Grutronic

Grutronic: Essex Foam Party

by Glenn Astarita
January 5, 2010

Grutronic is a free improvising collective, featuring musicians spanning progressive jazz, free jazz and experimental persuasions. On Essex Foam Party, the core electronics-based quartet aligns with special guests, vibraphonist Orphy Robinson and sampler Paul Obermayer. With liquefying, trickling and ping ponging effects, the musicians implement analog and digital equipment to play with tricks with the psyche, offering some curiously intriguing propositions along the way.

At times the band draws similarities to the minimalistic and edgy facets witnessed within ...