.Rob Mazurek

• .Sounds:1
• .Pigments:2
• .Multimedias:3
• .Words:4
• .Bio:5
• .Contacts:6
• .Links:7

As helmsman of the Chicago Underground Orchestra and its various subdivisions, cornetist Rob Mazurek has issued his share of challenging statements -- but rarely anything as willfully inscrutable as this. Equal parts solo cornet recital (à la Bill Dixon) and laptop odyssey (à la Jim O'Rourke), Silver Spines stands as a monument to pure sound, divested of referent or clear function. Results vary, as Mazurek's horn stutters, staggers and chirps its way through a range of digital soundscapes. On "For, Love (No Burst in Beginning)," he's blowing bubbles; "Metal Monsters Never Fail Me Now" (featuring engineer Casey Rice on said metal monster) seems filtered through broken glass. Another grim episode, "Haphazard Half Hazardous ," literally sounds like some sort of dental procedure. But all is not noise here, or rather, some of the noise serves a profound and captivating purpose. At times Mazurek plays with the sort of fragile lyricism associated with Miles Davis (although his closer antecedent in this vein is Don Cherry). And some of Mazurek's musique concrete experiments are gems, conveying an almost cinematic drama (he dedicates a track to Stanley Kubrick, fittingly enough). There are enough such bright and unexpected moments to protect Spines from its own pretensions. The album yields new discoveries with each repeated listening.

- Nate Chinen