God listens to Maetar. The Deity requires stimulating input from her creations, and the vibrations must facilitate the widest range of divine options, accompanied by maximum focus. Maetar take care of the options thanks to the roots of brothers Hagai (Flumpet, trumpet etc.) and Itai (bass etc.) in the storied Levantine valley of Megiddo, crossroads of the ancient world, plus the multiple rhythmic studies of drummer Richard Fultineer. And the focus? You can hear Maetar's triangulation in even greater detail after a 10-year release hiatus, because Hagai had to relearn his approach to breath in the wake of brain surgery.
Brothers play together with an understanding beyond thought. Taking that intuition to the next level, Hagai's rehab became a source of new nourishment for the Maetar trio's perennial jams -- 17 of the 20 tracks on this double album are almost entirely improvised, or "direct transmissions," as the band puts it. You can hear the grooves and melodies fall together without hesitation, because the group listening is so acute; the music seems to flow like breath in a shared dream.
So most of "Love/Abstract" is grooves with melodies and textures. Afrobeat, reggae, funk, blues, rocky fusion -- one or all at the same time, and the brothers draw a wild variety of electronic tones from their instruments as well as adding this or that, such as Hagai's recorder or double-reed Chinese suona. No show-off, Fultineer is devoted to the ensemble feel on traps, but gets to slap up a hand-drum dust storm on the village healing ceremony "Strong Men Dance."
The more arranged teaser tracks -- the peppy "In the Sun" and the gorgeously yearning "After All" -- are not quite typical. Over Fultineer's martial brushes on "Love Lifts Me," Hagai plumbs the depths of sorrow via duduk (a Middle Eastern double-reed horn) and rises to faint hope via Flumpet, and Itai scrapes wonderful textures with his bow; it's a portrait of emotion, concluding with a melody so perfect that everyone knows just when to stop. "Fütna" rolls along with a pleasant river rhythm and a tasteful dublike drop-out rivaling Augustus Pablo. "Goat Milk" gets the whole North African village jumping to Fultineer's polyrhythms (hooky, too). "Age to Rage" throws reggae, Arabic, noise and romance together and makes it work.
Maetar don't really make things work, though; they position their skills so that the music can coalesce. You feel it happening! You're clicking down the line with God, sharing the air.
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Maetar celebrate the release of "Love Dub and the Abstract One Drop" at Harvelle's in Santa Monica on Friday, March 15; tickets here.
Sample/buy here.
MAIN PAGE PHOTO BY JIM BERMAN.