Chicago Underground Trio - Slon
(Thrill Jockey)
Chicago Underground return in trio form (Rob Mazurek, cornet, computer; Noel Kupersmith, bass, computer; Chad Taylor, drums) with their most intense album to date. Generally speaking, I have found the Duo albums to be the wildest, which lead me to extrapolate the rule that for CU, intensity factor is alway inversely proportional to the number of members playing on a given album. Slon blows that theory. This is largely due, I think, to two unique factors surrounding Slon's production. First, it is explicitly a protest album (inspired by and recorded after their tour of Europe in April 2003, dedicated to those "who lost their lives at the hands of U.S. imperialism"), and the outrage is palpable in the music. Second, the album was recorded in a single day, which gives the music an immediacy like that experienced in live performance. The result is a more visceral album. That said, however, it speaks volumes to the musicianship of the trio that the meticulous and intricate qualities of prior albums are hardly reduced.
The opener, blatantly titled "Protest," is firey hard bop, relentlessly propelled by an edgy rock and roll bassline, and furious drumming. The rhythm section keeps the tune grounded, allowing Mazurek to break out, his horn bleatly wildly. Eventually the bass and drums drop away, two insistent bowed bass tracks, one phased to each speaker, sneak in, the cornet melody fades into the background, and Mazurek's free improvisation winds down from outrage to sadness. It's the strongest track on the album, and one of Chicago Underground's best, most expressive numbers. "Protest" is followed by "Slon," which begins as a freeform laptop bit, quickly morphs into glitchy poly-rhythms and is eventually accompanied by a very mournful cornet melody. The emotional impact, coming off of "Protest" is quite profound. The group seems intent on simultaneously engaging the various psychic impacts of the war: at once they are enraged, depressed, mournful, frantic, frustrated.
And that's just the first two tracks. There's also "Zagreb," where smokey jazz rises effortlessly out of found sound recordings, "Campbell Town," in which we are treated to two full minutes of just Chad Taylor working his magic (the man must be seen live to believe that he can play like that with only two hands), and "Palermo," where subliminal computer beats ripple through processed recordings from a fish market like the heartbeat of a village marketplace.
In many ways this may be the Chicago Underground's finest record. It has the best integration of electronics and jazz instruments, which has been somewhat spotty on previous releases. The purely electronic tracks are much more fully realized. The energy of their live performances has been captured (a struggle for any band working in the sterile studio setting). It is thematically perhaps their most ambitious release, and entirely succeeds on that level. The non-fake jazz press has praised the group for invigorating musical forms that, though once vibrant and free, have become staid and rigid. Beyond that, they are examples of the possibilities of music: to transcend stylistic boundaries, to embrace change, to challenge convention. In these areas, they embody what was great about jazz, about rock, about punk. Slon is just further proof that the Underground has no bounds.
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