SLOBBER PUP — Black Aces (review)

SLOBBER PUP — Black Aces album cover Album · 2013 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
js
Slobber Pup is the latest eclectic ensemble put together by musical gadfly and man-about-everywhere, keyboardist Jamie Saft, whose name seems to be popping up more and more in today’s world of avant-garde rock, jazz-rock and modern creative music in general. On “Black Aces”, Saft is joined by fellow pups avant rock bassist Trevor Dunn, free thrash drummer Balazs Pandi and the star of the show, veteran free jazz guitarist Joe Morris. Saft’s idea for this band was to take the well established Morris and pair him with a different style of rhythm section than he usually plays with. The key component here is drummer Pandi, who has the unusual distinction of be equally adept at modern hardcore and metal, as well as free jazz.

Although Saft put this group together, on a musical level, Joe Morris’ guitar playing leads the way and the others follow in their own style. Morris’ style is rooted in Hendrix’s bluesy jazz-rock, but as a jam progresses, his playing becomes more abstract in ways that recall Sonny Sharrock, Blood Ulmer and Jean Paul Barelli. During the height of Slobber Pup’s most intense improvs, Morris creates pure sound that mixes with the others for a dense wall of interlocking noise. Saft joins Morris and his powerful rhythm section with lots of held chords and dronish noise on the Hammond B3. Jamie pulls out all the stops on the organ for a full cheezy sound that is subjected to every vibrato available, sounding like a cross between an old school horror soundtrack, 60s daytime soap operas and a roller rink organist trying to get fired. Add Dunn’s subterranean heavy bass and Pandi’s relentless attack on the drums and you have one of the most intense free jazz rock ensembles since the days of Last Exit.

The first three cuts on “Black Aces” fall more or less into a modern free jazz vein, although lengthy opener “Accuser” also gets into some heavy noise rock too. On track four, “Suffrage”, they get on beat while Saft provides a shaky psychedelic rock chord progression on the B3. Final track, “Taint of Satan” , opens with heavy sludge noise rock before Pandi takes it into overdrive with driving thrash beats. At this point it would be nice if the drums had a stronger and better recorded presence because they tend to get lost in the noise, although its possible that was the intended effect.

This is a good modern noisy free playing workout that should appeal to fans of modern avant-garde jazz, as well as the growing fan base for noise music.
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