Phillip Golub: Partisan Ship

      Descriptions like busy, complex, and synth-driven only begin to characterize keyboardist and composer Phillip Golub’s latest project, the boldly inventive Partisan Ship. To broaden the instrumental range of the music, Golub has enlisted the talents of some of the forward-looking musicians in New York City, including saxophonists Anna Webber, Yuma Uesaka and David Leon, trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, and 5-string violinist Layale Chaker. Each of them drops in the mix here and there to contribute a solo. The spare but effective soloing by ElSaffar, who’s feeling quite at home in the electronic haze on loyalty oath, alto saxophonist Leon and Chaker on the murky and vaguely Middle Eastern blue-orange reflections, and Anna Webber, throaty and angular on cries of the initiated, are worth noting. But the real star of the show is the rhythm section, with Golub with his Flexichord virtual piano and synthesizers, Elias Stemeseder and his synthesizers, bassist Sam Minaie and percussionist Jon Starks. Together, they create a densely textured symphony of beeps, bloops, mini-explosions, ghostly piano tinkling, and much more. Since the individual tracks all run into the next piece without a pause, the three-quarters of an hour running time of Partisan Ship is seemingly designed to be listened from start to finish. While I’m especially fond of the tricky rhythms of loyalty oath, the glorious cacophony of cries of the initiated and the warped ballad utopian micronation, it’s the overall effect that is especially impressive. Partisan Ship is a fascinating album, and is heartily recommended. 

Berthold Records; Phillip Golub (Flexichord virtual piano, Behringer Neutron, Arturia Digital synths) Yuma Uesaka (cl, bcl, cbcl, ts, bass ‘clariflute’ on 1, 3, 5, 8, 10) Amir ElSaffar (tpt on 1, 3, 5, 9) Anna Webber (fl, ts on 3,5,8) David Leon (as on 7,9) Layale Chaker (5-string violin on 7) Elias Stemeseder (Prophet VI, Moog Minitaur, Modular Synths on 1,3,5,6) Sam Minaie (b on 3,5,8) Jon Starks (d, sensory perc, snaps, drum machine on 1-3, 5, 7-10; elec on 2); Brooklyn, NY & NYC, no dates specified; 1 loyalty oath/2 interlude (aboard)/ 3 partisan ship/ 4 interlude (adorn)/ 5 mutiny meeting/ 6 interlude (adrift)/ 7 blue-orange reflections/ 8 cries of the initiated/ 9 utopian micronation/ 10 afterword: partisan session; 44:46. phillipgolub.bandcamp.com