Gorgeous quintet improv space explored at Chicago's ProMusica studios. Long-time partners Przemyslaw Drazek (trumpet, strings, percussion) and Brent Fuscaldo (voice, guitar, percussion, harmonica) join up again with Hamid's percussion, Tatsu's bass & shamisen, and Thymme's piano & various, just as they did on last year's amazing Ourania (FTR513).
The sounds now are spacious, comfortable explorations of unknown sonic turf. There may be a bit less of the aggressive edge that marked their earlier work, but the music generates an equal amount of head-shaking wonder. Thymme's piano and the hails of percussive energy now sometimes set the stage in the way the band's trumpet and guitar once did. There's a magnificent moodiness to the way this music is put together. And trying to squeeze it into a genre definition is harder than ever. Rock, jazz and experimental textures are all allowed to roam freely throughout the session, with the result being a splendid sort of audio anarchy head birthing chunks of sound that are sculpted into boulders of cosmic beauty.
There's almost no telling which way things are going to turn in the course of Formless, but the results are always warm blurs you can almost feel massaging your tympanic membranes. Amazing stuff. As usual!
Also worth noting, the band will be dropping Mako Sica as a working name after this LP, and will henceforth be using Drazek/Fuscaldo, along with whatever special riders choose to come along. You have been warned.
-Byron Cooley, 2022
This album is such a great mix of free and spiritual jazz with experimental, mood, Eastern elements added in. First cassette tape I have purchased in years and been listening to it all day. Lee Robbins
Terry Venemous is releasing new music every 3 weeks this year. His latest EP is sumptuous art pop with a wry sense of detachment.
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A new compilation of studio recordings and live rarities captures another side of ’90s experimentalists Gastr del Sol. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 27, 2024
Hamid Drake is utterly unique. Anyone who watches him perform will be in awe of the fluidity of his movements and his rhythmic sensibilities. Both can seem supra-human at times. This is not a collaboration which I would have predicted to even take place, let alone be successful. Just goes to show how little confidence I have in my good fortune.
Mako Sica is “free-rock trio” from Chicago whose members seem to have a very wide palette of tones and musical ideas to draw upon.
This is a melange of spacey psychedelic jazz which repays careful listening. It’s immediately likable. But the more you listen the more you see, if I may coin a phrase. The deeper you go the warmer and more satisfying this mixture of influences becomes.
Pick up this limited edition cassette while you can. Richard Hayes