Preston Peace
4/10/2024
12-inch, A Library
Free improv without the skronk: The trio of Raven Chacon, John Dieterich (of Deerhoof), and Marshall Trammell improvised these two side-long pieces in 2019 in New Mexico. Electronics, guitar and drums warble, squeal, rumble, stutter and bounce across the 21 minutes of each side of the record. Deftly navigating between frenzy and restraint for the duration, each side has its own character.
Side A is full-bore out of the gate, with all players contributing. It tends noisier, the guitar more dense, the stop-start drumming using the whole kit, and the electronics ranging from high pitched screeches to more modulated tones. It ends in a slow descent, electronics and guitars crackling, rumbling and sawing towards its end.
Side B starts more sparsely, almost a minute of bent guitar before the other players join in. It’s warbling, menacing, paranoid. Electronics come to the forefront, with the guitar more atmospheric than on the A-side. An astonishing moment occurs just before the 8 minute mark: the abstract electronics settle into a melody, the guitar sounding more like a krautrock bassline, and Chacon and Dieterich ride this synchronicity atop Trammell’s percussive whirlwind before it breaks apart less than a minute later.
After working up to a frenzied peak, the b-side decays and fizzles out to near-silence for the last two minutes, the guitar almost entirely absent, the electronics caught in a decaying loop, dominated by a quietly hectic cymbal (and bass drum) workout.
The title and sleeve art provide a suggestion of a political statement, more mystery than manifesto. Who are the “them” of the title? When, and where, were they killed? The A-side runout elaborates slightly: “White people killed them all”. To this reviewer, the US’s treatment of Indigenous peoples came to mind. Draw your own conclusions.