This is guitarist Matte Henderson’s first album, and is a collaborative effort with drummer Marco Minnemann. Bad Brains co-founder/guitarist Doctor Know calls the album the world’s first “muttcore” release, meaning it explores the universes of post-rock, industrial, metal, and ambient in equal measure – for some reason he didn’t include jazz in that list, which is strange as this definitely includes some elements from that genre. Although this is primarily an instrumental album there are vocals but these have been almost entirely derived from voicemails, surreptitiously recorded conversations, and prison parole hearings. Obviously Matte thought that this was a great idea that would add to the experimental nature of the album and make it seem even more Zappa-esque, but to me honest I found them often at best an irrelevance and often an annoyance, as the music is so complex and well played and structured that it really doesn’t need it.
“Several tracks are homages to my favorite guitarists,” says Henderson. “‘Myers Lane’ is my bow to Exposure-era Fripp. ‘Whirled’ and ‘ppgf’ are nods to Bad Brains, which saved me from a life of jazz-fusion treacle. ‘Single Cell Shark’ reflects my fascination with David Torn’s boundary-breaking work. ‘My Whirled’ was written for the late Mick Karn, who was scheduled to work on it before his health crisis. As a tribute to him, I went with a Dali’s Car vibe for that tune.”
There is no doubt that this is a really good album, but the vocals do detract from the overall for me and I would much rather have heard it without as the guitarwork and drumming are outstanding and they just don’t need it. Definitely to be heard before purchase, it definitely contains a lot that Zappa would have been proud of.
