the excusable earthling 12"
[2007, pendu sound]

talibam!, at their core, consists of drummer kevin shea, most notable, outside of this group, for being in math-rockers storm & stress. he was (is?) in coptic light (with members of antioch arrow and don cab) and is also in people with brooklyn staple mary halvorson. the other member of talibam! is synthesizerer matt mottel. matt's additionally in shadowmaps and syntony. they've also employed the guitar services of matthu stull and, for this record, they were joined by ed bear, who handled the tapes, baritone sax and, the somewhat cryptic, electronics. irrelevant side note: project ed bear is a volunteer organization dedicated to providing comforts and needs for pediatric oncology patients in northeast ohio.

free improvisation. its merits are debatable. at its least compelling, it just comes across as pointless meandering and rather self-indulgent. the thing about it though, is that it offers a voyeuristic glimpse into the creative process and those spontaneous moments of brilliance that can arise out of that meandering is what really makes it worthwhile. the two seventeen minute long tracks which comprise the excusable earthling provide such payoffs, you just need to be a little patient.
explosive soul starts us off in familiar free-whathaveyou territory; build-up. there's occasional drum hits, random synth blurts and strange sounding electronics, but that's really all. musically, it seems like they're cautiously testing the waters while avoiding rhythm like it had aids. after a few minutes into it i started up an esoteric inner monologue about how something like this, which completely eschews traditional musical structure, is far less musical than harsh noise despite the fact that it contains some actual musical instruments, not just a bunch of ways to manipulate sound. at least with noise, more often than not, i find repetition, which is, truly, the foundation of music. pop songs are that because they're catchy. they're catchy because of repetition, in one form or another. here, there are three distinct entities which seemingly work against each other. if you're familiar with the barbaric technique of quartering, it's kind of like... but 33 and 1/3'ing, i'd imagine. one thing that this approach does provide is the ability to pick and choose which aspect you want to hone in on, which can drastically change the whole feel of the track; with each element being unique and not necessarily working in unison with the others. as soul progresses, it will touch on periods where at least someone will manage to form a pattern with their sound and it's awesome. most of the time that comes by way of mottel's lead, but when kevin joins him (say, at around the eight minute mark) it's a wonderful thing. they'll spend so much time creating this air of anticipation that when it comes, no matter how small it is, you want to wholly embrace it. the a side gives us quite a few of these smaller moments. sometimes the interplay is between synth and drums, other times it's matt and ed, sometimes it's just the synthesizer. the point is that, more often than not, they'll throw us the proverbial bone and it's well worth the wait.
in comparison to side b's one way foot, it's hard not to view explosive soul as a tease. this piece manages to be both more avant-garde and more accessible than its predecessor, which to me equals perfection. it begins sort of how i wished corsano, flaherty and yeh's a rock in the snow was with minimal percussion, slow sax drones and then synth; obviously swapping out spencer's noise for the synthesizer, though. i dig this a lot more. it soon becomes all about mottel's great fucking synth leads. ed does a great job of backing him up with complimentary noises, and shea lays down some terrific percussion, but matt's synth is the highlight for me. at times it sounds like the soundtrack to what i could only imagine would've been the craziest nintendo game ever. right before ten minutes, matt and kevin will get into one of those great psychic connections where they're both in the zone with each other and it's times like this that i'm really in awe of what talibam! is capable of. when it seems like they could just click and get into a jamming groove at the drop of a dime after spending maybe ten minutes doing their own things individually is impressive. after reaching a great height, they'll spend the final third of the track on really subdued sax, percussion and synthesized piano, which is lovely, and occasionally memorable.

dope record, for sure. i'm not going to post any audio clips this time because a) you can stream full-length versions of both sides on talibam!'s last.fm page and b) because you can download this at the stabbed in the face blog. todd, who put out the record, doesn't seem too concerned with the fact that it's freely available since he posted: "after you download a copy, you should buy one from pendu sound recordings at pendu sound... talibam! will appreciate it. cheers!", in case you have weird internet guilt. not sure about the other links, since it was upped on sharebee, but the mega upload option is still active.

Talibam! @ Black and White Gallery; Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 2/08/07

this is fantastic! good job.

glad you dig it, too. thanks man!