Label: Blue Note Records, 2020
Personnel - Nels Cline: guitars; Skerik: saxophone; Brian Marsella; piano, keyboards; Trevor Dunn: bass; Scott Amendola: drums; Cyro Baptista: percussion.
The spunky music of farsighted American guitarist Nels Cline glitters with jagged detail and unfolds with a progressive attitude. Following-up on Microscope (Mack Avenue, 2014), his previous work with the squad The Singers, Share the Wealth is a grippingly disorienting double album that results from a two-day recording of spontaneous music.
The current formation - a sextet - allows Cline to merge stylistic currents with complexity and sophistication, and the fantastic opener, Caetano Veloso’s “Segunda” is a case in point. A visceral folk dance working within a more conventional song format and delivered with irresistible rock and Brazilian flavors, shows that Cline not only is unafraid to step into risky musical forays, but also does it successfully. The rich percussive spectacle is co-credited to experienced West Coast drummer Scott Amendola and Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista, while the impetuous saxophone lines by saxophonics-pioneer Skerik draws, by turns, responsive reactions from Cline and keyboardist Brian Marsella. Epic stuff.
The jazzy guitar chords that introduce the luxuriant “Beam/Spiral” can be misleading in the direction the group will take. A balanced suspension is achieved through electronics, hi-hat routine and thin clouds of synth topped by saxophone. Yet, at some point, that impalpable state of abstraction is pulled into the earth by the power of Trevor Dunn’s bass lines, with everything ending up in an indie rock sphere. The pinnacle of the song occurs by the end, when a distorted guitar layer sustains a delirious conjoint moment headed by an outgoing saxophone and synths.
Having light intensities in common, “Nightstand” is a spacious, slow-dance number, while “Headdress” gets its dreamy tones through a mix of ambient dub and neo-soul. In turn, “Princess Phone” boasts a punk-ish attitude with a groove that allows wah-wah-infused guitar, rapid bass runs, jittery drumming and vibey Rhodes propagations; whereas “The Pleather Patrol” progresses into an unannounced EDM episode that will make you move your feet.
Clocking in at 17 minutes, the polychromatic, transgressive and genre-defying “Stump the Panel” is the paradigm of an eclectic doctrine that is never predictable. Under mesmerizing electronic undercurrents and percussive slapbacks, the cutting noise and riotous patterns cut in for an aggressive punk-rock-meets-avant-jazz aesthetic that later morphs into experimental ambient, free funk, and murmured electronica sequences loaded with bassy-beat hooks and catchy ostinatos . The group ends things with a heavy metal vibe.
An then we are disarmed again by the acoustic folk appeal of “Passed Down”, a piece written by Cline as a consequence of a friend’s suicide.
Touting nearly telepathic interplay, this thought-provoking record is an absolute joy for the ears and a must listen for all lovers of modern music. Indisputably, one of my favorites of 2020.
Grade A+
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Segunda ► 04 - Stump the Panel ► 06 - Princess Phone