BASE3 _DARKMATTER
A visceral experimental extrapolated Delta-jazz-noise-improv-and
in-the-moment compositions featuring Doug Hirlinger on traps,
flute, mbira, and percussion. Barry Meehan on bass, and Tim
Motzer on baritone and electric guitars, pedals, and loops. Fans
of guitar improvisation, burning trios, Marc Ribot and Derek
Bailey will dig this one! An unplanned spontaneous session
recorded in a day in November 2007.
mixed by Rich Chychota.

BASE3_DARKMATTER review:
Although Philadelphia’s Base 3 have much in common with both jazz and rock, their knotty mix of full-blooded sparring and terse introspection avoids the kind of muscular excesses often associated with fusion and its fellow travellers.

Eschewing vulgar displays of technique in favour of something altogether more unified, guitarist Tim Motzer, bassist Barry Meehan and drummer Doug Hirlinger clearly demonstrate that the quality of the listening is every bit as important as the quality of the output.

On the aptly named No Time For Silence, there’s a never-ending supply of discursive moods and ideas being swapped back and forth. Against Meehan’s rumbling rock-steady bass (reminiscent of Michael Henderson’s anchoring riff work with Miles Davis), Motzer and Hirlinger respond with energetic clusters of that are alternately rousing and inquisitive.

With a palpable sense momentum across the entire album, Base 3 are more interested in delivering a collective result rather than any individual standing up in the spotlight. Across four tracks, the constantly mutating forms recall some of Can’s lengthy trance-like expositions, yet sustain the kind of tension and attention required to avoid empty noodling.

A more economic but no less eloquent mode of discourse is found on the album’s closer, Ninth Ward – whose ruminative, often harrowing atmospheres offer a gloomy mediation on the fate of post-Katrina New Orleans. Dark matter indeed.
Sid Smith – Classic Rock Magazine (UK)

credits

Personel:
DOUG HIRLINGER: Traps, Mbira, Percussion, flutes
BARRRY MEEHAN: Bass
TIM MOTZER: Electric & baritone guitars, pedals, loops, amp hum