Search - Denison/Kimball Trio, Ken Vandermark :: Neutrons

The Jesus Lizard's Duane Denison and Mule's Jim Kimball framed themselves as the foundation on which an instrumental trio would be built for certain occasions, such as making an album. For Neutrons they enlisted volcanic Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark as their playmate. The trio does a splendid job crashing against the wall that separates postpunk from such distant relatives as post-1970s jazz. Their tunes are great mixes of rhythmic turbulence, experimental sound play, deconstructed jazz-rock, and more. It's got all the intense fire of Denison's band, with a whole heap of instrumental depth added. At first pass, it might look, feel, and work like jazz--with lots of improvisation--but after a while, Neutrons settles in as a potent post-rock document that yanks in many directions. --Andrew Bartlett