Binker Golding and
Moses Boyd introduced themselves as a duo with 2015's award-winning
Dem Ones. They followed with the double-length
Journey to the Mountain of Forever in 2017, which showcased the duo as part of a sextet with saxophonist
Evan Parker, drummer
Yusef Dayes, trumpeter
Byron Wallen, and harpist
Tori Handsley. Two live offerings --
Alive in the East? and
Escape the Flames -- followed before the duo went on informal hiatus to concentrate on their own projects.
Feeding the Machine reflects a restless group persona. They've enlisted
Max Luthert on live loops and electronics. While that may seem unconventional (their earlier albums are rooted in analog aesthetics and technologies),
Luthert's contribution enhances their improvised sound immeasurably.
At over 11 minutes, opener "Asynchronous Intervals" offers evidence of the music-making process as organic and immediate at the same time.
Luthert builds out of and onto the duo's core sounds, offering modular reconfigurations of the tenor saxophone that are gauzily ethereal.
Golding emerges minimally, layering looped melodies on top of one another. When
Boyd joins him, it's with warm, rounded tom-toms and stark kick drums. As his rolls and fills become more pronounced,
Golding starts moaning and wailing through the horn and the track lifts off into focused cacophony. Cymbals, snares, and kick drums introduce "Accelerometer Overdose," framing
Golding's halting low register on tenor. He leans into
Luthert's loops and reverb, then unspools a circular, multi-layered vamp onto which
Boyd grafts hip-hop and rock rhythms. Halfway through, it becomes an anthemic exercise amid squalling harmonics and deeply funky polyrhythms. On "Feed Infinite,'' it's almost impossible to identify the sound coming from
Golding's horn as a saxophone.
Boyd moves underneath it, adding jagged trap beats and instinctive syncopation, and
Golding unfurls an exotic melody in layered loops one phrase at a time.
Boyd's masterful drumming takes center stage as
Golding frames it in glorious melodic invention. "After the Machine Settles" emerges with muted electronics -- dubby, glitchy, and jittery.
Golding enters at full power. He criss-crosses blues, post-bop, and free jazz, then circles back as
Boyd begins dropping massive funk vamps and breaks. Closer "Because Because" finds
Golding's tenor sounding like a distant foghorn. He wedges in a sonorous soprano horn as
Luthert manipulates the bridge that their harmony creates.
Boyd dances across his snares with his fluttering circular brushwork adding movement, space, and texture. Here, the group sounds like
Jon Hassell in trio with
John Coltrane and
Burial.
Feeding the Machine is a giant leap forward. The focus on deeply intuitive, sophisticated improvisation integrated with
Luthert's instinctive, tasteful electronics is welcoming, adventurous, and abundantly creative. ~ Thom Jurek