Agents At Midnight

2006 release ** "Agents at Midnight, eh? Sounds like the kind of film noir title Barry Adamson might like. But the music doesn't: it's a collection of raw, powerful improvisations for saxophone (Chang) and electronics (and harmonica) (Howard), a fine example of how the fences that used to separate Noise and Improv have been bulldozed into the dirt by the younguns across the pond (and a few of them here in Europe too). Chang's playing – alto sax, is it? not always easy to tell for sure – is rough and gritty, recalling at times early John Zorn. But there are none of the Kartoon Komedy Kapers that characterized old chestnuts like In Memory of Nikki Arane. This is more Sun City Girls than Sin City, a kind of field recording from another planet, and despite Howard's noble attempts to hurl him bellfirst into a septic tank of noisy sludge it's clear Chang can actually play the horn, and isn't averse to a spot of melody from time to time (though not the kind of melody your granny could dig sitting in her retirement home with the stuffed pussycat). Imagine John Klemmer ca. 1973 jamming with Wolf Eyes. You can't? Well you need to hear this then."