(d)(b)(h)

*100 copies limited edition* "Like the early work of fellow Midwestern experimentalists Raccoo-oo-oon, there's a calming franticness in the work of (D)(B)(H), an ever-changing group whose sound is constantly evolving. (D)(B)(H)'s "Bad For Business," captured live summer 2010, features a quartet taking the entire 21-minute side to sculpt a piece that rests somewhere between free jazz and non-idiomatic improv. The result is not unlike what the AACM captured in its 1966 'Little Suite' or what The Blue Denim Deals Without the Arms were doing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the mid-to-late 1970's. (D)(B)(H) pulls it off with updated technology/anti-technology that includes Marty Belcher's anxious saxophone, Justin Clifford Rhody's peeved trumpet, Daniel Wick's small-instrument percussion, Kray Korvela's cultivated tapes, and other sounds that include guttural coaxings from metal objects and a prepared guitar which, at one point, sounds like there's a metal rod sandwiched between the strings." - Steve Jansen

"The side long improvisation from (D)(B)(H) – “Bad for Business” – illustrates improvisation predicated on listening and emulation as much as it highlights ingenuity and performance. The instrumentation blends together as much as it stands on its own, at times the saxophones and guitars are intertwined in sustain so that it’s hard to discern feedback from howl. Yet there are moments of certainty wherein each instrument executes its known characteristics. The pace of the piece revolves around the transference of ideas between players, which come and go, entertained and forgotten at a leisurely rate. This is not to say the piece is without intensity, while silence and restraint are employed by all performers so are noise and abandon. There is an overall quality to this recording of finding or creating a language. There is as much frustration in the performance as there is elation. The balance between these two elements makes for an engaging listen." - Foxy Digitalis