Five From Utech

Managed by a Milwaukee visual artist on an extremely modest budget, the eponymous Utech imprint still maintains a release schedule that many independent labels would envy. Pressings are tiny and a sizeable portion of back catalog (15 titles) is already out of print. Packaging is lean too, with cardboard sheathes and distinctive silk screen art work substituting in place of glossy photos and design. The result is a distinctive collective identity that merges Utech’s visual sense with the aural emphasis of his eclectic roster of participants. The five titles below represent the release schedule January through February of 2006. If the attrition-checkered track record of past discs is any harbinger, it’s sound idea to jump on desired titles sooner rather than later.

Tim Daisy & Frank Rosaly – Boombox Babylon (Utech 25)

Daisy and Rosaly are two of the more active drummers on the post-Vandermark Chicago scene. Daisy likely needs no overview given his prominent profile posts in the V5 and Triage. Rosaly may not be as well known, though not for lack of activity. His bulging resume includes work with Jeff Parker, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Guillermo Gregorio. The two men convene in a Windy City studio space to craft a brooding and meticulous program of percussive music that occupies just over a half hour. Rolling mallets give way to whispering brushes and chopstick rims chatter, illustrating segues that are far from assembly line in nature. Both men make use of a fair amount of peripheral equipment with shakers, shells, tins and other sundry objects interacting with the metal and skin of drum kits proper. But there’s little in the way of bombastic grand-standing. The ensuing rhythmic alloy makes it occasionally difficult to separate the sounds sallying forth from each corner and focuses attention instead on the steady patter and clatter that meets in the middle. Meandering moments arise and the riddims feel sometimes reticent, but overall the creative capital behind this outing coupled with its relative brevity make for a very pleasing listen. Percussion mavens with fondness for such classic conclaves as Murray-Morgan on ESP and Ibarra-Charles on Wobbly Rail take note.

Anders Hana - Flesh Dispenser (Utech 26)

I’m not well versed in the work of Anders Hana, but this capsule recording of his performance at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in July of 2005 definitely piques my curiosity to hear more of his music. Holding forth on electric guitar for a set that consumes just less than 24 minutes, Hana traffics in brittle and snapped strings vernacular that better approximate radio static and hum rather than anything resembling traditional fret play. Clipped riffs dipped in acidic distortion fire from his strings like mercury-tipped M-60 rounds, perforating and threatening to implode his amps. It’s Sharrock meets Branca meets Hendrix with a dollop of math metal tossed in- the aural equivalent of the silk-screened scorpion that adorns the cover. Even with all the density and flanging destructive force, there’s still a surprising amount of space and singularity in Hana’s constructions. Later pieces open the parameters further as Hana shapes arcing drones and grinding swathes that are strangely lyrical in their soaring trajectories. Likely to be considered little more than indulgent racket by some, these filling-dislodging improvisations hold a depth and resonance made me wish for more by the set’s all-too-abrupt end.

Tetuzi Akiyama – Striking Another Match (Utech 27)

Akiyama approaches the guitar from a very different vantage than his label mate Hana, one that quickly pegs him as a devoted supplicant at the shrines of Fahey and Basho. The strings and body of his volume pedal-fitted acoustic instrument are closely miked, leading to occasional collisions, underlying hiss and warble and an overall coarse mid-fi sound that’s as much apart of the music as his often lyrical picking style. Melodies steeped in folk Americana and apocrypha spool out in medley-like fashion over the two halves of the hour long Tokyo-taped concert. Floating chord patterns punctuated by audible fret squeaks vie with other less tethered passages. Akiyama interjects spoken introductions in Japanese between the segments, sometimes talking at length. One of the composite tunes even features lyrics sung in English and Akiyama does a convincing job assuming on the guise of a melancholy-plagued Southern country troubadour, say Townes Van Zandt, through his downcast delivery. The blues also seep periodically into his improvisations with several passages of stinging slide guitar directly recalling certain chestnuts from the Fahey songbook like “Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain.” Much of the program has the feel of an after-hours pub set with Akiyama allowing a quicksilver muse to guide his fingers, sometimes to the point of circuitous repetition and stasis. But earnestness exists in his imitations that makes even the more derivative and rambling sections of the recital consistently palatable.

Sinistri - Timing the 183K Pulse: Eleven Intuitive Acts on a Defined Vamp (Utech 28)

Electronics and acoustics cohabitate in the collective Sinistri with aqueous and often disorienting outcomes. A comprehensive listing of the musicians and their respective instruments would annex nearly a third of the 250 word cap I’ve allotted for these capsules so a summary is probably better suited. The channel-sequestered guitars of Manuele Giannini and Mattia Di Rosa work as tandem crux with a batteries of drums, “controlled basses”, mixers, tuners and contact mics positioned in concentric rings around them. The eleven tracks titles are maddeningly similar in terms of titles. All riff on the same abbreviation and an assortment of Roman numerals for differentiation. No matter, since the program rolls out more like a collage-structured suite than discrete pieces. The music also relies on only a modicum core of shared information, much of it revolving around a mutable rhythm vamp that proves itself adaptable, if somewhat anemic in a myriad of permutations and settings. Fractured guitar riffing sandwiches a center of gurgling electric bass, hiccupping drums and a steady streaming flow of aural detritus. The effect is like funk-centered fusion eviscerated and exsanguinated, bones stripped down to the ruddy protein-rich marrow. It’s involving for awhile, but even over the relatively short duration of 37:20 the general paucity of musical pemmican left my ears hungry for a more substantial aural repast.

Triage – Stagger (Utech 31)

Triage adeptly represents the jazz-oriented end of the Utech universe with this double disc bonanza of live material culled from a gig at the Wescott Community Center in Syracuse from September of last year. Each disc presumably documents a set, both clocking in with modest forty-plus minute time spans. The schematic doesn’t stray too far from past Triage ventures with twisty heads serving as slingshots for spirited and generously-stocked solos. It’s about an even split between medleys and free-standing tunes with a fair share mined from their last Okka album. Rempis sounds predictably stellar, reeling off one blistering solo after another on alto, tenor and for a welcome change of pace, baritone. It’s a genuine treat hearing him on the last horn and he shows off a similar facility with heavier-jowled phrasing. The live mix shortchanges bassist Jason Ajemian a bit with distanced positioning, but Tim Daisy’s traps come in loud and clear. High points to my ears arrive with Rempis’ pneumatic alto workout atop a shuffle groove on “Bus Stop Breakup” and the loose swinging baritone feature “Think Yellow” that turns caustic with the onset of the cinder-spraying “Half Again As Much.” A silk screen image of an antique diving helmet adorns the cover, apposite analogue to the trio’s penchant for submerging themselves in deep and extended improvisatory exploration.

As plentiful as the Utech output is thus far, don’t expect the release pace to slacken any time soon. A whole new batch including appetizing albums by the Steve Baczkowski & Ravi Padmanabha duo, Matana Roberts Quartet and Nate Wooley Trio are slated to drop in March. There’s certainly something to be said for shaving off fat of fancy packaging and bloated pressings and placing the consequent surplus back in the service of circulating even more music. It’s a business model that appears to be working and one that other label’s might consider copping. The only glaring downside: it forces listeners to either pony up posthaste or consign themselves to doing without.

~ Derek Taylor