When musical worlds collide, spectacularly explosive things can happen. Both multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter and drummer Federico Ughi have been fixtures in New York’s Downtown scene for decades and have collaborated since 2001. At the urging of Ughi, he and Carter brought in accomplished veterans for the arenas of hip-hop and Euro-pop to form a band that was sure to shake at the foundations of their core artistry. Tobias Wilner who leads the electronic dream pop collective Blue Foundation and Wu-Tang Clan’s bass player Djibril Toure serve as the disrupters to a world built on organic improvisation.
New York United is the 2016 documented product of this unlikely collaboration and also the name of this band, which has continued to perform, owing to the propriety of this idea that justifies its continuation beyond a ‘one-off’ project. But now, people beyond those who have attended their live shows will get to partake in this intriguing alchemy.
With the group conjuring up songs while in the studio and Wilner adding electronica touches during the mixing phase, New York United is that balance between the unpredictable and the mulled over, the line between live performance and dreamy, electronic production values being completely blurred.
Carter’s muted trumpet grounds the synth-beat jams with Miles-like lyricism for “Canal Street” and “125th Street” but Wilner’s clinical rhythms provide the opening for Ughi to open up and widen his scope on the latter tune. When “125th” descends into ambience, an unmuted Carter leads in the mood downshift.
The lonely saxophone of Carter set against the barren industrial backdrop of “Nostrand Ave” strongly recalls the David Torn’s Prezens post-production dice-up of live performances. But the song evolves, a bubbling organ pattern and jungle percussion emerging from the mist while Carter’s tenor still continuing its diction. As the track enters into other phases, leftovers from the prior phase remains in place, retaining some sense of continuity. Carter’s sax is temporarily replaced by a flute and by the time he returns back to the sax, we’re back to a barren sound terrain similar to where we started.
“Flatbush Ave” is the only radio length cut, edging into EDM territory but with enough organic ingredients retained to make it artistically interesting.
“East Flatbush,” is a bonus track for the digital version, a sprawling, avant space jazz number which resembles what a Herbie Hancock Mwandishi band track might sound like if recorded in the present day. Like “Flatbush Ave” the electronica aspects of it dominate at first, gradually giving way to the handmade components until it turns into virtually a Ughi/Carter (on flute) one-on-one affair; it’s probably Ughi’s best moment of the record because it’s the right combination of power and poise. Toure’s bass is later heard constructing a wandering groove around Ughi’s rhythms.
New York United is slated for release both digitally and vinyl-ly February 8 2019 by 577 Records.
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