Friday, February 22, 2013

SCUO, 5678765

Avant free rock-jazz. What's that? If you want to know, one place to start is the duo SCUO. If you know already SCUO still has ideas you'll put yourself into, I think.

SCUO come out of Richmond, Virginia. It's Ron Burton on guitar, Scott Clark on drums. Their EP 5678765 (New Atlantis NA-CAS-004) is a cassette deal, which means it has that different-shaped cover. (Hence the cover illustration is rectangular, as you see.)

Much more importantly, this is dense music, a lot of music for two people to be making. Scott Clark plays some very hip drums and has a big part to play in the compositional sound involved. Ron Burton somehow joins a Beefheartian skronk, the Water Wheel hypnotics of Hamza al Din (not overtly there) with blazing fast tremeloed, double-picked chords and lines. So it's all over the place in ways that sound great and keep your attention riveted.

This is music of both form and outness. And it is very, very worth hearing. Get the cassette!!

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