textura

Albums
Actress
Ellen Allien
The Alps
Aniline
Anodyne
Tommy Babin's Benzene
Maya Beiser
Pier Bucci
Budd & Wright
Celer
Ceremony
Richard Chartier
Deceptikon
Deepchord & Echospace
Marcel Dettmann
Dirac
Efdemin
GéNIA
Guillaume & C. Dumonts
Hammock
Helvacioglu & Boysen
Richard A Ingram
Inhabitants
Marsen Jules
Akira Kosemura
Manual
Dom Mino'
Teruyuki Nobuchika
Nono/ Wakabayashi
Olan Mill
Originalljudet
Fabio Orsi
M.Ostermeier
Rene Hell
Jeffrey Roden
J. Rogers
Roll The Dice
Secret Cities
Soundpool

Compilations / Mixes
Main Control Board
SEED X: Part I - III

EPs
Alternative Networks Vol. 2
Aural Diptych Series # 1
Aural Diptych Series # 2
Celer
Deerhoof vs OneOne
Filterwolf
Incite/
Ketem
Kogumaza
Yann Novak
Poratz
Quiroga
Repeat Orchestra
Sepalcure
Sub Loam
v4w.enko
The Zeitgeist EP

DVD
Stephen Vitiello

Tommy Babin's Benzene: Your Body Is Your Prison
Drip Audio

As if declaring Your Body Is Your Prison to be his date, Tommy Babin's acoustic bass is the first instrument one hears on the fifty-minute album. But baritone saxophonist Chad Makela, guitarist Chad MacQuarrie, and drummer Skye Brooks make their respective appearances soon after, indicating that the album is anything but a solo bass album by the Vancouver-based Babin (even if, as happens during “Interlude” and “They Didn't Know They Were Robots,” he does take an occasional solo spot, and even if all of the compositions are credited to him). The album's nine tracks sometimes feel like a wild roller-coaster ride, something that can be explained in part by the fact that the each piece was recorded live in the studio in a single take. Your Body Is Your Prison is also designed to be heard as a multi-part totality, as evidenced by its being listed as a fifty-minute single composition on the packaging, and in truth there is a feel of constant flow as one track segues into the next. Helping to distinguish the album is the guttural roar of Makela's baritone sax, which keeps up a memorable dance with MacQuarrie's guitar throughout; that's especially evident during “Les Trousduciel” when the opening minutes are given over to the two musicians only.

Babin's Benzine sounds equally at ease whether navigating oblique paths through intricate melodic mazes (“Your Body is Your Prison,” “Damaged”), or indulging in wild throwdowns (“The Sky Beneath My Feet”) or laid-back meditations (“The Thing and I”). There's no shortage of energy of display, with some of the material exploding with free-flowing improv (check out the titanic skronk unleashed by MacQuarrie during “Citizen Kang”), while at other times it gets downright funky and bluesy. In short, while nominally it's a jazz album, it paints liberally outside the lines during much of its playing time.

June 2010