Ches Smith - Laugh Ash (2024) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Smith’s new album, Laugh Ash, is perhaps his most startling and remarkable to date, a breathtakingly original set of music whose touchstones are myriad but ultimately meaningless in the face of an inventive and stunningly unfamiliar expression. Due out February 2, 2024 via Pyroclastic Records, the album makes thrilling use of disorientation and juxtaposition: starkly beautiful chamber melodies coexist with synthetic rhythms, explosive bursts of improvisation with elusive song forms, austere ambience with thundering complexity. Eclectic, undoubtedly, but in a paradoxical way that is defiantly cohesive while never losing sight of the fact that none of it should be.

"Xiu Xiu, John Zorn, Mr. Bungle, Kris Davis, Terry Riley, Carla Bozulich, Wadada Leo Smith—these are just some of the artists that drummer and composer Ches Smith has played with. Like Zorn and Mr. Bungle, Smith employs striking stylistic gear shifts on his 2024 release, Laugh Ash—often in a single composition. Zorn is well-known for postmodern pastiches that smash genres together, creating thrillingly harsh and, at times, comical juxtapositions. Smith's pieces work in a different way; his transitions might surprise, but they don't have the jump-cut quality of Zorn's mash-ups. The music here has a sense of cohesive flow and a distinctive vibe that's brought to life by a top-notch ten-person ensemble.

Smith has frequently played in jazz contexts, but don't look for a lot of jazz drumming on the album. Instead, prog, funk, and dance beats (at times electronic), whose directness nicely contrasts with the often-thorny arrangements, predominate. On "The Most Fucked," Smith also incorporates clattering Carribean/African rhythms.

Vocalist Shara Lunon handles the tricky melodies on Laugh Ash with great aplomb, and her talk-singing on "Minimalism" and "Sweatered Webs (Hey Mom)" recalls old-school hip-hop. "Winter Sprung" opens with tubular bells before Lunon intones an imagistic poem addressing climate change. (Lunon wrote the poem as well as the album's lyrics.) Each utterance precisely plays off of slippery strings, Anna Webber's darting flute, and resonant melodic percussion. The piece's second section glows with the hope of early morning light, while the last part features insistent patterns that create a sense of mystery.

On the closer, "Exit Shivers," glissando strings and ominous bass generate a threatening atmosphere before the piece moves to a more open space that retains a muted sense of dread. In one striking passage, the ensemble (including Oscar Noriega's supple clarinet) rides Smith's excellent drumming, before a brief but lovely string passage caps the track and the album."

Shara Lunon - voice and vocal processing
Anna Webber - flute
Oscar Noriega - clarinets
James Brandon Lewis - tenor saxophone
Nate Wooley - trumpet
Jennifer Choi - violin
Kyle Armbrust - viola
Michael Nicolas - cello
Shahzad Ismaily - bass and keyboards
Ches Smith - electronics, programming, vibes, drums, tubular bells, glockenspiel, timpani, tam tam, metal percussion

Tracklist:
01 - Minimalism
02 - Remote Convivial
03 - Sweatered Webs (Hey Mom)
04 - Shaken, Stirred Silence
05 - The Most Fucked
06 - Winter Sprung
07 - Disco Inferred
08 - Unyielding Daydream Welding
09 - Exit Shivers


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