GORGE TRIO - OPEN MOUTH, O WISP

I’ve just listened to Open Mouth, O Wisp, the latest release from Gorge Trio (Skin Graft Records), and I’m still in shock a bit. This power trio (comprised of members of Deerhoof, Sicbay, The Flying Luttenbachers, and Colossamite) have managed to take an already splintered approach to making music, and shatter it even further.
Opening with a piano arrangement that\'s as playful and precarious as a child in a 1981 Sesame Street skit, Open Mouth... quickly rambles into the random. Jumbles of guitar and drum strip and stir over each other. Samples and effects step in to round out the musical scenery. The pacing becomes furious, and the listener is soon engulfed in a bottomless well of sound. At times quiet and wistful, these 22 tracks play like random noise in the open city air. Long periods of silence are sporadically broken with jabbing bird call riffs and collapsing high-rise thuds. Minutes of calm, experimental buildup are suddenly derailed by sparse moments of a more tangible, not-so-broken harmony.
Soothing and mind-grinding all at once, this album plays less like a rock LP, and more like a brand-new take on free jazz. A thorough listen to Gorge Trio brings the title track of Miles Davis\' Bitches Brew to mind, just because so much of this album involves a methodical rise of the music in one direction, only to be demolished and start up again on a brand-new path. Add to that the softly tongued closing track, featuring the cooing moans of Deerhoof singer Satomi Matsuzaki (the only vocals on the whole album), and you’re totally left wondering exactly what you just listened to. At the same time, you just can’t wait to press \"Play\" and do it all over again.