(((O))) : ZD Grafters – Three Little Birds

Experimental improvisers ZD Grafters are a shape-shifting entity. It’s part of their charm that you can never be sure what you’re going to get. Three Little Birds is the first recorded evidence of their mutation into a power trio. Zac and Dave are joined by Riddell, bringing the blasting brass to their ‘parole jazz’ party which is now a wild affair of drum rumble, filthy bass and squalling sax. Overpowered by skronk.

While last year’s (​^​#<​+​*​€​$​¥​·​~​%​?​) album had some nicely spaced out moments of electronic abstraction this one keeps things hectic and chewy. Once again made up of eight tracks, they all jump off from the same basic start point so that it runs together like a single long piece. The Three Little Birds of the title are shown on the sleeve to be the skeletons of pigeons trapped in a chimney, a tale of their sorry end is told across the naming of the tracks – ‘escape is futile’/’broken wings’/’starvation, rot, death’. They’re certainly not about to start “singing sweet songs, of melodies pure and true” but the music isn’t skeletal or cold, it writhes with primal energy.

 

Short and simple riffs or ideas launch the tunes before dissolving and recombining. There are odd moments when only one of them is playing but for the most part everyone is going for it, full force, all the time. There’s no patiently waiting for solos to end or steady working through of motifs, it’s all out spasm smash noise jams all the way with just enough rough structure in place to stop it getting tedious or collapsing in on itself. It’s very instant music, too excitable to get dull, blessedly unselfconscious, made of the in-the-moment joy of making music.

The tempo rarely drops below urgent but it never accelerates into a thrashing blur either. No crescendos. The drums are a restless, rambunctious shuffle, the bass a thickly distorted and propulsive roar while the saxophone circles between them. It creates a brighter pattern of lines but doesn’t float up in front or above the others, it’s all part of the burning whirl of sound going up the chimney. Short, sharp and invigorating Three Little Birds may come in handy over the season, less as a festive soundtrack than as a revitalising psychic scrub. Use as required.