feature photo: Ernest Stuart
It took a decade, but the talented, fanciful trombonist Jacob Garchik has managed to put forth a worthy successor to a project that achieved its great ambition and potential. Ye Olde (2015) is a wild, fantasy fusion record we dubbed an “uncommon record that’s both highly creative and highly fun.”
The sequel to that opus is now here. Ye Olde 2, At The End of Time is a re-convening of an all-star band the makeup of which in itself signals wild ambition: ace drummer Vinnie Sperrazza, a mind boggling three-guitar lineup of Mary Halvorson, Brandon Seabrook and Jonathan Goldberger and Garchik himself as the lone horn player.
It’s hard for those who are not hardcore sci-fi fans like Garchik to wrap their heads around the premise made around these set of songs. Things like, our merry 3-guitar trombone-led band lurch forward 100 billion years from medieval times in Brooklyn to battle regenerated version of them in a time when the universe contracted to a single point and all lives ever lived are brought to life again a simulated floating vessel, or “brain.” This might be even more fantastical than the idea of a Flatbush in the Middle Ages where today’s blighted apartment buildings were first designed and built with malevolent intent. So what? Like that first storyline, you don’t have to buy the new one in the least to appreciate the music inspired by it.
The storyline I think of is some of the most daring, peculiar and resourceful guitarists thriving on the fringes of jazz joining forces with Garchik and Sperrazza to do battle against boring, run-of-the-mill music, period, never mind against fictional characters existing on another plane of existence. That — by the way — is the plot device behind the charged big surprise of the album which we’ll touch on later.
The guitars take turns making short remarks revealing their particular personalities as they climb up an ascending scale for “One Can Only Go Up,” and Garchik’s multi-tracked trombone undertake the primary harmonic lines. Halvorson gets the honors for the torrid guitar solo, playing with the abandon of a child running around with scissors. “Transcending Time” looked to be taking a respite from the energy expended on “Up,” but with the slower tempo the heavy chords eventually came. Garchik’s electronically-enhanced horn bellows out to keep up with the trio of shredders during those moments of release.
To go along with theories of physics are mathematics, as in the trigonometric harmonic/rhythmic union on display for “Eho Microbiology,” also boasting scalding excursions by Seabrook and Goldberger. Aerial, arpeggiated chords pace “Dyson Sphere,” leaving lead parts exposed and Halvorson answers the call with an otherworldly aside that perfectly aligns with the vibe.
“Omega Point” is where Garchik throws in an extra wrinkle in the form of a reincarnated form of the band, where the leader remains but Sperrazza is replaced on drums by Josh Dion and the guitar trio is a new murderer’s row in Ava Mendoza, Miles Okazaki and Sean Moran. The former two take the solos here, starting with the Okazaki peppering the descending pattern with jazzy lines and Mendoza later rocking hard with swagger, eager to do battle with the other band on the very next song.
The final showdown takes place on “Ye Olde vs Simularus”, where Garchik leads a combined band of nine. One guitar sets a single-note pulse joined in by more as the climactic scene is an exchange between Moran and Goldberger. Garchik’s overdubbed trombones expand this already-voluminous band beyond a nonet but he makes good use of the layering opportunities at his disposal and the battle sounds dramatic and dense but not messy.
Returning back to the original quintet, “Floating Brain” is a hovering drone of strummed guitars while Sperrazza metes out haymakers. Garchik’s lead lines eventually gets drowned out from the drone that’s now massed together and turned into a howl, ending suddenly and leaving behind the nothingness that remains in the end of the story’s time line.
Jacob Garchik’s sci-fi story might seem absurd to some reading his liner notes but he brilliantly uses it as an inspiration to make a cohesive sets of songs and arrangements that elevates it above genre and the time in which it was made. Moreover, it’s a serious oeuvre of music from a serious band that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Ye Olde 2, At The End of Time is a fun listen in spite of its complexity because you can feel the fun that apparently went into playing it.
Pre-order/order Ye Olde 2, At The End of Time from Bandcamp.
*** Jacob Garchik CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
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