Sweet And Vicious Like Frankenstein
Chicago jazz scene luminary Rob Mazurek has previously contributed his considerable abilities (most closely associated with the cornet) to records by Tortoise, Stereolab, Sam Prekop and Gastr Del Sol to name but a few. He's also a main player in the Chicago Unerground Dup and Isotope 217, in which he focuses his hardcore improv chops. For this 2004 Mego album Mazurek turns to his laptop for inspiration, cooking up these two extended pieces of avant-garde electronics. Mazurek transfers his skills to this field with the same sort of aplomb and fluency as his fellow Chicagoan Jim O'Rourke, flitting between chaotic concrète sounds and ambient drifts. The production and attention to detail throughout is meticulous, absorbing the sort of extreme techniques you'd hear from the very best of the Mego crowd and regurgitating them in wonderful long-form narratives. It's easy to overlook an album like this given that Mazurek isn't really best known for his post-digital compositions in the same way as Pita, Hecker, Farmers Manual et al, but this is a real doozee.
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Chicago jazz scene luminary Rob Mazurek has previously contributed his considerable abilities (most closely associated with the cornet) to records by Tortoise, Stereolab, Sam Prekop and Gastr Del Sol to name but a few. He's also a main player in the Chicago Unerground Dup and Isotope 217, in which he focuses his hardcore improv chops. For this 2004 Mego album Mazurek turns to his laptop for inspiration, cooking up these two extended pieces of avant-garde electronics. Mazurek transfers his skills to this field with the same sort of aplomb and fluency as his fellow Chicagoan Jim O'Rourke, flitting between chaotic concrète sounds and ambient drifts. The production and attention to detail throughout is meticulous, absorbing the sort of extreme techniques you'd hear from the very best of the Mego crowd and regurgitating them in wonderful long-form narratives. It's easy to overlook an album like this given that Mazurek isn't really best known for his post-digital compositions in the same way as Pita, Hecker, Farmers Manual et al, but this is a real doozee.
Chicago jazz scene luminary Rob Mazurek has previously contributed his considerable abilities (most closely associated with the cornet) to records by Tortoise, Stereolab, Sam Prekop and Gastr Del Sol to name but a few. He's also a main player in the Chicago Unerground Dup and Isotope 217, in which he focuses his hardcore improv chops. For this 2004 Mego album Mazurek turns to his laptop for inspiration, cooking up these two extended pieces of avant-garde electronics. Mazurek transfers his skills to this field with the same sort of aplomb and fluency as his fellow Chicagoan Jim O'Rourke, flitting between chaotic concrète sounds and ambient drifts. The production and attention to detail throughout is meticulous, absorbing the sort of extreme techniques you'd hear from the very best of the Mego crowd and regurgitating them in wonderful long-form narratives. It's easy to overlook an album like this given that Mazurek isn't really best known for his post-digital compositions in the same way as Pita, Hecker, Farmers Manual et al, but this is a real doozee.