Brandon Seabrook: Utility Modern

   On blues records back in the Fifties you’d often hear the singer signal an instrumental break by hollering something like “c’mon boys, make a racket!” Making a racket seems to be a chief concern of guitarist/banjoist Brandon Seabrook and his dynamite quartet on Utility Modern. With fellow guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Rashaan Carter on bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums, this band makes quite a racket on this irresistible program of Seabrook originals. His tunes tend to have attention deficit disorder, with unexpected changes in tempo, volume, and attitude the rule. The guitar parts, particularly when both Seabrook and Frisell are playing electric instruments, often have rapidly played interlocking call and response riffs. Watching a video for The Guitar Is A Weather Event, Even that’s available on the album’s Bandcamp page, Frisell seemed delightfully surprised at what Seabrook was playing and responding with his own trenchant replies. It’s great to hear Frisell sounding so good and being musically challenged after some of his recent efforts have bordered on the soporific. With Carter taking a upfront role with fat bass lines, and the always impressive Gilmore on drums, this quartet is ready to take on whatever Seabrook’s imagination comes up with. Frisell and Seabrook’s frisky back-and-forth on The Guitar Is A Weather Event, Even, is one of the many high points of this set. Another is the delightfully eccentric guitar solo, probably by Seabrook, in the middle of Document and Tapestry. This is one tune that maintains a mood for its entire length without taking any noisy tangents. Seabrook writes that he intended “this music to sound like one giant guitar: a single instrument whose technical boundaries are stretched, blurred, and at times completely shattered.” That’s absolutely the sound that the band achieves on this truly impressive effort. Heartily recommended. 

Out Of Your Head Records OOYH 049 (lp and cd); Brandon Seabrook (el & ac g, bjo) Bill Frisell (el & ac g) Rashaan Carter (el b) Marcus Gilmore (d); Brooklyn, NY, no dates specified; Crater For Ascending Angles/ The Serial Fabulist/ Star-Crossed Phantasms/ Once Upon A Time in the Quest/ Document and Tapestry/ Membrane Soundtable/ The Guitar Is A Weather Event, Even/ Tapestry and Document; 43:52. www.outofyourheadrecords.com