In their respective solo practices, Jon Colpitts and Greg Fox have proven their aptitudes as percussionists. Colpitts bashes out tightly wound maximalizations as Kid Millions, while Fox radically augments the possibilities with Sensory Percussion software to push a sound honed in metal and jazz groups into a new dimension.
Both seasoned collaborators and ensemble performers, there is no denying the sense of unity between the players as they locked into each other to bash out sprawling mind-benders on the pair of album-side-length explorations that constituted their first effort, Lost Time, but if the duo's physicality lost some of its impact in those extended grooves, on Biting Through, they've struck an economical balance between brute ecstasy and aesthetic wanderlust, curating six abbreviated takes from live recording sessions mostly clocking in around the six-minute mark.
Each track explores a different idea Colpitts and Fox cooked up just moments before Fox set up his modular unit and the pair blasted off; these leaner offerings demand martial efficiency, and for the most part, they achieve this by forfeiting virtuosity, trading hypnotically conversational rolls and fills while Fox's synthesizer evokes a data rain in the opening title track or taking swing far out and sideways ("Wealth"). "Nine Years of Facing a Wall," the shortest track on offer at half the tracks' standard lengths, leans into a raga drone for the cyber sphere, one pushing the chime along with an enthusiastic kick while the other improvises all over it.
The duo hits a riveting collaborative stride in this mode of functional tension and nervous energy, even the briefest rushing indulgence of a restless impulse delighting in spades. There's no exhibitionism happening here, just raw muscular drama.
(Thrill Jockey)Both seasoned collaborators and ensemble performers, there is no denying the sense of unity between the players as they locked into each other to bash out sprawling mind-benders on the pair of album-side-length explorations that constituted their first effort, Lost Time, but if the duo's physicality lost some of its impact in those extended grooves, on Biting Through, they've struck an economical balance between brute ecstasy and aesthetic wanderlust, curating six abbreviated takes from live recording sessions mostly clocking in around the six-minute mark.
Each track explores a different idea Colpitts and Fox cooked up just moments before Fox set up his modular unit and the pair blasted off; these leaner offerings demand martial efficiency, and for the most part, they achieve this by forfeiting virtuosity, trading hypnotically conversational rolls and fills while Fox's synthesizer evokes a data rain in the opening title track or taking swing far out and sideways ("Wealth"). "Nine Years of Facing a Wall," the shortest track on offer at half the tracks' standard lengths, leans into a raga drone for the cyber sphere, one pushing the chime along with an enthusiastic kick while the other improvises all over it.
The duo hits a riveting collaborative stride in this mode of functional tension and nervous energy, even the briefest rushing indulgence of a restless impulse delighting in spades. There's no exhibitionism happening here, just raw muscular drama.
