This record makes a physical impression. Forget that Phillip Golub is a microtonal keyboardist, and just notice how the dense harmonies of "Loyalty Oath" wring your esophagus, and how the killer rhythm-shifts and wild horn-stings of "Cries of the Initiated" make your head nod both up & down and side-to-side. Your ears seize onto the rigging as "Partisan Ship" plunges through its nervous fugue and builds to a screaming blur. "Mutiny Meeting" called to order, you wonder what some slimeball slipped into your drink as you careen out of the bar and walk way too confidently down the street with shooting stars firing behind your eyeballs.
Golub's red-hot band traverse his microtonal territory regardless of whether their instruments are nominally set up for it, with trumpeter Amir ElSaffar having already laid decades of groundwork in adding Arabic tonalities to his compositions, and flutist-saxist Anna Webber previously well versed in the notes between the notes. Multiwindman Yuma Uesaka was a natural, having logged time with both Golub and Webber. And the way these rhythms keep careening around, Golub needed some kind of sparky sprite genius on drums, and Jon Starks qualified.
The whole thing is set up like a suite, with deft synthy interludes, from a cage fight to a ping-zap, so you might want to get the CD to avoid those little dropouts between tracks -- it really flows. Limited edition!
Originally from L.A. and now residing in NYC, Golub is not unknown. Vijay Iyer wrote notes for him; he's worked with Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter; he's studied with the smartest. His previous recordings have garnered wide praise for their originality and their meditational ingenuity. This time, he has just plain kicked ass.
Listen/buy here.