Avant-garde
percussionist and vocalist
David Moss
puts his vocal antics front and center on this ten-years-after follow-up to his debut solo session,
Terrains
.
Moss
pays tribute in his own inimitable and bizarre way to the music that has touched him. Influences range from
free jazz
pioneer
Albert Ayler
to
pop
crooner
Tom Jones
, from African
Cheb Khaled
J.S. Bach
. Regardless of the material, it all gets run through
'
improvisational
blender. Courtesy of overdubbing,
sounds like he's possessed with multiple personalities, and each personality seems to be suffering from Tourette's syndrome. Voices pop in and out of the mix, squawking and wheezing, sometimes squeaky, sometimes stentorian. The result is often, as on
"Delilah"
or
"For JB,"
his nod to
James Brown
, a kind of rambunctious musical cartoon. A few tracks are more restrained.
"Stolen"
showcases his innovative use of steel drum, which he meshes seamlessly with his voice. His set drumming comes to the fore on
"In a Silent Way"
and
"My Favorite Things."
The striking
choral
version of
samba
"Poder de Criacao"
is moving, while
"About 3 Little Fishes"
hints at an early influence of
hip-hop
. All total up to a striking collection of covers done in highly unlikely fashion. ~ David Dupont