the of mirror eye

* Borbetomagus: Bergen Community College (15.5 mb)
From Sauter, Dietrich, Miller : Agaric Records : Agaric 1982

The past couple of weeks I’ve had to go visit my local Doctors. And, oh boy do I ever hate going to them. The past two times, I’ve had appointments at a certain time, get there (I even get there early) and sit and wait. Sit and wait. Sit and wait. My last appointment, I had to wait over 2 (two) hours before the doctor saw me, which made me late for a concert. Not to mention the complete waste of time. I could’ve gone home and taken a nap, if I had known that it was gonna be a two (2) hour wait.

But what does this have to do with today’s post? Well, whenever I get that pissed off, I like to blow off some steam and listen to some good ole noisy stuff. Some, spine tinglin’, nasty-assed, blow off some major steam, sort of noise. And that’s what these fine fellow do. Borbetomagus, comprised of saxophonists Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich and guitarist Donald Miller, have been blowin’ their brand of over-the-top, balls-to-the-wall free jazz for over twenty years now, and show no signs of slowing down. But it’s not just about the aggression and the noise.

Their very physical performances are routinely described in terms of muscle and sublimated homoerotica, largely down to the onstage action. But clearly there’s a lot more going on. Borbetomagus use noise to clear a real-time space within which the armour of personality can dissolve like candyfloss, leaving them free to assemble a meaningful syntax from volume, speed and texture.

Everytime I post something like this, I always feel like apologizing, since I know most people wouldn’t even consider this music. But really, give it a shot. It won’t kill you, and who knows, if the volume is up high enough maybe it’ll even open up some doors you didn’t know existed.

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