By Nick Metzger

I’m fairly certain the primary time I heard Paul Flaherty was on The Hated
Music with Chris Corsano again in 2000 on Byron Coley’s Ecstatic Yod label,
despite the fact that by then Paul had been at it for a long time. I purchased it as a result of I
was actually into Corsano and Invoice Nace’s Vampire Belt duo, whose hand
assembled CDRs of rabid no-wave I nonetheless take heed to on event. I used to be and am
fully blown away by Flaherty and Corsano and have purchased nearly
every part they’ve appeared on collectively and individually since. Corsano’s duo
work with Mette Rasmussen opened the doorways for a trio album with Flaherty
referred to as Star-Spangled
Voltage, the place the music grew to become much more advanced and intriguing. On Crying in House the trio is joined by bassist Zach Rowden, whose personal duo
album with Flaherty As Far As Demise was lined by the weblog within the spring and was one which I
actually loved. Rowden provides additional texture and density to the combo, a form
of earthly mooring that gives this spaceship crew with a grounding node.

The album opener “The Hesitant Nature of Doubt (Shadow Chase)” begins with
a plaintive wailing of the horns, briefly song-like, using lengthy swells of
arco strains and ricocheting percussion. This breaks down into a wonderful
bedlam of everyone-at-once dialogue earlier than additional coalescing into
considerate, rigorously hewn types and heat experimentalism. Flaherty barks
and howls gruffly, his rolling strains punctuated with squeaks and vocal-like
cries. Rasmussen performs in lightning fast bursts, accentuated with round
motifs and bellowing automotive park honks. Rowden makes use of darkish tones each plucked
and bowed and offers a lot of the timbral focus through the quieter moments.
Corsano is the glue that holds all of it collectively. His crisp rolls and deft
footwork each punctuate and elevate the taking part in of the quartet. There is no such thing as a
higher drummer for such a music. Rasmussen builds up an prolonged,
delicate and progressing solo melody centered round reed pops to open “What
To Count on When Faking Your Personal Demise” earlier than the remainder of the quartet drops
in and a parabolic furor ensues. Flaherty’s strains are equally bluesy and
screechy atop the quieter parts, tangling with contrabass grima,
scattered percussion, and all method of mouth/chicken noises and possibly even
some harmonic/melodica(?). The nearer “Industrial Sabotage Friday” is the
shortest monitor, comparatively a footnote, but it surely’s additionally one of many greatest
blowouts on the album. Excessive spirits and excessive vitality to shut out the set.

I actually loved the rawness of this session, there actually isn’t a lot held
again or left unexplored, which I discover Flaherty brings out in his
co-conspirators. The interaction is superb, as anticipated primarily based on their
shared historical past. I suppose you possibly can say that this one was a protracted time in
the making, with all of the items slowly dropping into place over the final 23
years, and it’s effectively price your time if you happen to haven’t gotten to it but. New
wrinkles abound with this lineup and the music sounds contemporary and impressed.
I’ll proceed shopping for every part these musicians drop collectively or
in any other case. One other wonderful launch from Relative Pitch.