Skullcap - Snakes of Albuquerque - Import CD

Credits:

Skullcap

Description:

Cellist Janel Leppin and guitarist Anthony Pirog are married collaborators in Washington, D.C. They began collaborating formally with 2007s Janel & Anthony; they also enjoy active solo careers. The guitarist is in the Messthetics, while Leppin does collaborative and session work; she released the singer/songwriter album Mellow Diamond in 2017 and founded avant-chamber jazz sextet Ensemble Volcanic Ash with Pirog as guitarist. Baltimore-based drummer/percussionist Mike Kuhl has worked as a jazz sideman for decades with Dave Liebman, Tony Malaby, Claudio Roditi, and many others. He, Leppin, and Pirog -- i.e. Skullcap -- have known and worked together occasionally since 2010. Their music is born from basic ideas, introduced with only minimal information and completed collectively. On Snakes of Albuquerque, that process sounds and feels organic and holistic. "Pine Trees of Tennessee" features a warm, lyric cello out front, and sounds like an extended coda. Leppins instrument shimmers and breathes atop Pirogs fingerpicked chords and Kuhls hypnotic tom-tom beat. She adds minimoog for textural dimension behind her soloing. Its answered by "Rt. 40," a post-punk rocker led by Pirogs interlocking guitar vamps, angular single notes (with a killer intervallic solo), and Kuhls propulsive -- yet unintrusive -- drumming. Leppins cello bridges the two atmospherically with darkly bowed chords. She adds rhythmic heft and tonal expansion. These two cuts sound like they came from different bands. A fingerpicked electric guitar provides the harmonic core of "Bear Out There." Percussion is restrained throughout, and Leppin plays a lyrical harmonic center that moves across the instruments registers, forever in pursuit of beauty. While "Journey to the Sunset" is introduced by a Caribbean-style carnival beat, Leppin and Pirog get funky underneath, trading vamps and fours as the guitarist ratchets up the intensity then solos atop minimoog effects and hypnotic percussion. The title track is a foreboding hard rock jam that simultaneously crisscrosses doom metal, avant-jazz, and Black Sabbath. "Orange Sky" is a captivating jazz ballad led by Pirogs elegant chord progression. Leppin plucks the bass strings in time, and Kuhl offers a gentle backbeat. "Just Passin Thru" is a short, sensual ballad wedding Caribbean and minimalist rhythms to a pulsing, resonant, bowed cello pulse and incantatory snare drums. Its answered by the long, brooding "Desert Turtles." Centered on a razor-wire guitar riff, Kuhls tom-toms, kick drum, and rim shots offer a roomy rhythmic palette for Pirog, who vamps and solos across swampy electric blues while Leppin plays her cello pizzicato like an upright bass. Its power chords signify evolutionary changes in the tune and Kuhl opens up the drama. In sum, Snakes of Albuquerque offers top-shelf creativity and serious musical skill by the canny Skullcap. So much so, in fact, that their multivalent musical approach exists on its own plain. ~ Thom Jurek

Tracklisting:

1.Pine Trees of Tennessee2.Rt. 403.Bear Out There4.Journey to the Sunset5.Snakes of Albuquerque6.700 Miles7.Orange Sky8.Just Passin' Thru9.Desert Turtles10.Ambrosia Burger
1.Pine Trees of Tennessee
2.Rt. 40
3.Bear Out There
4.Journey to the Sunset
5.Snakes of Albuquerque
6.700 Miles
7.Orange Sky
8.Just Passin' Thru
9.Desert Turtles
10.Ambrosia Burger