By Nick Ostrum
Now, approaching 18 years into their existence, the Benelux sextet has
released the latest installment of their uniquely energetic and scattered
brand of spunky free jazz. The roster includes some names familiar (John
Dikeman, Jasper Stadhouders, Gonçalo Almeida) and some less so (Tobias
Klein, Bart Maris, Philipp Moser), but a quick internet search and listen
render that distinction arbitrary. These musicians are all well document
and, more importantly, have chops.
Undrilling the Holecaptures them in the Werkplaats Walter studio
in Brussels in February of last year. From the get-go, it is clear that the
album will be a chaotic romp, an act of
construction-through-deconstruction, an unmaking, as the title denotes, of
a space, rather than simply its filling. This is a tape real, run forward
and backward, and every which way. Much of the writing surrounding this
release focuses on its punk orientation and, indeed, this leans toward the
bouncier and more playful end of that spectrum. One might also note that
this draws from bebop speed and precision, progressive builds and releases,
and a Willem Breuker-tinged lust for rapid marching band motifs,
carnivalesque tunes and frequent and tight turns of phrase, melody, and
tempos. In short, Undrilling the Holeis an acrobatic exercise as
much as it is a fully realized musical vision.
The band is generally tight amidst the chaos. The latter especially applies
to Stadhouders. I am not sure if I have ever heard him play a straight line
before, and here he does with a precision that is striking for how normal
it sounds. Still, he is most compelling when he lays those wiry figures –
sometimes sounding more like overwrought pig iron rubbed with a corroded
nail more than a traditional electric guitar – that have made him the
singular guitarist that he is. When much of the rest of the band are laying
sheets of sound in one direction, he quietly punctures rusty pockmarks on
the path and encircling it with fine razor wire. It makes for an
interesting listening experience, especially considering the finely layered
if divergent filaments that the rest of the band produces. This is not to
say the rest of the band is tame or conventional, however. Quite the
contrary. They are exceptional and unpredictable, more often scrumming over
an unwieldy center than settling on a melody. Those whose ears might be
more familiar with Klein, Maris, or Moser, for instance, might notice one
of these figures slyly sabotaging any movement toward unison or dragging a
given composition toward craggier terrain. This music has no leader, but
also no single outlier. It does, however, now have my attention, and I
look forward to hearing what the band comes up with in the future, as they
move into their third decade as a unit.
Undrilling the Holeis available as a download and CD from
bandcamp:
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PS: For those interested, see Eric McDowell’s insightful
review
of a couple Spinifex releases from 2016. I am not sure how I missed this
band back then, but clearly they have been making an impression for some
time.