R.B.G. by Bad Luck

From the album

Album Title: Four
Label: Origin Records
Released: 2018

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Fiona's Comments

For acquired tastes, those baying for blood or anyone entertained by the death cry of angry elephants. Dark, arid and unhinged.

About the Album

Bad Luck performs in another cosmos from most bands. Emerging out of more than a decade of collaboration, the new album Four "bears down on you like a cyclone of fire" (The Stranger) and is a genre-defying supernova of electronics, hip hop, metal, folk and jazz. Saxophone/electronics player Neil Welch and drummer Chris Icasiano met ten years ago as jazz students at the University of Washington and built a friendship as they discovered free improvisation together. Or, as Welch puts it, they "collectively destroyed the fabric of their musical identities by slamming their instruments like a hammer on an anvil." The two spent years making epic long-form compositions (and three albums) in the tradition of free jazz legends like John Coltrane. Their new album, Four, recorded at Avast Studios with Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Earth, Marissa Nadler) slams the epic energy of those free improvisations into shorter, rhythmic forms. Welch screams and breathes into his horn, acoustically creates chords, and uses electronics more familiar to guitar players. Icasiano does things that seem impossible with four drumsticks at once. The music has been electrifying audiences in Seattle at packed shows. Bad Luck Four is a big album ready for a big stage.

Track Listing

Four; R.B.G.; Index; Capital; Bends; Big Sky.

Personnel

Bad Luck

Additional Personnel

Neil Welch: saxophone, live electronics; Christopher Icasiano: drums.

Reviews

Four by Ian Gwin

Date featured

July 25, 2018

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It is for personal use only; no other rights are granted or implied.