Gang Font featuring Interloper
is certainly the most "
rock
" entry in
Thirsty Ear
's Blue Series, not surprising given the participation of a former member of Huesker Due (
Greg Norton
). Given that the rest of the band consists of one of avant-
jazz
's most exciting keyboard players (
Craig Taborn
) and members of the
Bad Plus
and/or
Happy Apple
(
Dave King
and
Erik Fratzke
), you can be sure that it's going to be a lot more challenging than your basic
rock & roll
. And that it is: polyrhythmic, angular riffs and frequent time changes are the order of the day here. But most of it is also fairly catchy and well written, not just tricky for tricky's sake. Several tracks have a particularly
Beefhearty
flavor, like
"Homage: Claude Schnell"
"The Litigious Mike Love."
"The Familiar Cadence of Banging"
is almost
metal
while
"A Chance to Play Across the Shadows"
has an odd serpentine melody and allows room for
Taborn
to do some really creative things with the timbre of his keys during his solo.
"Herman Ze German Cassette"
sounds more like
improvisation
(despite
King
's writing credit) with everyone taking a turn at the lead but mostly chasing
's organ. The album loses a bit of steam on the ominous
"Let's Go Find a Quiet Place to Cool Down,"
an exercise in spooky atmosphere that goes on longer than it needs to, despite some nice feedback work from
Fratzke
and more odd sounds from
. But they get right back on track for the closing tunes, returning to the cool angular
that started the album. All in all, a nice debut for these Minneapolis All-Stars. ~ Sean Westergaard