THE DEAL: Charlotte experimental, instrumental jazz collective Great Architect releases its second full-length album.
THE GOOD: The album opens up with the scattershot “Cat Part Home for Albert,” a disjointed piece of deconstructed art that sounds like the group is simultaneously warming up for and concluding a song. From there it launches the frantic “Musth” — bouncing between quick and drawn-out sax yawns and frantic guitar-picking against a backdrop of cymbal-tapping. “Fright Flight” fits the name thanks to a high-pitched squeal laying behind the cymbals and guitar stretching in front. “Ocean” builds like a crashing wave before taking the listener under the water for a bit of repetitive jazz playfulness down in the depths. “Pageturner” kicks off with a traditional-sounding jazz riff before being taken apart and slowed down … then the pages turn and the pace picks back up into more haphazard territory. The album closes with the sparse and lonesome “Lonely Aviatrix.” There’s a lot more going on than first meets the ear. If these guys were just out to make noise, every song would sound the same.
The Bad: There are moments that teeter between “there are so many intricate layers here” and “what the fuck was that?”
The Verdict: It’s best suited for a bit of in-depth listening rather than something you’d let play in the background or while driving. These guys don’t just break out of the box — they found a jar, barrel and plastic containers and smashed the shit out of them, too.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2011.
