Triumphal new CD, the first new recordings in an age, from one of the greatest bands on the goddamn planet, the trio of saxophonists Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich and guitarist Donald Miller aka Borbetomagus: this is a roof-raising performance, recorded live at Instants Chavires, France, 19th December 2009. Borbetomagus combine the elevated amplifier violence of Jimi Hendrix at his most combustible with the spontaneous free music polyphony of Ascension-era Coltrane and the ‘guitar smashing’ histrionics of prime Merzbow. Here the Sauter-Dietrich tag-team move into the kind of ululating glossolalia of the Albert Ayler Orchestra at their most white light-gargling, with leery tongues of spit and fire bleeding all over Miller’s six tortured strings. Miller remains one of the most singular guitarists of the age. Ostensibly working in the ‘table-top’ style made infamous by AMM’s Keith Rowe, Miller’s style has little to nothing to do with Rowe’s interrogative approach. Miller tortures the guitar to the point of exhaustion: it’s flat on its back for a reason.
Right now, to these demented ears, Trente Belles Annees feels like the apex of a certain stream of high-energy free music that runs from Coltrane/Velvets/Hendrix through to Japanese noise and American avant garage and it’s also one of the best sounding Borbetomagus recordings in an age, with the kinda violent fidelity that allows you to get your head all the way inside the bells of the horns. God bless Borbetomagus: very highly recommended! (Volcanic Tongue)
