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

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


Track Listing:



1. Praalude 10:22

2. Get The Fuck Out (Gtfo) 15:16

3. 7 And 7 Is Not 10:38

4. Grants, Residencies And Trust Funds 11:59

5. White Wine And White Lines 6:45

6. Serial Plagarism 8:31

7. The Stomp 7:25

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Chicago Jazz & Improvisation
West Coast/Pacific US Jazz
Septet recordings
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