Featured Artist: Osorezan

Jazz CD cover CD Title: Mimidokodesuka

Year: Reissued in 2008 - Originally Released in 2006

Record Label: Drag City

Style: Free Jazz / Avante Garde

Musicians: Jim O'Rourke (guitar), Darin Gray (bass), Chris Corsano (drums, percussion)

Review:

Osorezan is not exactly a band per se, but a configuration of three musicians who routinely blur the distinctions between composition and improvisation, between rock, jazz, improvised music, and post-John Cage notated music. Guitarist Jim O’Rourke was a member of Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth and has engaged in free-improv with AMM drummer Eddie Prevost and Brit guitar icon Derek Bailey, as well as releasing albums of (believe it or not) very pretty pop/rock songs. Bassist Darin Gray has performed with bands Brise-Glace and On Fillmore and guitarist Loren Connors. Drummer Chris Corsano has a recurring duo-improv setup with saxophonist Paul Flaherty and has played with Bjork and maxi-versatile guitarist Nels Cline.

Consisting of three lengthy improvisations (presumably), Mimidokodesuka (previously released in Japan) is a study in contrasts: judicious sustained feedback, undulating guitar motifs, rolling-thunder drumming, subterranean bass lines, scrapes and rattles, pregnant silences, and sonic storms evoking Neil Young, Derek Bailey, and the late great Sonny Sharrock. Depending on one’s frame of reference (or mood), this disc may be provocative and cathartic and/or perplexing, frustrating and nerve-wracking. If this were the 1960s, this disc would be released on the ESP-Disk label. Those craving the unnamable, the surreal, the purposefully noisy, and unfettered freedom are advised to investigate this platter forthwith.



Record Label Website: http://www.dragcity.com

Reviewed by: Mark Keresman

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