Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2020
Personnel - Craig Taborn: piano, keyboards; Mat Maneri: viola; Chris Speed: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Erik Fratzke: electric bass; Dave King: acoustic and electric drums.
Pianist/keyboardist/composer Craig Taborn, one of the most interesting improvisers and innovators out there, formed Junk Magic in 2004. At that time, this quartet featured saxophonist Aaron Stewart, violist Mat Maneri and drummer Dave King. This pioneering electro-jazz group dare to merge electronics and elements unburdened by genres, enclosing written parts and free improvisation in its creative process. 16 years later, Taborn returns to the project (now a quintet), welcoming saxophonist Chris Speed to take the place of Stewart and adding bassist Erik Fratzke, while Maneri and King maintain their respective roles in the project.
Stamped with pure individuality, “Laser Beaming Hearts” opens the record with a cerebral collage of intriguing droning effects, hip-hop beat, and iterative rhythmic figures. One can think of an EDM conspiracy between 808 State and Aphex Twin.
The group sets up a much more intriguing atmosphere on “Dreams and Guess”. Enigmatic ambient tones, an odd pulsation, viola and piano unisons, and gently chiming effects happen to occur in the right space at the right time. There's an inconsolable feeling left by this track.
Surrounded by gongs, chimes and repetitive notes, “Sargasso” features both unison and free lines, developing with a beat that goes from lurching to routine before returning to its initial state. Maneri and Speed work together to push us into newly discovered places, while the unconventional rhythm section assures a viscous ambient soundscape.
If the shifting passages of “Compass Confusion / Little Love Gods” embrace icy-synth-driven textures with a polyrhythmic feel, then the way “The Night Land” is designed inspires darkly veiled atmospheres and stirs up an oppressive sense of foreboding.
The adventurous “The Science of Why Devils Smell Like Sulfur” is the most absorbing piece on the album. Boasting an aggressive, rock-like posture in its inception, the piece soon enters in a vague yet peaceful grey zone, which changes gradually through clever alternations of mood. The hypnotic shifts include a deconstructive beat framework turned into run-of-the-mill rhythmic flux, explorative piano lines narrowed to steady ostinatos, and rambling violin stretches that resolve into steady cries. All of this happens under the effect of hallucinogenic electronic vibes.
Even staying a few steps behind in regard to Junk Magic's 2004 debut album, Compass Confusion is a risk-laden piece of work that will find its audience in those able to find beauty in the abstract worlds of sound design, experimental electronica and improv. This is not a comeback, it’s rather a new path with all its challenges.
Grade B
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Dreams and Guess ► 04 - The Science of Why Devils Smell Like Sulfur ► 06 - Sargasso