Dusted

sonic openings under pressure – muhheankuntuk

Jason Bivins
July 17,, 2007

sonic openings under pressure is the apt moniker chosen by alto saxophonist patrick brennan, bassist Hilliard Greene, and David Pleasant (credited with an amalgam of percussion, harmonica, and voice referred to as densemetriX). Their sophomore release is called muhheankuntuk (Clean Feed 081), or River that Flows Two Ways. Most listeners hear brennan’s playing and think quickly of Ornette or Lyons. Sure, that’s accurate. But there’s also this really intensely subtle rhythmic sensibility that reminds me of a cross between the late Thomas Chapin’s darting angularity and patient architecture of Rob Brown. It’s a style that works really well with the kind of dense interlocking cell structures that Greene and Pleasant whip up on tunes like tilting curvaceous. On a lot of these tunes (like the intensely rolling abundant), Greene sets up a wide-open pulse that recalls some of William Parker’s intervals or arpeggiating. On top Pleasant rolls and piles up (often with sweet timbres that recalls Paul Lovens), while brennan inspects and dissects motives very interestingly. The standout track is the terrible 3s, though I also really dig the warbling lyricism, sour blues, and haunted abstraction on flash of the spirit (I should also say that the vocal “rap” on The Hardships is entirely forgettable).