Ideal Bread

Roswell Rudd
(with Ideal Bread)
New York, NY

Ottokar, a new musical group with strong roots in Philadelphia, informs itself as "IIRI - intuitive, instrumental rock improvisation", for keyboards, guitars, and percussion. The players create music on the spot, with influences ranging from progressive rock, fusion, hard core improvised music, and jazz. They are a cross between early Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Hatfield and the North, Pat Metheny, Bruford, The Music Improvisation Company, and Weather Report, among others.

However the music of Ottokar is 100% original, and the three players are bonded in a collective spirit, in which each generously provides the other with rhythmic and melodic backgrounds for solos, as well as providing an impetus for compositional direction. This clarity, timing, and patience in the music of the ensemble creates extended pieces of beauty and power, reaching beyond the bounds of ego and hierarchy. It should also be noted that the players employ all manner of vintage and modern gear, merging sounds of the past and future in rapture. from Jim Meneses offical website

Joel Forrester is the composer of more than 1200 tunes, a versatile and accomplished jazz pianist, leader of his own quartet and prolific recording artist. He has performed in an extraordinary diversity of settings – from large ensembles to a duet setting with a tap dancer! His playing draws from stride, boogie-woogie, bebop, trance and what he likes to call 'salon pieces' but each composition bears the stamp of this most individual artist.  

Since its founding in 1980, under the co-leadership and co-compositional duties of soprano saxophonist Phillip Johnston and pianist Joel Forrester, "the Micros" have been "New York's most famous unknown band"; since 1990, the catchy, film noir theme they created for NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” has aired daily on stations across America, and may now be the most-broadcast jazz tune in the world.

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/micros.html

The Revolutionary Snake Ensemble is a costumed funk/street beat improvisational brass band performing a unique blend of traditional New Orleans and other original modern improvised celebratory styles. Performer Magazine noted that the band "may operate from the traditions of New Orleans music, but the boundaries are pushed wide open when they actually play.”

Leader Ken Field, a longtime member of the modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic formed the group in 1990 with trumpeter and cartoonist Scott Getchell to entertain at a pagan women's ritual celebration. As a performer, Field has worked as a sideman with countless renowned reggae, funk, R&B, rock, jazz, and world beat artists - and performed for former President Bill Clinton.
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble has been twice nominated by a panel of music writers and critics for a Boston Music Award. Glenn Astarita on NPR’s Morning Edition said, "They've pretty much modernized the traditional concept, and they've spun it into a singular sound that's very unique and very vibrant. They went past the tried and true. They managed to do it all with a very distinct musical persona.”

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/rse.html

Positive Catastrophe is the brainchild of Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet) and Abraham Gomez-Delgado (percussion). Taylor is one of the most impressive of the latest crop of up and coming jazz musicians and Aib has long been expanding the boundaries of Latin-based music and jazz. Together they have come up with Positive Catastrophe: a trans-idiomatic ten-piece little big band that successfully connects the dots between Sun Ra and Eddie Palmieri and beyond! The group enlists a bevy of New York’s most adventurous jazz and salsa musicians, all of whom are composers and leaders in their own right. The full line up is: Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet, flugelhorn, co-leader), Abraham Gomez-Delgado (vocals, percussion, co-leader), Jen Shyu (vocals, erhu), Matt Bauder (tenor sax, clarinets), Michael Attias (baritone sax), Mark Taylor (french horn), Reut Regev (trombone), Pete Fitzpatrick (guitar), Alvaro Benavides (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums). With the exceptional musicianship of all of these players and their fluidity in multiple genres, a unique instrumentation that hints at a traditional jazz and salsa big bands yet includes french horn, erhu, and rock guitar, and a pair of dramatic vocalists that are comfortable singing in three languages, Positive Catastrophe creates a truly boundary-crossing kind of new music.

