Acid Birds - Acid Birds III

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4...according to our Ant on Fri 19 Aug, 2011.

A superb double whammy wax hit this week from BR, the first of which is rotating right now. Acid Birds is the work of Andrew Barker (drums and percussion), Jaime Fennelly (harmonium and electronics) and Charles Waters (alto saxophone and bass clarinet). Things get straight into action with some clattering free jazz/improv complete with alto sax wailing, tumbling drums and discrete but perfectly deployed electronic squeals. Andrew is pretty manic with his drums, the sax squawks in fine style and then the electronics take the fore while the other guys have a brief rest and allow the sine waves to pulsate while drums fade away and sax is reintroduced in a much calmer manner. Gradually the electronics build like muted techno and the sax gets some additional effects. Eventually the drums kick back in and things get super elongated, bordering on cacophony but skillfully retaining the original mood of the track. The sax playing becomes particularly good and then retreats giving way to slowly fading drones. The free music vibes continue on the second track (sorry I cannot name them as I'm reviewing from home on a CDr) with guttural vocals, and a massive sense of tension created by squiggling scraping sounds of which I'm unable to identify the source. The drums rumble under a heady drone with different sax and feedback sounds moving between channels. A short but well constructed piece which comes before the monolithic final number which clocks in at just under fifteen minutes. This baby lets rip with squelching electronic pulses, tumbling drums and some superb alto sax mayhem. The drums pound away fairly relentlessly and the sax is ultra wild. Their is a brief respite until eventually carnage ensues and all players just totally go for it, reasonably full on for a bit, then wind down a touch and then hit back into full chaos mode. Super nice artwork on the sleeve too.

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Acid Birds was formed in 2004 in Brooklyn, NY by Andrew Barker (drums & percussion), Jaime Fennelly (harmonium & electronics) and Charles Waters (alto saxophone & bass clarinet). NY-based Barker & Waters are both founding members of Gold Sparkle Band, and Fennelly, who recently relocated to Chicago from the Pacific Northwest, is 1/3 of Peeesseye, and recently embarked on his new solo project Mind Over Mirrors. Their first self-titled LP came out on the Italian label QBICO in 2009. Their second LP, Acid Birds II, on Sagittarius A-Star, and their first cassette, entitled Mock Load, out on Electric Temple were released to coincide with their Midwest / East Coast Winter 2011 tour. This trio work tirelessly on some wide ranging genres of fine musical output; Barker has worked with Gold Sparkle Band, Sirone of the Revolutionary Ensemble, Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell's TAZ, Rob Brown, Chris Jonas, Sonny Simmons, Sabir Mateen, Virginia Genta, and many others.He has appeared on several recordings, including Apostolic Polyphony (with Matthew Shipp and Charles Waters) and The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra's Mayor of Punkville. In addition to several ongoing projects, Barker has also recently formed a metal band called Hallux. Fennelly is a founding member of Peeesseye, the transatlantic amalgam of minimalist rock, noise, folk, drone, psych, improv, sound poetry, and absurdity that has produced nearly twenty releases. Fennelly recently released his solo LP under the name Mind Over Mirrors on Digitalis Industries to some excellent reviews. Through blending together harmonium, piano and synth drone slabs, hemorrhaging feedback and percussive tape loops, he creates music operating somewhere between a hypnotic ritual, kosmische-inspired minimalism and seriously blurred out american folk music. Releases of his various projects/bandscan be found on labels such as Chocolate Monk, Locust Music, Utech, 8mm, Unframed, Archive, Digitalis Industries, QBICO, Smeraldina-Rima, Misanthropic Agenda and Evolving Ear. Charles Waters is a member of the Gold Sparkle Band, a large collective of musicians that has included Nate Wooley, Sabir Mateen, Matt Lavelle, Hill Greene, and many others.Waters studied clarinet with Eugene Kavadlo of the Charlotte Symphony, and has also worked with William Parker's Little Huey Music Orchestra, Matthew Shipp, and Chris Jonas' Brooklyn Comprovisers Orchestra.
'Red Beak, Yellow Eye' opens up the record with wild drumming, electronic screeches and raging alto sax, building to a rapid waterfall of incredible sounds and then falling back out to minimal electronic pulses and clarinet bursts leading to disintergrating electronics, percussive clatter, and back to full force with Barkers drums and Waters sax fusing together seamlessly with Fennelly's crumbling electronics. 'Rings and Lenses' is a shorter darker piece with Fennelly laying down a bleak electronic landscape with Barker adding sinister cello and Waters monsterous bass clarinet adding a real deep texture to the almost ritualistic piece. 'Acid Birds III' comes to a close with 'Rapture Rupture', an absolutely wild piece of free music, insane electronics, pummeling drums, and sax that at times doesn't even sound like a sax. What Acid Birds do here is completely tear down the walls between rhythm and noise music, creating something entirely new and pushing the genre of jazz and experimental free music to new limits and standards. Mastered by Scott Colburn. Pressed on 140 gram black vinyl in an edition of 500 copies with stunning artwork by Jacob Magraw and Rachell Sumpter.

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