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"More than a decade since their first (and last) trio album, Dim Bulb (2005), 'Buffalo Steve,' Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty are back on the attack. The three recorded as part of a larger ensemble on the Open Mouth LP, Wrong Number
(2014), but they have a certain way of creating focused trio dynamics
that makes babies talk in tongues and old men drool. The line-up is a
bit unorthodox -- two saxes (one a goddamn baritone) and drums. You
might almost be tempted to call the format European. But it'd be a
canard to try and place this album in the Euro free music tradition. I
mean, yeah, there is some massive outsider brawling here. Buckets of
wind and clumps of tubs 'all double twisted up,' as Fred Blassie
used to say. But the fire never refrains from flaming as jazz-qua-jazz,
which places it a lot more squarely in the American tradition than
actual squares would have you believe. These three are clearly savages,
which is a far cry from people impersonating savages, if you catch my
drift. Beyond that, there is an ineffably jazzoid heft to the music
here. Both Steve and Paul are playing in a distinctly post-Ayler
jetstream. The freedom of their runs maintains that strangely (perhaps
even imaginary or projective) American connection to bar-walking R&B
maniacs -- something that seems to lie at the bottom of our country's
hornic subconscious. Which is not to say individual moments on this
record couldn't have come from the FMP catalog, but there's a red hot
holism here that will brand most asses with the stars & stripes. The Dull Blade
has a strange undercurrent of swing here as well. Largely provided by
Mr. Corsano's driving full kit approach, the most outward-moving
passages (often those involving the inner and outer freak registers of
the horns) get corralled back into more clearly terrestrial and
genuinely moving. It's a great goddamn record. Once again these guys
manage to defy odds and expectations, creating music that is as
fully-charged and beautiful as it is warped." --Byron Coley, 2017 Edition of 400.