OWL XOUNDS EXPLODING GALAXY “Touch The Iceberg” (Fuck It Tapes)

Wowl Sounds man. This relentless free-jazz rotary club is dropping a lot of releases these days, but this is the best one I’ve heard so far. Or wait, the A side is anyway. “Oh Sweet Iceburn” is a live minidisc recording/document of a raging, intuitive shakedown set at the Flywheel in West Mass with Thurston Moore on second guitar and it SLAYS. Owl Xounds’ side of the Mef Teef split on Arbor was great too but the tape-recorder low-fidelity blurred a lot of the action/interplay. Here, shit shines a lot brighter, Adam Kriney’s drumming flies, the dual basses rumble and slam and stop on dimes, the guitars fray into fried piles of string smoke…exploding galaxy indeed. But, for better/worse, the B side isn’t really Owl Xounds, it’s an electronic remix of the side A set by Liek Twi (aka Hektor Fontanez and Anthony Lebron). It’s by no means bad per se, but the majority of it is extremely digital and computery and the glitchy deconstructionist approach to Owl Xounds’ sound eliminates all the untamed analog primitivism and intensity which seems to be their deepest strength. So, I don’t know. It seems like a strange choice. But strange is subjective, so touch the iceberg yourself – does it feel cold to you?

MEF TEEF / OWL XOUNDS split (Arbor)

For disciples of that sometimes bizarre arc that joins "traditional" free musics with contemporary noise and other-ism, this split joins two young groups in what has been a prolific year for both. Iowa City's Mef Teef will probably be familiar to regular readers of this site. With Raccoo-oo-oon's Andy Spore beating out constantly mutating rhythms (although it's not clear whether there's always one person on percussion), the remaining troupe of Zaander, Kmiec and Kinkade create an interplay of trumpet, guitar, saxophone, piano, whistles and whatever else happens to be lying around. As Arbor head Mike Pollard notes on the label description, the session progresses with definitive mood changes. Mef Teef might not have existed long as a collective entity, but the members are extremely receptive to each other and able to adapt to spontaneous changes in a way which recalls much maturer groups. As heard on their previous output, the band prefer to stay out of the fire music and concentrate on quirky melodic changes, quiet textures and I swear there's a nod or two to Steely Dan. Most importantly, the band has a good sense of humor; you don't have to play like Albert Ayler, just play what you like.
Owl Xounds plays the polar opposite to Mef Teef. Once Adam Kriney starts splashing the cymbals (and dude has some SERIOUS cymbals), it's a nonstop barn burner. The liner notes admit that this live Cakeshop (Manhattan, NYC) set was recorded on the shittiest of handheld Sonys, so it's difficult to discern everything going on, especially since the set was obviously pretty loud. Greg Vegas' electric guitar is unfortunately buried in the mix, but there's a good long segment that spotlights some outstanding bowed double bass by Gene Janas. Darius Jones tries to bust a rib on the alto like Brotzmann, and he comes pretty close. This is the first tape release that Owl Xounds has appeared on, and unfortunately it's already sold out from the label. Interested parties may want to track down their LP on Wooden Wand's Mad Monk label or one of their many CDs.