Inzinzac
Led by French-born guitarist Alban Bailly, Inzinzac s sound references a wide swath of influences including atonal no-wave rock, Eastern European melodies, free jazz, and Japanese noise bands. Across the album s eight songs and 48 minutes, the trio finds plenty of room for individual and collective improvisation. Without overtly showing off their individual skills or blatantly shifting styles, Inzinzac has created a masterful debut not easily compared to any other.
Guitar/Compositions: Alban Bailly
Tenor & Soprano Saxophones: Dan Scofield
Drums: Eli Litwin
Recorded & Mixed by Ben Greenberg at Python Patrol Studios, Brooklyn, NY in July 2010
Mastered by Colin Marston at Menegroth the Thousand Caves Studios, Queens NY
Cover: Old Enemy, New Victim by Tony Matelli
The debut CD by this Brooklyn-based skronk jazz trio will appeal to fans of No Wave/"brutal prog" outfits like the Flying Luttenbachers as well as the work of players like Marc Ribot or Sonny Sharrock. The instrumentation -- twanging electric guitar, tenor or soprano saxophone, and drums -- is stripped to the bone, and the arrangements are part rockabilly, part out jazz/free improv, and part noise-rock.
Bandleader Alban Bailly's guitar tone is somewhere between Ribot and the Minutemen's D. Boon, while Dan Scofield knows every way to make the soprano saxophone pierce the listener's eardrums (and he's not bad when he picks up the tenor, either), and drummer Eli Litwin clatters and thuds in the back. The mix gives each player more or less equal space; the sound is raw and dynamic, with the drums a meaty thwack and the guitar and saxophone battling for dominance.
At the midpoint of "Hardi," things get so furious it sounds like the music is going to distort into waves of static, but the band hovers just shy of the brink of total abandon.