Mastica

Coming from sideways, backwards, forwards and beyond, this Austin, TX, collective comprised of members of Critters Buggin', King Crimson and Alejandro Escovedo's band (and then some) attempted to create some songs and in the midst of it all abandoned structure and instead replaced conformity with surreal Eraserhead-like improvisations. Captured mostly in a live setting, the pieces within the disc contain a masterful blend of jazz, funk and experimental textures propelled and neatly mangled further into the twilight zone by Pro Tools master Bill Munyon. The grooves stamped on this disc are moments zoomed in on from the 19th to 24th centuries, like a rainforest of tribal and electronic sonic botany and sociology. One might hear insects cooking in the hot sun, rambling voices from misfired neurons and Valkyries shrieking from an electrical socket. Mastica are definitely on the forefront of music, where they take the world and its cultural sounds and saturate it to the point of making it implode into another universe.