"If you’ve been hungering to hear Latin-based jazz in a new light, your prayers have been answered." – NY Press

"The ten-piece Positive Catastrophe pools the resources of two outstanding bandleaders: the ever-searching avant-jazz cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, and Abraham Gomez-Delgado, head of the eclectic alterna-Latino outfit Zemog El Gallo Bueno…full of swagger and groove, it combines Mingus-esque polyphonic momentum with vibrantly off-kilter world-funk.” – Time Out New York

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/positive.html

Vibraphonist and composer Jason Adasiewicz formed the Rolldown in early 2003. In the time since the band started, Adasiewicz has become a prolific member of Chicago's jazz and improvised music scene. He is quickly gaining widespread recognition and is one of the most exciting vibraphonists and interesting bandleaders working today. Rolldown, which consists of reedist Aram Shelton, cornetist Josh Berman, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Frank Rosaly sounds like a combination of Blue Note's classic, avant-leaning '60s albums with contemporary drive, swing, energy, and attack.

“Adasiewicz has assembled a quintet of astounding musical proportion and depth, playing his tricky music that seems to have no limits of imagination, wit or wisdom." - The All Music Guide

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/rolldown.html

Formed by the twice Grammy-nominated drummer/composer John Hollenbeck, who The Village Voice called, "superb, technically ingenious... passionate and serious, but also playful and funny...” The Claudia Quintet explores the edge without alienating the mainstream, proving that genre-defying music can be for everyone. They are an astonishing band with a huge range of emotional depth and range with appeal far beyond strictly 'jazz' listeners. The Claudia Quintet has amazed audiences from Alabama to the Amazon. Their unique sound has inspired dancing hippie girls at a New Mexico noise festival, the avant-garde cognoscenti in the concert halls of Vienna and Sao Paolo, and a generation of young musicians worldwide.

Their music marries jazz, new music, post-rock – but no laundry list of influences is quite sufficient to describe their iconoclastic sound. Suffice it to say, you can feel secure bringing your hipster nephew and your math professor along to a gig, and everyone will go home happy. The Claudia Quintet’s music demonstrates that “Innovative jazz does not have to be harsh, angry, loud, shrill or grating; it can be delicate, witty, ethereal and radiantly lyric…”(Chicago Tribune).

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/claudia.html

Upsilon Acrux is an instrumental quintet (dual guitars, keyboards, bass and drums). Their music is not easy to describe but attempts to do so regard it as esoteric, mathematical, athletic, and noisy. It is generally very intense, loud, hard-hitting and unbelievably virtuosic.

Prefix Magazine notes that the music is"...weird and playful and glowing, a much-needed antidote to the normally sober world of instrumental progressive rock.” The combination of blazingly fast, interwoven musical lines delivered at blinding speed mixed with their unique melodic sense makes Upsilon's music instantly recognizable. They are "Technically brilliant, rhythmically unbelievable, with just the right amount of melody," (Disagreement.net). Upsilon Acrux is one of the most creative and original of the shockingly large number of great post-punk, avant-garde rock bands today.

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/upsilon.html

Based out of Brooklyn, NY and creating a group sound that is truly their own, Afuche is a band that needs to be heard by lovers of adventurous, modern progressive music! Formed by Ruben Sindo Acosta & Zach Ryalls in 2008, they have been adding to the ensemble and evolving their sound by writing, performing, and touring non-stop – it was at one of their many shows where we found them and watched their continued development with keen interest.

Afuche is a 5 piece band featuring Ruben on keyboard, vocals and percussion, Zach on guitar, Denny Tek on bass, Andrew Carrico on baritone sax and Max Jaffe on drums. Taking their cues from Can, The Dirty Projectors, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, James Brown, Tortoise, as well as African and Afro-Cuban music, they take these musical influences as a base and apply their own group sound to it and bend it all into a hybrid, original and very progressive contemporary rock music that is interestingly complex without losing its inviting quality; most of all Afuche is a lot of fun.  

http://cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/afuche.html

Founded in 2001 by drummer and composer Gregg Bendian, The Mahavishnu Project is dedicated to reviving and bringing to today's audiences the excitement and the transcendent experience of visceral intensity of the early days of jazz/rock in general and the music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra specifically. The band was formed by Gregg to perpetuate the spirit of live performance in which this music was created by performing this great music live! Return to the Emerald Beyond features a 11 piece band interpreting The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Visions of the Emerald Beyond, one of the most explosive albums in the fusion genre. This is not a sound-alike project; Gregg and the band do not try to recreate the solos of the original players. What they do do is capture the amazing intensity and fire that the Mahavishnu Orchestra exuded, add their own selves to it and allow people to experience it first hand in concert and now on record. The band just slay the material and play it with conviction and belief .

