Half Notes: Anti-Social Music – Is The Future Of Everything (2011)

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photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

Last year, the outlaw chamber music cooperative Anti-Social Music did something that was out of the ordinary for a democratic cooperative and presented songs only by of its thirteen members, Pat Muchmore. But there has never been anything ordinary about ASM to begin with. In one sense, you can call Is The Future Of Everything, released April 19, a return to what qualifies as normalcy for this bunch: suites and some assorted stand-alone songs well-suited for an orchestra conducted by Frank Zappa. But what this album so vividly demonstrates is that the realm of whack classical is a vast territory. From the measured minimalism of Brad Kemp’s “The Game #2” to the sometimes-dense “Apparitions of the Industrial Wasteland” by Dan Lasaga and the avant opera of the “Bitter Suite” suite by Kamla Sankaram, ASM covers all the bases you didn’t even know existed. Mostly, they put forth each piece in bite-size chunks and personally I like the change in direction every few minutes. Of course, these guys do this for fun, apart from their regular gigs (Gutbucket’s Ken Thomson represents with “Rut”), and with a winking sense of humor, such as the hilariously clever “Correction” by David Durst.

The downside? Only one Muchmore song this time. Oh, wait. Correction: the rest of these guys can compose, too.

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Half Notes is a quick-take music feature on Something Else! Reviews, presented whenever the mood strikes us.

S. Victor Aaron