Label: Astral Spirits, 2020

Personnel - Brandon Seabrook: guitar; Cooper-Moore: diddley bow; Gerald Cleaver: drums.

Brandon Seabrook, a guitarist of rhythmically inventive force, boasts a curious style in which he effortlessly draws from the avant-garde, free improvisation, experimental and indie rock genres, including punk and math rock. Exultations emphasizes his energetic chops on top of the structurally rhythmic riches provided by kindred spirits Cooper-Moore, a dexterous pianist here exclusively dedicated to the diddley bow, and Gerald Cleaver on drums.

Powerful aural transmissions occur throughout a mesmerizing record that opens with “Flexing Fetid and Fecund”, a sinewy and muscled noise-rock exertion involving athletic drumming and distorted diddley bow slaps. Faithful to his strenuous, agitated vocabulary, Seabrook expands the freedom to “Dark Bogs”, a mechanical, somewhat droid-guided march where he engenders out-of-the-box textures and opens new communicative channels with both digital-oriented proficiency and industrial sonic conception.

Cooper-Moore and Cleaver often adhere to a sort of krautrock precision, and if “Behavioral Tub” implants electronic music influences in the experimental affairs, then the wildly inventive “Along Comes Diddley” proposes a fluttery funk feel conveyed by breakneck guitar actions spilled out with abandon, fire and flair. Whereas the former piece is permeated with carefree guitar noodling, fiery fretwork easily morphing into ostinatos processed by spacious effects, and drum rudiments fleshed out over a droning texture; the latter provides pointillism and synth-guitar clouds over a blistering rhythmic ambiance.

Trapped in a post-punk trance appended with glitchy sounds, “Cudgel Majik” differs considerably from both “Essential Exultations”, an atmospheric tour with some diaphanous minimalism, and “Absurdities in Bondage”, where the trio finds a special way to swing. Still, all pieces share the rigidly interlocked rhythms of Cooper-Moore and Cleaver in addition to Seabrook’s manifold strengths, which include the ability to mutate his playing from sharply angular to quizzically atmospheric.

The originality and inventiveness of the trio translate into unconventional textures that make this experimental work starkly fascinating.