Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2024
Personnel - Ches Smith: electronics, programming, vives, drums, tubular bells, glockenspiel, timpani, tam tam, metal percussion; Shara Lunon: voice, vocal processing; Anna Webber: flute; Oscar Noriega: clarinets; James Brandon Lewis: tenor saxophone; Nate Wooley: trumpet; Jennifer Choi: violin; Kyle Armbrust: viola; Michael Nicolas: cello; Shahzad Ismaily: bass, keyboards.
Extraordinary drummer and composer Ches Smith brings his A-game to a progressive and eclectic new album, Laugh Ash, gathering a bevy of avant-gardists and improvisers to explore the art of sound and intricate textural layering. His compositional taste and innovative spirit are reflected in numerous instrumental juxtapositions that, at a first instance, are easier to admire than to love. The agitation of the drum machines, synthetic in nature, oppose to the varied chamber moods, and a sense of novelty invades the album, pumping the pieces into an out-of-the-box listening experience.
“Minimalism” shimmers like a soap bubble, taking shape as layered electronic music with a fantastic rhythm, punk-rock singing by Shara Lunon, and synth momentum. This is followed by “Remote Convivial”, which chimes and vibes with slightly glitchy pitches, compound meter patterns, drum machines, spellbinding bass lines, and an outgoing saxophone solo delivered by James Brandon Lewis. The avant-garde scenario is heightened as string players embrace dissonance, akin to gazing at a blurred painting that retains its fundamental meaning.
The 10-piece ensemble dishes out polyrhythmic energies on “Sweatered Webs (Hey Mom)”, where funky bass trajectories meet Haitian rhythms. Lewis contributes another superb inside/outside tenor improvisation, and ethereal chants add a special interest. “Shaken, Stirred Silence” showcases a playful blend of ideas with Eastern connotations, odd meter provocation, asymmetry, angularity, avant expression via Anna Webber’s remarkable flute playing, and swooning electronic sensations that serve as a conclusion. All rhythmically rooted in skittering boom beats.
Clarinetist Oscar Noriega and trumpeter Nate Wooley bring unpredictable melodic directions and steep angles to “Unyielding Daydream Welding”, pirouetting around a foreboding dark drone and lively backbeat. They keep up their interaction in “Disco Inferred”, a propulsive ride with throbbing rhythm and electric funk at the bottom. In the last section, Webber’s rambling flute occupies a center position. In the final piece, “Exit Shivers”, an atmospheric doom metal-inspired work unfolds with quiet eeriness before a startling eruption.
Laugh Ash offers thought-provoking themes and improvisations that may not be immediately accessible but grow in interest with each listen. It's an unclassifiable, gripping album that pushes the boundaries of creative music in an original and compelling way.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Remote Convivial ► 03 - Sweatered Webs (Hey Mom) ► 08 - Unyielding Daydream Welding