Article
Brady / Driscoll / Gregorius

Albums
3/4 Peace
36
Atrium Carceri
Marvin Ayres
Peter Baumann
Beledo
Tim Brady
Christoph Bruhn
Calder
Csillagköd
Dal Niente / Deerhoof
Rebekah Driscoll
Eighth Blackbird
frostlake
Friedrich Goldmann
John Gregorius
Hammock
Chihei Hatakeyama
Masayuki Imanishi
ICE
Ionophore
braeyden jae
KAI
Kevin Kastning
Martin Kay
Kireyev & Javors
Millimetrik
Jon Mueller
Christine Ott
Piano Interrupted
Noah Preminger
Gavin Prior
Rapoon
Lasse-Marc Riek
Roach & Logan
Bruno Sanfilippo
Cyril Secq / Orla Wren
Sgt. Fuzzy
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
Stick Men+ David Cross
Stratosphere
Syncopix
Tetherdown
Charlie Ulyatt
Wieman

Compilation
Facticity

EPs / Cassettes / Mini-Albums / Singles
Glacis
Dibson T. Hoffweiler
Akira Kosemura
Daniel Lippel
Christine Tavolacci

Jon Mueller: Tongues
Rhythmplex

I have the greatest amount of respect for an artist like Jon Mueller, someone who determinedly pursues a personal vision without seeming regard for trends or what others are doing. That's never more apparent than on Tongues, his latest provocative statement issued on his own Rhythmplex imprint. A vinyl release (in an edition of 500 copies) featuring two side-long tracks generally pitched at a relentless level, Tongues takes no prisoners and doesn't compromise. Mueller arranged and performed the material using bass drums, percussion, and his own voice, but didn't create the material entirely alone: Cory Allen contributes harmonium, tanpura, and shamanistic ceremonial breath to the proceedings, and William Ryan Fritch, whose contributions to Mueller's Death Blues' Ensemble record were integral, adds sarangi, though played through a piano to amplify the instrument's sound.

The recording includes no overt connections to any particular spiritualist movement nor are there explicit references to philosophical concepts or Greek mythology. Yet while that might be the case, the music exudes the kind of ecstatic abandon and high energy characteristic of Dionysian revelry, even if the vocalizations aren't tied to one specific language. That said, there's nevertheless a strong Middle Eastern flavour to the chanting, which on the fifteen-minute opener appears as a multi-layered, declamatory howl alongside a powerful percussive onslaught of tom-toms and triangles. As the piece progresses, the plot thickens, so to speak, the music growing ever more dense and the voices multiplying, seemingly exponentially. Eight minutes along, the sound mass briefly collapses, after which the elements resume their delirious charge in the service of Mueller's obsessive vision.

May 2016