Lucien Dubuis Trio: Future Rock

The entire debate that bids one to take sides regarding art being either made by conservatory trained artistes or original primitives is quite the red herring. Sure, punk rock favored emotion over skill, but nobody would argue against Television guitarist Tom Verlaine's talent or the folk music of guitarist Bill Frisell. If you can play and you have not shed you primal unpretentious sound, then we have the recipe for a moving experience.

Saxophonist Lucien Dubuis's trio has both a primitive sound and the chops to execute any maneuver.

Dubuis favors his sound from deep down, here playing mostly a bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet. His trio is comprised of bassist Roman Nowka, who doubles on guitar, and drummer Lionel Friedli. Future Rock is the trio's fourth release, and follows Ultime Cosmos (Enja, 2009), which featured guitarist Marc Ribot.

Ribot's Rootless Cosmopolitans band is the touchstone here, with Dubuis' trio a stripped-down version. His barebones approach, with Nowka filling the guitar role on "Eva," is a funky blues drag. Dubuis' tunes range from the math rock/punk of "En Bus" and reggae-inflections of "Le Cockpit" to the hardcore surf "4 Wände" and dreamy "Lin Ying Hao." The trio favors hard, fast, and anything but loose. Dubuis strikes out with body blows on the screaming "Schnitzel Paniert Mit Brot," pitting his low register yowl against thumping bass and pounding drums. The band expands into wacky western cabaret music on the aptly titled "George W Bush," and two old school hip-hop tracks, "Star Loves" and "En Descendant de la Montagne," with vocals from Miro Caltagirone.

If the remaining members of the Beastie Boys reunite, This might just be the perfect backing band.

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