Middletown Creative Orchestra 10.6.97(Newsonic: newsonic6)

Jenna Alden (tenor sax), Josh Blair (percussion), Dan Gilbert (electric guitar), Jesse Kudler (theremin), Rachel Thompson (viola), David Novak (bassoon, melodica), Johnathon Zorn (bass), Seth Dillinger (electric guitar), Jackson More (alto saxophone), Eric Ronick (melodica, piano), Anne Hege (flute), James Fei (bass clarinet), Seth Misterka (alto sax), Rafael Cohen (oboe), Peter Cafarella (accordion), Karen Correa (viola)

4.11.98 and 4.30.98 (Newsonic: newsonic9)

Seth Dellinger (voice, objects), Edward Kasparek (percussion), Richard McGhee (soprano sax), Seth Misterka (alto sax), Jackson Moore (reeds), Jessica Pavone (viola), Amanda Youngman (clarinet), Johnathon Zorn (bass, accordion, slide whistle), Jenna Alden (tenor saxophone), Josh Blair (percussion), Peter Cafarella (accordion, piano), Josephine Conover (viola), Dan Gartner (voice, piano), Anne Hedge (voice), Chris Jonas (tenor saxophone), Jesse Kudler (electric guitar, objects), Juliana Mastronunzio (voice), Phloyd Starploi (trombone), Yosuke Oshima (oboe)

Crystal Lake (Newsonic: newsonic12)

Marc Burns (keyboards), Peter Cafarella (accordion), Rafael Cohen (oboe), Seth Dillinger (bass), Van Green (bass), Edward Kasparek (percussion), Jesse Kudler (theremin), Chris Matthay (trumpet), Richard McGhee (reeds), Seth Misterka (alto sax), Jackson Moore (reeds), Jessica Pavone (violin), Phloyd Starpoli (trombone), Dortha Willets (dulcimer), Johnathon Zorn (viola)

The MCO are a loose collective of Connecticut musicians moving in the orbit of Wesleyan university, at whose centre, of course, is the considerable gravitational body of Anthony Braxton. Some of these players have collaborated with Braxton, many have studied with him, and surely all have heard and been influenced by him. What's surprising, then, is how little their music sounds like any of the great man's many voices.

The Orchestra essentially works within the genre of "compositions for improvisors". These are large-scale pieces, and certainly these CDs give the impression that the scale is only growing: "10.6.97" fits in four pieces, the second disc has two and by the time of "Crystal Lake", the eponymous track is the only track. In fact, "Crystal Lake" is a medley (if one can have a medley in avant garde music; I suppose one can) of six pieces, ranging from the fully-notated to the completely improvised, but the continuity between them and the obvious intention of fusing them into a single piece is evident and the different pieces are not indexed on the CD.

This preference for the long form is just one of the many elements of their music which makes it initially forbidding. Another is the sheer ugliness of their sound-world. They like to work with extreme dissonances for sustained periods, combining them with bludgeoning rhythms at volumes which must, live, threaten their audience with tinnitus. Combining these sounds with untutored, sometimes agonised vocal sounds just makes things that bit more off-putting.

It's this combination which makes their first recording a bad place to start, even though the shorter tracks make attentive listening easier. Once their language makes some more sense, the austere, lumpen appeal of, say, "7.XX.97" begins to look less like deliberate perversity and more like, say, a Max Ernst drawing, but as a first experience it's potentially disastrous. Actually, what's interesting about this disc is that it's the most minimalist of the three. Far from the tonal cycles of the 60s school, the MCO's use of repeated blocks of sound has a genuinely individual flavour. It makes "7.XX.97" the highlight of this disc, but "Recursive Structure for Orchestra" uses similar material in a more open-ended setting (difficult to grasp but, oddly, hard to turn off before it's finished) and the opening "Drone Generator" creates interesting music from gradually shifting but extremely grainy textures.

"4.11.98 and 4.27.98" starts proceedings with a pounding, Stravinskian rhythm and more shouting. The voices continue to pop up throughout this, the most jazzy of their recorded tracks -- unlike the deranged noises which spring up on "Light Switch", these have a link to Mingus and, thence, back into the circus and minstrel show in which jazz was born. Still, this is a long way from "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat". Sounding like an orchestra of schizophrenics mixing up the brassy raunch of the Broadway striptease pit band with Kurt Weill and Stockhausen, "4.11.98" refines, re-processes but essentially re-visits the ideas which characterised the previous disc.

The second track on this release (guess what? They called it "4.27.98") is twice as long but appears to use some of the same material. It's equally ecstatic in places but also, as the length implies, a little more leisurely, replacing some of the brashness with cooler passages. On both tracks -- but particularly this second one -- the group's repetitive approach is focussed on ostinati played by individuals or small groups, rather than the whole orchestra marshalling massive blocks of sound. Over forty minutes it can be a little unrelenting, but given full concentration it's involving even if it's unpopular at dinner parties.

"Crystal Lake" is probably the Orchestra's most developed performance on disc, although the line-up is very different and so comparisons are probably not so enlightening and the retention of the name might suggest. Some of the elements are still present: the combinations of minimalism and maximalism, improv and composition, unrestrained vocals and advanced instrumental techniques. Yet the sound here is so much more polished, so much richer, that the beast seems almost tamed. There were benefits to the older orchestra, of course, because that boiling energy can carry a piece along nicely, but "Crystal Lake" feels like a quantum evolutionary leap.

I don't want to give the impression that the fire has gone out of the Orchestra's belly. It may simply be that the greater variety of instrumental colours lends it a less muddy sound, but the multitude of simultaneous events seems cleaner and more thought-out in this performance. While the second disc is a good starting-point for those coming to the Orchestra from free jazz, and "10.6.97" might be a suitable introduction for Borbetomagus freaks, "Crystal Lake" is a showcase for the new MCO and show them off it certainly does.

The MCO's music can be shockingly brutal, but if you can handle the external nastiness, there's a lot going on in all of these pieces. While nobody gets to grandstand for long, the standard of musicianship is clearly pretty high, and the single-minded determination to play such thankless stuff if intruiging in itself. Recommended to those who don't mind getting their ears dirty.

Richard Cochrane
Seth Dellinger'sMCO web site