CATALOGUE   RETURN

Junk Genius Ghost of Electricity (SGL 1525-2) Ben Goldberg /John Schott / Trevor Dunn / Kenny Wollesen Junk Genius's first record (on Knitting Factory) consisted of fractured, go-for-broke treatments of difficult bebop compositions, and earned high praise from Down Beat, Option, etc. Five years later they return with a different focus: original songs that sound as if they'd come from old field recordings, recovered artifacts inspiring a new oral tradition. Through hymns, stomps, hollers, and anarchic strum-alongs, Junk Genius trace the border regions between alternative jazz, improvisation, and the primal music of Dock Boggs, Son House, the Carter Family, and the Georgia Sea Islands. Ben Goldberg (clarinet), John Schott (guitars), Trevor Dunn (bass), and Kenny Wollesen (drums) play together as one, and are beautifully recorded. But this is no exercise in nostalgia: while it moves the listener with the reverence of its melodies, the rhythmic feel is dynamic and unsettling and the overall tone of the record both liberating and tragic.  See also:  Marty Ehrlich and Ben Goldberg, Light at the Crossroads (SGL 1511-2), featuring Trevor Dunn and Kenny Wollesen Andy Laster, Interpretations of Lessness (SGL 1515-2), featuring Wollesen Brad Shepik & the Commuters, The Loan (SGL 1518-2), featuring Wollesen

Gone Away Hollersdale Angle Long Way Aberdeen Strung When Indication Itta Bena Forty Years