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




Heard In

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


  Wendy Eisenberg 
  The Machinic Unconscious
  (Tzadik) 


  
   review by Paul Serralheiro
  2019-09-30
Wendy Eisenberg: The Machinic Unconscious (Tzadik)

This is a great time for guitar aficionados in the improvised music world, as people like Wendy Eisenberg ply their trade — creative younger voices thriving in the fertile ground toiled by recent innovators and promoters of the spontaneous composition/new music variety, like John Zorn, on whose label this release appears.

Intended as a kind of thesis addressing "machines: time machines, stomp boxes and computers," The Machinic Unconscious features the collaborative efforts of guitarist-leader Eisenberg, bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Ches Smith, who together deliver a kaleidoscopic experience provided by the interfacing of sentient artists and machines. And there's no punch pulling here as right from the get-go the ripping distorted squall of sound launches a pulsing energy that is all about electronics-meets-musical instruments at its most meaningful, as the beating of the human heart, the spark of mind and the dexterity of hands conspire to reach creative heights.

At a recent solo concert Eisenberg bent over a guitar coaxing entrancing coils of sound and harmonically daring explorations that created a pastiche of American songbook aesthetics with street level grit and electronic conceptions, even if the instrument was acoustic. That set of music helped provide this writer with some perspective on what the guitarist is up to here, shredding and humming sympathetically, wrestling and arrestingly tumbling with rock guitar-meets-funky-bass deconstructions of the kind that sound poet bp Nichol once called "scarpturers," i.e. something holy made from fragments of things...the assembly of the whole raising the bare elements to a higher plane.

Not surprisingly, given this aesthetic, we get heavy metal-like demonology along with heavenly levitating passages, as in the threatening attack of "Depths of Locusts" with its insect scrapings and tumbling of sound waves over sound waves. The urban jungle and a drum and bass aesthetic raises its irrepressible head in the infectiously prancing cavalcade of drums, bass and guitar riffs of "Prataxis" and "Zoning," the latter adding distorted bass to the mix...almost like a classic rock power trio taken to the next creative level. "Kiln" has a keen grunge element, and "Dangerous Red" evokes a Jimi Hendrix-power-trio-meets-Thelonious Monk melodic cell line of thinking.

Not to be genre-bond, however, the trio break out all over the place, notably in "Frayed, Knotted and Unshorn" with out-side-the-box playing that is fed by the artists' imaginations in their handling of sound, as well as the raw physicality of their media. The textures of "Mycoaelia" bring us momentarily to a slightly more ethereal realm before we're thrown right back into the boisterous maelstrom of inspired contemporaneity that the album as a whole sends us to, from its shocking electric start to the feedback delights of the closer "Foresworn."







Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


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

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Francesca Gemmo/
Magda Mayas:
Tides In The Mirror (
first visit)
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



John Edwards/
Luis Vicente/
Vasco Trilla:
Choreography of Fractures
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Peter Evans/
Joe Morris/
Tyshawn Sorey:
Comprehensive
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Ray Anderson/
Joe Hertenstein Quartet
feat. Michael Moore/
Michael Formanek:
7th Dinner Live
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Marc Sabat:
Bach Tunings
(Another Timbre)



Magnus Granberg /
Skogen:
The Willow Bends
And So Do I
(Another Timbre)



The Necks:
Disquiet
[3 CDs]
(Northern Spy)



Jason Hwang Kao:
Myths of Origin
(True Sound Recordings)



Donny McCaslin:
Lullaby For The Lost
(Editions)



Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (
Exit) Knarr:
Drops
[VINYL]
(Sonic Transmissions Records)



Eva Novoa Trio (
w/ Daniel Carter/
Francisco Mela):
The Freedom Suite,
Vol. 2
(577 Records)



Fieldwork (
Iyer/
Lehman/
Sorey):
Thereupon
(Pi Recordings)



Dan Weiss (
w/ Evans/
Okazaki/
Brennan):
Unclassified Affections
(Pi Recordings)



Adam O'Farrill:
For These Streets
[VINYL 2 LPs]
(Out Of Your Head Records)



John Zorn (
JACK Quartet
w/Yura Lee/
Michael Nicolas):
Prolegomena
(Tzadik)



Beth Schenck Quintet (
w/ Mezzacappa/
Wright/
Glenn/
Wrobel):
Dahlia
(Queen Bee Records)



Webber/Morris Big Band:
Unseparate
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Tomas Fujiwara:
Dream Up
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Ned Rothenberg:
Looms & Legends
(Pyroclastic Records)



Earscratcher (
Harnik/
Rempis/
Lonberg-Holm/
Daisy):
Otoliths
(Aerophonic)







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. (44469)