Blimey, that is quite a weighty title for a post.  After a bit of a hiatus, there has been so much going on over at Smalltown Superjazzz (I do like the third z) in recent months, I need to get something written down just to help me take stock and make sense of it all.

Original Silence are an overwhelming noise combo featuring avant-rock and jazz royalty in Thurston Moore and Jim O’Rourke of/ex of Sonic Youth, and Paal Nilssen-Love and Mats Gustafsson of The Thing, as well as a few other miscreants and ne’er-do-wells from the likes of The Ex and Zu.  This sort of (de)composition will be increasingly familiar to fans of extra-curricular SY activity, but is definitely one of the more thrilling and visceral of such releases.  Waves of electronics batter a shore of feedback, with Gustaffson waving not drowning in an Ayler fashion (doesn’t read well that: I mean he is playing like Ayler, not drowning like him).  It all gels together surprisingly well, no-one dominating, and all involved sounding like they are having a blast.

The release by Cato Salsa Experience, The Thing and Joe McPhee (Two Bands and a Legend they have called it, which seems accurate, both arithmetically and otherwise) is a riotous and at times ridiculous release, a raggedy-arsed mixed-origin bastard begat of unforgiving free jazz and bluesy garage rock parents.  It even goes as far as to cover “Louie Louie”, something I thought we all had to stop doing some years ago, and doing something new with it i.e. inserting an abstract skronk middle section.  The Nilsen-Love / Gustafsson axis continues to be super-strong, adding Cato’s Sonny Sharrock shredded guitar and Joe McPhee’s powerful tenor makes it near invincible.

Gustafsson also turns up on a very different release – a curious rhythm-free duo record with Yoshimi of Boredoms fame.  Words On The Floor sees processed saxophone trickery weaving around Yoshimi’s reverberating coos and hollers.  When it is quiet, like on first track “Soundless Cries With Their Arms In The Air”, I find it a bit spooky; when they get going, all clicks and wails, I find it a bit scary.  In fact it makes me feel like I am being abducted by aliens, they are all pointing at me and talking in a strange language I don’t understand, and gesturing towards some sharp metal objects.

Buy one, two or three at Smalltown Superjazzz.  Although if you buy all three you should be asking for a bulk purchase discount, I reckon.