Plymouth Available to Pre-Order Now
Dear Friends,
following up on our previous post detailing the the release of Chat Noir’s Elec3Cities, we would like to introduce you to the second RareNoiseRecords release slated for APRIL 7TH 2014:
Plymouth (RNR040/RNR040LP)
Following on the heels of their successful collaboration on 2013‘s Slobber Pup, one of the most intensely throbbing releases in the RareNoise catalog, keyboardist Jamie Saft and guitarist Joe Morris have reunited for another potent and provocative offering in Plymouth. Joining them on the three expansive pieces that comprise this purely improvised set are the indelible rhythm tandem of bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Gerald Cleaver, who have played together in various settings (including Morris’ quartet) since the late ‘90s, and rising star avant garde guitarist Mary Halvorson (a former student of Morris’). Together they create compelling stream-of-conscious sonic excursions that range from zen-like quietude to hellacious distortion-laced fury, as on the 20-minute “Manomet,” the 13-minute title track and the 29-minute journey, “Standish.” Nothing is ever predictable or resolves neatly on this audacious, wildly uncompromising outing.
DownBeat writer John Ephland reviewed Plymouth’s U.S. debut on a special RareNoise label showcase held at Shapeshifter lab in Brooklyn on Dec. 13, 2013:
“Beginning with a dose of dreamy electric piano, Plymouth brought on a storm of floating, shimmering rubato. The playing centered around a gently implied beat. Halvorson’s guitar work started with deft, unobtrusive slide playing, which provided a contrast to Morris’ more dedicated single-note lines. Saft’s chimey chords directed the music into a loose-limbed rock cadence, while Morris’ hard-edged picking served as a drone. Halvorson replied with lush chordal phrases, while Saft’s scary-movie organ lines were a lattice for what became a two-note jam of squirrelly lines, repeated over and over. Saft continued with dense thickets of sound combined with repeated loops and pedal effects from both guitarists. By this point, there was an audible heaving and sighing over a definite groove, menacing but also somehow innocent. The group improvisation could be heard as a collection of voices—five individuals foraging through a forest of sounds.”
“This group was conceived as a way to bring together Joe Morris and Mary Halvorson with a rhythm section of long standing friends and colleagues,” explains Saft, who co-produced the recording with Morris. “It’s a very different sound than Slobber Pup but created with a similar attitude and focus on total freedom. Nothing was pre-conceived or discussed beforehand. It’s purely a meeting of sympathetic minds that resulted in something quite astonishing.”
While Saft’s keyboard rig in the crunching quartet Slobber Pup is mostly organs running through a Marshall amp turned up to 11, his setup in Plymouth is based around the acoustic piano fed through an Echoplex (like on his own dub-influenced New Zion Trio). Morris and Halvorson interact intuitive on guitar, alternately between clean tones and distortion tones, with Halvorson also supplying some of her signature chordal swells with her deft use of a Whammy Bar pedal. Chris Lightcap, who almost exclusively plays upright bass in his own group Bigmouth and in his numerous sideman roles, plays a hollowbody electric bass with a fuzz pedal on this Plymouth session. And Cleaver, a remarkably flexible and powerful drummer, provides the glue that holds all the freewheeling excursions together.
“I absolutely love playing with Gerald,” says Saft. “He is the rare marriage of power, depth and complete freedom. Gerald frames all the madness with an acoustic sound that is extra rich and complements all the electrical energy perfectly.”
Saft, who has long been associated with many of John Zorn’s ensembles including The Dreamers and Electric Masada and has also toured and recorded with the pioneering Japanese noise musician Merzbow, heaped praise on his Plymouth partner Morris, a free jazz guitar icon with more than 20 releases as a leader to his credit.
“I’ve known Joe for over 20 years,” says Saft. “We made music together in the early ‘90s in Boston when I was finishing up as a student at New England Conservatory. Joe was a local avant legend and I was extremely fortunate to get to work with him back then. We lost touch for almost 20 years and reconnected at some festivals a few years ago and started brainstorming.”
Plymouth available to PRE-ORDER NOW as
CD Digipack (with free mp3 download) – CD Deliveries Start Around April 7th
Single LP (180 gm Vinyl with free mp3 download) – Vinyl Deliveries Start Around April 28th
COMBO (CD Digipack + Single Vinyl + free flac download + free mp3 download) – Combo Deliveries Start Around April 28th
HD flac (24bit/96Khz lossless) download – available immediately
flac (lossless) download – available immediately
mp3 (lossy) download – available immediately
Plymouth will be available on Online Stores / High Street Stores / Digital Stores (Itunes/Emusic/Amazon…)/Streaming (Spotify/Deezer/…) from the second/third weeks of April .