"To hear you guys playing those tunes in such an unbelievable way is quite amazing. Great job! Keep up the good work." - John McLaughlin.

"What is primary to me is they are all great musicians. Everyone has to be a good improviser. It's not enough to transcribe the tunes themselves. You have to be able to take them to another place.... These guys can get there." - Jan Hammer.

"...they grab the bar the original Mahavishnu set during its 1971 - '74 peak and raise it a notch. There's a truly amazing level of musicianship at play here, balancing focus, intensity and freedom..." - The Boston Phoenix 

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/maha.html

Hamster Theatre, which is co-led by multi-instrumentalists Dave Willey and Jon Stubbs, straddles the edges of folk music, avant-garde, world music, modern classical and improvisation. Using an instrumentation of accordion, keyboards, trombones, saxophones, clarinets, flutes, guitars, mandolin, bass, drums and percussion, their pieces are always filled with delightful melodies and surprising orchestrations.

Their compositions are “delivered with amazing technical dexterity, focusing on melody, mood and dynamics. The group really tears it up, performing with passion and daunting expertise." - Paul Lemos

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/hamster.html

Thinking Plague is an avant-garde rock group founded in 1982 by guitarist/composer, Mike Johnson, and bass guitarist/drummer, Bob Drake. Their music explores the frontiers where rock, folk, jazz and modern symphonic meet. Through these explorations, the band has created "a genre of music unto itself, eclectically derivative in a bold way and spectacularly innovative in the old-fashioned sense of genuine originality" (Journal Wired).

"Thinking Plague stands out as a shining example of avant-garde music blended with just enough rock for it to be called progressive rock" - Music.com

Thinking Plague’s music combines lyricism with intense and sophisticated rhythmic and harmonic ideas. Their influences cover a spectrum ranging from Beatles and Byrds to Henry Cow and William Schuman. At moments the sound of Thinking Plague may begin to resemble pop or jazz music only to be stretched or "morphed" in the next instant into new regions that often defy categorization.

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/thinking.html

"let's get something straight right now everybody: don't call me "Walter". I don't come up to you and call you by your last name. we're not in japan or the military. get used to it." 

John Zorn is indeed amazing, but the saxophonist/composer/record-label owner tends to be the token name that's thrown out when talking about modern avant-garde or so-called improvised weirdo music. Weasel Walter, even though there's nothing token about him, arguably needs to be included in this discussion. A former Chicago and Oakland resident who currently lives in New York City, Walter co-founded the spazztastic (and sadly defunct) The Flying Luttenbachers before moving on to collaborations with a ridiculous amount of fellow uncompromisers, ranging from Marshall Allen and Henry Kaiser to Mary Halvorson and Jim O'Rourke.

On top of that, Walter has been, for years, releasing some of the most far-leaning left-field albums out there on his ugEXPLODE Records. (A newbie to the label? Start with the quartet and double-trio effort Firestorm, where Walter writes "With this music, I am attempting to express highly articulated violence and fury" in the liner notes.) For his Super Happy gig, drummer Walter will be joined by an all-star cast of local improvisers, including Sandy Ewen (guitar), Seth Paynter (woodwinds), David Dove (trombone), Nick Hennies (vibes), Thomas Helton (tuba) and, last but not least, Damon Smith (bass), a recent Houston transplant who has appeared on countless recordings with Walter, and is the person responsible for bringing this sonic madman to town. Houston Press

With the success of his so-called "spazztastic" past ensembles and shows, his newst project, Ottokar, will be sure to please.

