From dual paradises (also known locally as Arizona and California) comes this hefty collaboration between my good friend/ multi-instrumentalist Tenk van Dool and master percussor Paul Sears, with a little help from assorted friends. I still enjoy revisiting the Temple of Switches album , which had the advantage of prepping me for this ‘primal instinct’ example of musical lunacy. Since I despise the very notion of labelling (it’s only good for food products!), let us limit ourselves to state for the record that Tenk and Paul navigate in some inventive sonic realms that may include a wide variety of endearing as well as bludgeoning sequences, scales and sequins, also known in more conventional terms as jazz-rock, improvisations and psychedelia. The solos are instinctive, the mood cerebral and the expounding virtues emit impeccable originality. Eleven vignettes , astutely opened windows within a collapsing universe.
“King Koln” has nothing to do with the Rhine valley but easily provides some mechanical kling-klang that would confound the remaining Kraftwerk crew (RIP Florian), a steel foundry of puncturing guitar vacillations, billowing synthesized smokestacks, with punctuating and puncturing drum tutelage. Lovely noise. The Teutonic mood is maintained on “Cappy’s Sledge” featuring seething vocals from Heinrich the ‘fecal house cleaner’ and Klopfen ‘the pigmy dwarf’, somehow recalling some Zomby Woof Italian-American, surely a modern version of the Flo and Eddie skit, but with severe Gothic overtones. Thankfully, the Van Dool axe solo is a pungent blitzkrieg that does the trick. What better way to comb one’s bald spot than with “Head Scratcher”, a velvety scrutiny of tasty twirls on the guitar, spiced by keyboard sorcery and the kind of percussive backbone that comes straight out of a sweaty jazz cavern somewhere downtown. How about a cinematic survey on the late-night lizards roaming the urban decay well after midnight on “1am Geary Street”, replete with Courtney Odom hushing her vocalizations! Dazed and confused, tired and spent, a “yes I’m lonely, wanna die” mood, exacerbated by some quarrelsome electric guitar frittering, bickering drum slaps and splashes and some nighttime dissonance to help with the paranoid insomnia!
Epic track time with an 8-and-a-half-minute romper “Land of the Free”, a perfect and completely improvised basal platform for the choo-choo train to unload some progressive passengers at Union Station. Steve Mitchell guests on guitars and bass, while Ruben Riera blows forcefully on pan flute as well as woodwinds. The ambient drowsy nature is intoxicating, with a real bludgeoning of the senses without resorting to any violent interactions. Tenk brings out his African bongos to complement Paul’s fluctuating pulsations, and a merry time is had by all. Really enjoyable, in a semi-masochistic manner.
“Tandem Trike to Tiburon” may hint at Spanish-speaking sharks riding bicycles in some obscure way but comes across as almost accessible after the previous medicated bliss. A relatively immediate groove is put in place, an unblushing piano shuffle, with outright jazz implications and a viscous bass travelogue roaming unfettered. Affectionately warped. “Tribledation” keeps the onus on the black and white ivories (Tenk is a real talent, I will admit!) and could have lasted a bit longer. But connected with the next two brief pieces, I get the idea, as the pace flows rather concisely!
I have no idea (nor do I need to know) who “Katie and Nathalie” are but it’s another vocal piece that has Clara Belle Hembree warbling in a wistful style that exudes heavy psychedelics, I guess it’s hard to get the California dreaming thingy out of one’s mind. As such, the track is a consummate slice of fluffy genius, with a deliriously perfect sax solo (yeah, baby!), slithering guitar flickers and adhesive melodies to boot. Me gusta muchissimo!
The album terminates its course in some detached realm, where “Souls” find their eternal rest, a finale that sweeps all the turmoil away in a sweep of delicate sound and distant thunder. Guitars, keys, bass and drums settle the score.
This was fun.
4 basic instincts