Label: self released, 2020

Personnel - Brian Kasten: electric guitar, electric fretless bass; Peter O’Brien: drums.

Brian Kastan is a New York-based experimental bassist and guitarist, who is found here in a combustible duo collaboration with New York drummer Peter O’Brien. Kastan, who plays bass and guitar simultaneously through a bass looper pedal, employs his own hybrid-finger technique, discharging substantial amounts of energy over viscously dripping grooves.

On the opener, “Continuum Vibe”, they favor a non-stopping pour of power in a frenetic machination that includes stridently noisy funk chops as a key ingredient in an alternative-rock metabolic process that is both mercurial and hefty.

“My Funky Pussy Cat” has a softer inception, relying on a sort of proto-funk flavored with a bluesy feel. Apparently more structured, the piece doesn’t take long to be deconstructed by a raw assault of explosive guitar lines and rough texture. Kastan’s ideas develop at its own pace, often creating an interesting polyrhythmic effect with O’Brien dynamics.

“For The Love of Black Sabbath” showcases the duo’s appreciation for the English metal band referred in the title. The four-bar cycle at the base of this improvisation is infused with muscularity and the music reaches acid-rock proportions.

The longest pieces on the album are the most gripping. “Soul Reveal” is set to slower speeds, having its mood carefully worked with wah-wah and other psychedelic effects. The guitarist’s shouts and cries find O’Brien’s proficient drumming filled with timely cymbal crashes. The latter’s awareness of form, in addition to his musical adaptability, is quite impressive, and after a period of time, there are playful, agitated spasms that lead to a final delirium. And the record concludes with the nearly 19-minute trip “Avant Trance Dance 2” whose title doesn’t lie. With influences of electronic music, experimental rock and free jazz, it’s like having Sonny Sharrock probing noise-punk and Jimi Hendrix diving into in a neurotic post-hardcore dance. The duo speak out their ideas and their communication is on the edge through exciting drum patterns, drone-oriented bass fluxes and guitar noise.

Systematically embracing dissonance and abstraction, this program might feel quite intense for some listeners, but it is well worth a try.