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Outrageous. Rabid. Explosive. #WTF? Whatever words you throw at Borbetomagus saxophonist Jim Sauter and Oneida / Man Forever drummer Kid Millions, they’ll chomp ‘em up and respond with a gargantuan roar to expunge all notions of what a horn and skins can do.
The duo’s prior albums were built of tightly, clustered bursts and barbed assaults. On Safe & Sane, Sauter and Millions eschew brevity for ultra-endurance. The opening “Chrysanthemum,” clocks in at 32 minutes and continues on Side B before a final 12-minute avalanche that is “Falling Spiders.”
Sauter’s blowhole is jacked straight into a battery of electronics and amplification. He summons the reedy, shifting drones of the hurdy-gurdy or Hendrix’s scree, and spits forth monstrous overtones. Those sheets-of-sound Coltrane chased after -- it’s here.
Millions doesn’t even attempt to nail down the flow. He’s egging it on with rapid rolls and polyrhythmic propulsion that smears the line of fire/energy music -- think classics like Black Beings -- and primitive punk fury. At times, it’s as if Millions is outrunning Sauter’s tornado of multi-channel horns but he never gets sucked in. Rather, he pounds holes and slices cracks across the landscape for the reed streams to slip inside.
Safe & Sane is the first split release between Astral Spirits and Family Vineyard -- each previously issued Sauter/Millions albums: Bloom (2015) and Fountain (2014), respectively. The LP comes dressed in fab Dan Schechter cover art in an edition of 500 copies worldwide.
credits
released May 3, 2019
JIM SAUTER - tenor saxophone, electronics
KID MILLIONS - drums
All compositions by Sauter/Colpitts BMI
Recorded by Andrew Barker, December 4, 2016.
Mixed by Colin Marston at Menegroth Studios, July 11, 2017.
Mastered by Josh Bonati.
Album designed by Dan Schechter.
Special thanks to Andrew Barker, Josh Bonati, Nate Cross, Colin Marston, Dan Schechter, Matthew Wascovich, and Eric Weddle.
Co-release with the absolutely brilliant Family Vineyard label, so you know this one is outrageous.
The intensity and power, the majesty, an ocean is beautiful and horrifying in concept, a representation of the power of nature to mystify and then swallow you whole, I walk straight into this ocean and it does what it will. Mighttheone
Inspired by the rhythm & timbre of bellringing, “Pendulums” folds neo-classical, jazz, & even ambient music into a wondrous whole. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 12, 2021