"Tenor saxophonist Jason Robinson marries intellect to seat, brains to bawdiness, narrative to sidetrack, straight line to detour, familiarity to surprise–the dualities peppering this long, exciting disc go on. The tunes shift meter, texture and voice...the nine tracks here roil, burn and involve. Parsing each track would spawn an article far longer than a magazine can bear. To appreciate its ambition, daring and execution, listen to Robinson's ambitious, boundary-busting album. Then listen again. Modern, oracular and communal, it stretches the limits of improvisation." – JazzTimes

"The ensemble that Robinson assembled for the session is composed of several of modern jazz's most individualistic players...Robinson's compositions manage to draw a straight line through bop, Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy straight into the modern day with acute-angle swing, blues-bluster and memorable themes that seem to scratch at the back of the mind with familiarity without resorting to quotation or imitation....Robinson's pieces straddle the timeline in a way that sets each musician off on his own exploratory path." (4 stars) – Downbeat

The Two Faces of Janus - one face looking at the past, one face looking towards the future. Borrowed from Greek mythology, Janus is an apt metaphor for the lat-est release by accomplished reedist and composer Jason Robinson. Robinson first appeared on Cuneiform with the long-running collective ensemble Cosmologic. Now he steps forward with a solo album that features a stellar band, all of whom are distinguished figures in jazz and improvised music as well as all being top-drawer bandleaders in their own right.

http://cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/robinson.html

"Great writing and ensemble playing. Deep thoughtful solos." – Jack DeJohnette

Proficient, creative, a first-call, in-demand bassist, Carlo De Rosa has earned a reputation of very high standards. As a composer and band-leader of the quartet Cross-Fade, he also has very high standards, but outside of New York City clubs, this work has not been widely recognized. Brain Dance is set to remedy that situation!

Cross-Fade is a band of top-drawer musicians. In addition to Carlo's work on bass, the band features the constantly inventive saxophone work of Mark Shim, who released three albums on Blue Note and who plays here with an amazing fire and fervor, playing fast and intricate melodic lines as if cutting butter. Drummer Justin Brown is the youngest member of the group and the least known at this time, but his playing here is agile, assured and quite mind-boggling. Pianist Vijay Iyer should need no introduction; he is the rising young piano star of jazz today. Iyer was named the 2010 Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association and he is up for a Grammy in February for 'best instrumental jazz album'.

These are obviously all great players, but great players deserve great material and one of the notable things about Brain Dance is the writing. The compositions give the players malleable material with which to work with; there's plenty of thematic material, but also plenty of room for them to add their individuality. The end result is greater than even the sum of their musical talents and the compositions. The music constantly moves between the modern, avant-garde and electric jazz worlds, never standing still, but taking the most interesting and attractive elements of these worlds and combining them into a new whole. For the listener who appreciates modern, cutting-edge jazz as well as cutting-edge jazz/rock, this album will be a hugely enjoyable musical revelation! 

http://cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/derosa.html

The Washington Post has described Matthew’s writing as "sharply contrasting forms, textures and tones... strident, joyful, lush and strutting"

Seminal saxophonist Dave Liebman writes, "great writing originality of style, and a wide variety of moods"

Matthew Steckler was born and raised in Schenectady, NY, the product of artistic, post-1960s child-rearing. His parents, both at one time art teachers, encouraged Matthew to appreciate all things beautiful and, at the same time, pursue his muse, particularly with lessons on piano and saxophone. In high school, theater, music, discussion, literature and travel led to the formation of his worldly views. Matthew then enrolled at Wesleyan University where he studied music, as well as Russian, literature and history. It was here that the idea of individuality in music took on importance.

In the years ahead, Matthew would hone skills that support his creative endeavors with studies at New England Conservatory. He wrote prolifically at this time for the group Dead Cat Bounce, an ensemble that has since gained a national reputation and high critical standing. Since graduating, Matthew has continued the efforts of DCB, and has been the leader of additional projects including Persiflage, Lavender Jones & The Dead Giveaways, The Famous, The South End Ramblers, and has produced numerous works for orchestra, chamber groups, film & theatre.

