Grid: Decomposing Force

A lot of recognisable names and musical micro climes run through the blood and wires of this aggressive three. Jimi Hendrix, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, pure punk, death metal . . . need more? So, expect a hard, twisted, mad metal assault when you confront Decomposing Force, the second release of riotous pandemonium from Brooklyn's noisiest noise trio Grid, featuring saxophonist Matt Nelson, bassist Tim Dahl and drummer Nick Podgurski.

But there's a metallic, molecular coalescence to these four aggro-improv potboilers that is impossible to ignore. Grid charges from moment to moment like an army of legionaries on horseback, the natural reflexivity of man and beast (or, for our purposes, sax, bass, drums) amped up and hard-wired to take no prisoners.

It is an alluring, dissonant brutality to be sure but more importantly "Brutal Kings," "Nythynge," "The Weight of Literacy," and "Cold Seep" subjectively, objectively, and decisively hack away at the gloom, the gloss, and paid sponsorships of the twenty-four hour news cycle until we hear the real noise, the ugly news that it is more barbarous out there than we all suspect. But it's not a forced aesthetic or sense of prophecy guiding these anti-modal, anti-melodic manipulations. No, it is just the natural curiosity to hear what it sounds like live with Dahl's bass amp recorded through Nelson's sax mic and pedals and Podgurski left to his own hardcore devices. Then, when mixed to half-inch tape something from nothing is created. That's the simple beauty at play here. It's also an act of open revolt.

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