Location Location Location is the name of a new band and yet another story of musicians forced by worldwide contagion to make a record together remotely. Yet, such a hurdle didn’t seem at all to affect bassist Michael Formanek, guitarist Anthony Pirog and drummer Mike Pride. Technology made the recording sessions possible, but it was up to the advanced acuity and unerring instincts of these guys to make it a recording well worth making.
And it is. Damaged Goods (Cuneiform Records) brings together – in spirit, anyway – three of the more daring musicians of instrumental music today. Even though two of these three have yet to meet in person, if you know anything about them, you would have high expectations for this album, and they’ve managed to exceed them.
They likely didn’t go into this intending to make a record of a certain style or genre, but their instincts led them down paths often taken by practitioners of prog rock, out-jazz, electronic experimental and improvised music. It’s challenging music that also feels loose and natural. It demands to be heard with intent, not in the background.
“Branch, Breezy” with its guitar atmospherics and lively drumming is a bit evocative of David Torn’s Sun of Goldfinger, but Pride puts his own stamp on it with an undeniable swing. Formanek sounds as close to Miroslav Vitous as he’s probably ever been, suggesting the early Weather Report import of this piece. In all, it’s downright mind-blowing to think this recording wasn’t made with all three in the same room at the same time because there’s so much give-and-take and collective spontaneity heard on it (as with the rest of the record). They put an exclamation point on the performance with a guitar blizzard that hangs in the air for several seconds after the last note is played.
Formanek’s progressive rocker “Verdigris” features him on electric bass and he joins Pride in a durable rhythm unit by which Pride provides the muscle behind Pirog’s melodic lines. “Trap Door” is similarly in an instrumental rock vein, except that here Pirog goes off the chain with a buzzy, acidic guitar.
Pirog’s synth and Formanek’s electric bass sync closely for the serpentine lines of “Ground Zero” as Pride goes off untethered. For “Drips,” it’s Pride who switches instruments, opting for marimba that closely follows Pirog’s patterns on guitar.
Pride’s dauntless “79 Beatdowns” sees Formanek playing bass both arco and pizzicato, which isn’t all that unusual except that he’s dubbed in these parts over each other and makes it fit in a shifting setting that’s touch and go from start to finish. Pirog basically sets the beat for “Apperception,” freeing up Pride to give the song a strong kick in the pants.
Even among these bunch of tracks, the creativity of “Damaged Goods,” the song, stands out. It’s a single-chord song but has so much going on at once, it invites several listens to sort out. That starts with Formanek’s looped guitar, with Pirog’s pedal-driven attack coming from all directions and Pride’s driving and dynamic rhythms.
Location Location Location’s Damaged Goods is the kind of inspired music that comes from ace musicians getting together in a studio and jamming with everything they’ve got. That’s not exactly how this record was made, but you can’t argue with the results.
Snag a copy now from Bandcamp.
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