Feeding the Machine (Gearbox)
Binker & Moses
Released February 25, 2022
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2022
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About:
After some years spent roaming the Valley of the Ultrablacks and exploring the Mountain of Forever, (where they narrowly avoided the lethal traps of The Voice of Besbunu), Binker and Moses are back with a new offering.
‘Feeding The Machine’ is their first studio album in five years, due for release on February 25th on all formats. Recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios by legendary, GRAMMY-winning producer Hugh Padgham, the new record features honorary third member Max Luthert on tape loops and electronics, moving their sound into an entirely new dimension that crosses into ambient, minimalism and experimental electronic territories.
With the use of modular synths and sampling, traditional melody and song structures are left behind as the musicians are pushed creatively to respond and in turn, ‘feed the machine’.
Track Listing:
1. Asynchronous Intervals (Moses Boyd / Binker Golding / Max Luthert) 11:14
2. Active-Multiple-Fetish-Overlord (Moses Boyd / Binker Golding / Max Luthert) 03:33
3. Accelerometer Overdose (Moses Boyd / Binker Golding / Max Luthert) 09:51
4. Feed Infinite (Moses Boyd / Binker Golding / Max Luthert) 08:49
5. After the Machine Settles (Moses Boyd / Binker Golding / Max Luthert) 06:36
6. Because Because (Moses Boyd / Binker Golding / Max Luthert) 09:47
All tracks composed by Binker Golding, Moses Boyd and Max Luthert
Personnel:
Binker Golding: soprano and tenor saxophones
Moses Boyd: drums
Max Luthert: live tape loops and electronic effects
Recorded 29th – 31st March, 2021, at Real World Studio,
Engineered and mixed by Hugh Padgham
Assisted by Oliver Middleton
Mastered and cut by Caspar Sutton-Jones and Darrel Sheinman at Gearbox Records
Produced by Darrel Sheinman and Hugh Padgham
Photography by Dan Medhurst
Graphic design by Alan Foulkes
Review:
Binker Golding and Moses Boyd introduced themselves as a duo with 2015’s award-winning Dem Ones. They followed with the double-length Journey to the Mountain of Forever in 2017, which showcased the duo as part of a sextet with saxophonist Evan Parker, drummer Yusef Dayes, trumpeter Byron Wallen, and harpist Tori Handsley. Two live offerings — Alive in the East? and Escape the Flames — followed before the duo went on informal hiatus to concentrate on their own projects. Feeding the Machine reflects a restless group persona. They’ve enlisted Max Luthert on live loops and electronics. While that may seem unconventional (their earlier albums are rooted in analog aesthetics and technologies), Luthert’s contribution enhances their improvised sound immeasurably.
At over 11 minutes, opener “Asynchronous Intervals” offers evidence of the music-making process as organic and immediate at the same time. Luthert builds out of and onto the duo’s core sounds, offering modular reconfigurations of the tenor saxophone that are gauzily ethereal. Golding emerges minimally, layering looped melodies on top of one another. When Boyd joins him, it’s with warm, rounded tom-toms and stark kick drums. As his rolls and fills become more pronounced, Golding starts moaning and wailing through the horn and the track lifts off into focused cacophony. Cymbals, snares, and kick drums introduce “Accelerometer Overdose,” framing Golding’s halting low register on tenor. He leans into Luthert’s loops and reverb, then unspools a circular, multi-layered vamp onto which Boyd grafts hip-hop and rock rhythms. Halfway through, it becomes an anthemic exercise amid squalling harmonics and deeply funky polyrhythms. On “Feed Infinite,” it’s almost impossible to identify the sound coming from Golding’s horn as a saxophone. Boyd moves underneath it, adding jagged trap beats and instinctive syncopation, and Golding unfurls an exotic melody in layered loops one phrase at a time. Boyd’s masterful drumming takes center stage as Golding frames it in glorious melodic invention. “After the Machine Settles” emerges with muted electronics — dubby, glitchy, and jittery. Golding enters at full power. He criss-crosses blues, post-bop, and free jazz, then circles back as Boyd begins dropping massive funk vamps and breaks. Closer “Because Because” finds Golding’s tenor sounding like a distant foghorn. He wedges in a sonorous soprano horn as Luthert manipulates the bridge that their harmony creates. Boyd dances across his snares with his fluttering circular brushwork adding movement, space, and texture. Here, the group sounds like Jon Hassell in trio with John Coltrane and Burial. Feeding the Machine is a giant leap forward. The focus on deeply intuitive, sophisticated improvisation integrated with Luthert’s instinctive, tasteful electronics is welcoming, adventurous, and abundantly creative.
Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
