Underwards

Illegal Crowns
Unclosing
Out of Your Head OOYH 020

Blending brass textures with those of a guitar as well as a rhythm section suggest potential similarities between the American-based Illegal Crowns quartet and the Australian Underwards quartet. The similarities don’t stretch much further. Underwards’ Sydney-based trumpeter Ellen Kirkwood uses her 10 composition on Delve to delve into impressions of her country’s rural landscape, assisted by guitarist Hilary Geddes, drummer Alex Inman-Hislop and Nick Henderson playing bass and synthesizer. All are part of that country’s shifting creative music scene. More instrumentally virtuosic, the Illegal Crowns have more international experience with US guitarist Mary Halvorson, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and French pianist Benoît Delbecq each writing three of Unclosing’s nine tunes. American cornetist/flugelhornist Taylor Ho Bynum is the band’s other member.

Sometimes turbulent, sometimes tranquil, the rhythmic glue holding together most of Unclosing’s tracks is created by the understated rumble or in-the-moment accents from Fujiwara’s kit. Meanwhile the others provide connective or complex tone motifs, sometime in duo form. Expressing timbral expression with dynamic cross pulsing, pressurized key stopping or inner string resonance, Delbecq also easily sets up connections. This can take the form of responsive chording to Bynum’s ascending squeaky triplets on “Triple Fever” or elsewhere where the others’ fireworks leave him to preserve many tunes horizontal advancement. The cornetist’s playing also takes many forms. Straight-ahead passages repeatedly signal his strategic linear advances. But he also expands from coloration and connection to challenge Halvorson, whose playing is the freest of the disc. Moving from muted harmony to gutbucket slurs on “G. Ocean”, Bynum cannily meets the guitarist’s double-timed and multi-string frails; and on “Osmosis Crown” angles triplets ever higher and thinner in response to the guitarist’s switch from simple strums to effects pedal whines. Piano then joins them to reveal the tune’s swing affiliation. Probably the most spectacular instance of the guitarist’s individuality occurs on “Fading Wave”. Respnding to dog-whistle high flutters from Bynum and Delbecq’s warm inner string strums, she turns from simple picking to powerful vibrations that ruggedly resonate as if they’re mallet hammered on the multi-string dulcimer.

Nowhere as upfront as Halvorson on the other disc the Underwards’ Geddess mostly confines her output to heavily reined in guitar licks, used for tune stabilization or decoration. In the same way Inman-Hislop’s drum work take the form of shuffles, hand tapped ruffs and distant bumps. Henderson’s synthesizer drones are more prominent than his bass work, especially on a tunes like “Mountain Magic” where the buzzing voltage pitches define the tune’s shape. Meanwhile, warm guitar licks plus double bass strums and military precison drumming do back up Kirkwood on “In Ganguddy’, the most extended instance of her trumpet style, work. Undulating graceful tones up and down the scale, she exposes harmonized flutters that are sometime more languid than necessary. With the majority of Delve’s tracks Arcadian, moody and tinged with slowly developed melancholy, the central section of connected “Swampy”, “The Cliffs Beheld” and “Caution” stands out. Made up of pointillist brass peeps and emphasized bent notes, the first track begins tonal elaborations as Kirkwood build up her output over the carpet of churning guitar-and-bass stops and electronic rattles. Adding fog sounds sampled from a Capertee Valley creek plus guitar frails and bass stops on “The Cliffs Beheld”, the trumpeter creates a heartfelt variation on “Taps” to honor Aboriginals massacred by Europeans in that area. The concluding “Caution”, whose title may refer to tribal as well as individual vigilance, unrolls in the same tempo as the previous track, with a well-matched bass line and gentling trumpet puffs cementing the tripartite connection.

A sincere, well organized and creative effort, Delve shows off the fine work of emerging Aussie talent. However more variety of themes, tempo and tonal expansion would have improved the session. On the other disc, while each player has done other outstanding work in the past, Unclosing confirms how well they together. Although seemingly lacking a common theme it can be appreciated for instrumental dexterity and ingenuity, especially in Halvorson’s case.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Unclosing: 1. Crooked Frame 2. Unclosing 3. Triple Fever 4. Fading Wave 5. Osmosis Crown 6. Freud And Jung Go Cycling 7. G. Ocean 8. Les Mots Et Les Choses 9. Soul Of The Grey

Personnel: Unclosing: Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet and flugelhorn); Benoît Delbecq (piano); Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums)

Track Listing: Delve: 1. Slow Wade 2. Delve 3. Night Hymn 4. Swampy 5. The Cliffs Beheld 6. Caution 7. Mountain Magic 8. Gather 9. In Ganguddy 10. Hands and Feet

Personnel: Delve: Ellen Kirkwood (trumpet, vocals); Hilary Geddes (guitar); Nick Henderson (bass, synthesizer), and Alex Inman-Hislop (drums)