His work as a side person includes appearances with Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Joe Lovano, Jim McNeely, Pheeroan Aklaff, Warren Smith, Neely Bruce, Randy Brecker, Lee Konitz, Bobby Sanabria, George Russell, Lenny Pickett, Bob Moses, Jay Hoggard, Gunther Schuller, Inter-Art Ensemble, George Lewis, Gamelan Song of Lion, Wesleyan Steel Pans, Dinu Ghezzo, Roswell Rudd, MC Frontalot, Jon Hendricks, Grace Baptist Church, Jazz Composers Alliance, Steve Songs, Made in the Shade, Head of State, Smokehouse Prophets, Sam Bigelow, Brandon Patton and others.

Among Matthew's achievements are commissions from Meet the Composer and Chamber Music America, a 3-time poll winner in the Boston Phoenix, and a Boston Music Award. Reviews are available in Jazz Times,Cadence, Signal to Noise, All About Jazz - NYC, Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, and other publications. Matthew has performed internationally in China, Romania, Russia, Cuba and North America.

His teaching credits include 3 years at NYC Public and Parochial Schools, 3 years at Cambridge Public Schools, musical direction at Salem State Summer Theatre, collegiate workshops and private lessons. Matthew now resides in New York City with his wife Megan, attending New York University as a Ph.D. candidate in music composition.

Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic began in 1980 as a side project by half of Boston's now legendary Mission Of Burma, one of the most important American rock bands of the last 20 years.

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic is a striking 4-piece ensemble that is almost entirely instrumental, and incorporates many different musical elements. They combine equal parts progressive rock, pulse, classical, and more into an instantly recognizable whole. Critic Rick Anderson writes, "Very few bands have ever managed to straddle the worlds of modern classical music and rock as successfully as this one did.

”

Perhaps because of their tie to the ever-popular Burma or perhaps because of their sheer excellence and innovative instrumental music, Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic has earned audience appeal and wide international recognition. The New York Times called them "the world's hardest rocking chamber music quartet." Their unlikely mix of rock, punk, classical, minimalism, and free-form sound appealed to a broad range of musical tastes.

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/birdsongs.html

Rattlemouth is Richmond, Virginia's Ethio Jazz and World Groove powerhouse. Featuring the saxophone tandem of Danny Finney and Roger Carroll, the monster rhythm section of Robbie Kinter (drums) and Marc S. Langelier (bass) and the guitar of George M. Lowe, they blaze through spirited instrumental updates of classic tunes from around the world (Mali, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Cuba, Jamaica, Lebanon, etc.), plus similarly flavored originals, inspiring audiences to equally spirited dancing. This current body of work, which comprises their live repertoire, is captured on their new cd 5.

Having emerged from the ashes of the legendary Orthotonics in 1989, Rattlemouth is also known for it's extensive catalogue of art rock, as presented on their two releases on the renowned Cuneiform label in the late 90's and the 2006 self-released, Hopabout. This latter cd advances the shift in direction toward world grooves, as evidenced by several middle eastern inspired original compositions. From Rattlmouth's official website, to read more, follow the link to the the right

Alec K Redfearn is a musician, songwriter and composer who has created music for dance, theater, and film. He has also developed a unique style of playing the accordion, introducing elements commonly associated with the guitar such as distortion, drone, and noise. He has performed on accordion and recorded in several ensembles of which he also composes for, such as Amoebic Ensemble, Barnacled, Beat Circus, and most notably, the Eyesores.

The Eyesores are a large and powerful nine-piece band from Providence, Rhode Island. They are a genre-bending ensemble that combines a vast array of influences such as old-time Americana, acid folk, and Eastern European music with their own unorthodox instrumentation. This band is simultaneously drawing from the 'primitive' and 'avant-garde' esthetic, and blending together this huge range of styles into a distinctive and charming sound that leaves their audiences equally enthralled and confused.

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/redfearn.html

"...into completely new horizons similar to nothing you've heard before... captivating, hypnotic, and attractively exotic music" - All Music Guide  

Ergo is a trio made up of Carl Maguire on Rhodes electric piano and analog synth, Shawn Baltazor on drums and lead by Brett Sroka on trombone and laptop. Their music is one of stark melodic beauty, enveloping electro-acoustic texture and empathic imagination. They have been playing together since 2003, combining the modern sound of electronica and beyond with jazz and ambient music. The basic building blocks of their sound are beats and electronics, trombone, the Fender Rhodes and drums. The music here generally develops slowly but it's also very accessible while remaining something that holds active interest.

