“How would you describe this music?” asks Combat Astronomy’s James Huggett on the web. “With difficulty,” says the fretless electric bassist, guitarist and programmer. “Ambient metal? Brutal prog? Avant jazz? Post industrial rock?”
I chose to review Shamanic Insurgency, the latest release from CA, on the strength of its title, and because I admire the extraordinary scope, the freshly conceived poetics, of the indefatigable Archer’s work. But (a) I suspect that the title here connects more to events on Washington’s Capitol Hill in early 2021 than to archetypal shamanism and (b) unfortunately, to my ears Shamanic Insurgency mostly numbs rather than inspires.
Why? Archer has long brought acoustic and electronic worlds together to potent effect. But here the acoustic is too often swallowed up or transmuted by the sort of processed sounds, heavy-metal guitar riffs and densely programmed “drum” figures – the abrasive whole delivered at a daunting rate of bpm – which can leave one wondering: do I really hear Charlotte Keeffe’s trumpet here? Was that an alto sax or a processed sequence of keyboard scribble ’n’ squibble there?
Some clearly audible pumping and bustling baritone and spiralling, post-bop alto distinguish the opening Ruler Describes Shifts – not so much “avant” as radically updated core R&B and my favourite piece here. There is further expressive baritone on Last Witness, a piece with more dynamic differentiation than others save for the 25-minute Arc Of Vion, which essays sectional dynamic and temporal diversity. But elsewhere, all is (chiefly) high density, four-square thrashing.
If Brötzmann’s Machine Gun – or a rock-out like What I Say from Davis’s Live-Evil – is your idea of aural bliss, there’s plenty to bang your happy head to here. But I’d advise you go instead for Archer’s most recent release with long-term collaborator Julie Tippetts: their dynamically subtle, lyrically infused – and quite superb – Illusion.
Discography
Ruler Describes Shifts; Shrine Warning; Shamanic Insurgency; Last Witness; Arc Of Vion (55.53)
James Huggett (elb, elg, production); Martin Archer (s, org, kyb); Charlotte Keeffe (t). Unknown location, 22 October 2021.
ZOND 10DL