In the early 2000s, Brett Sroka began exploring beyond his Jazz background and became fascinated with electronic music, surrounding himself with synthesizers and software. As he sought to reconcile the six hundred years of technology between trombone and computer he also found musicians of similarly elastic and adventurous temperaments. As they continued to play together, an idiosyncratic dynamic began to cohere and Ergo was born. With their debut cd, the band put forth a statement of purpose and were lauded by AllAboutJazz-NY for “Best Debut CD” of 2006. Ergo’s sophomore cd, “multitude, solitude” brings the band further into it’s own. They have refined a unique style of unadorned melody and intrepid improvisation with a sensual approach to the post-modern techniques of sampling, synthesis and signal processing.

http://cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/ergo.html

Forever Einstein is an avante-garde band formed in 1989, described as a, "very smart trio," consisting of percussionist John Roulat, bassist Kevin Gerety, and guitarist Charles O'Meara, aka C.W. Vrtacek. Past members include original bassist Marc Sichel and Jack Vees. They were a featured act at the annual MIMI festival of progressive music in France (1991) and Prog Day in North Carolina (2003). They are known for tightly weaving a variety of styles such as folk, surf-rock, jazz, metal, country and more into concise, highly arranged pieces with long, often ridiculous titles. They have been compared to King Crimson, Frank Zappa, and Gong. 

http://cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/forever.html

Nick Didkovsky (born 1958) is a composer, guitarist, computer music programmer, and leader of the band Doctor Nerve. He is a former student of Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros and Gerald Shapiro. Didkovsky has developed a Java music API called JMSL (Java Music Specification Language). JMSL is a toolbox for algorithmic composition and performance. JMSL includes JScore, an extensible staff notation editor. JMSL can output music using either JavaSound or JSyn. 

"With diligence and dedication, Kit Watkins and Nick Didkovsky have found a way to pursue their art. For them, success isn't measured in dollars. It consists of daily satisfaction in their work. Without Kit and Nick, I might not bother listening to music." Jim Dorsch - Beer, The Magazine 

After forming Zevious in 2006 as a straight jazz trio, guitarist Mike Eber, drummer Jeff Eber, and bassist John DeBlase immediately broke free of the bonds of tradition. Mike ditched the jazz guitar for a Telecaster and DeBlase replaced his upright with an electric bass and they both picked up distortion pedals and cranked them up. Zevious began combining progressive rock grooves, tech metal, structured group improvisation, and complex song forms with a conventional jazz sound, creating a unique compositional style. Zevious is a distinctive fusion band in the burgeoning punk-jazz movement. Vijay Iyer notes, "The music of Zevious shrewdly juxtaposes order and its opposite: structural intensity pushed to its breaking point in the most appealing way. These boys are brilliant and fearless."

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/zevious.html

What happens when you take four highly opinionated, strong-willed and creative composer/musicians and put them in a band together? You might have a volatile problem on your hand...or you have Gutbucket.

Founded by bassist Eric Rockwin, saxophonist Ken Thomson, guitarist Ty Citerman, and drummer Paul Chuffo between shifts at Columbia University's vital WKCR, Gutbucket built their all-important live rep in New York clubs before spreading across east coast college towns like a hoard of freethinking barbarians.

The decade-old New York quartet is not only equally comfortable playing in front of 900 sweatily pogo-ing teenage skate-punks, a crowd of cosmic indie-psych freaks, or on an anarchist German art collective houseboat, but most importantly, their music fits right in.

Gutbucket has been destroying walls between art-rock, avant-squonk, and mathed-out prog, The Washington Post calls them “A classic case of a band that defies categorization.” The group attacks their music with the ferocity usually reserved for punk, and the humorous abstraction of art-rock, despite having earned their jazz bona fides.

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/gutbucket.html