Chicago-based musician Ben Billington plays drums in
Tiger Hatchery, an abrasive free jazz trio following in the footsteps of
Peter Brötzmann, Borbetomagus, and
Pain Killer (not to mention the back catalog of the legendary ESP-Disk, which issued the band's 2013 album, Sun Worship). His solo work as
Quicksails is vastly different, although it still seems to be concerned with energy and earthly transcendence. He combines jazzy drums and reeds with modular synth tones and hypnotic repetition inspired by Krautrock and minimalist composers like
Terry Riley. His recordings meld acoustic and electronic instrumentation, and while they don't adhere to conventional song structures, they're still focused and attentive. All of the songs on this LP average around four minutes each, and they're brimming with clapping rhythms, fluttering synths, and babbling pulsations. It's incredibly playful and dreamy, but there's also a bit of roughness to it. At its most ecstatic, such as "Silent Separation," the music seems to overflow and splatter, yet the ebb and flow of the droning synthesizers keep things somewhat in order, rather than turning into a jumbled mess. The album does get darker and more uncertain toward the end, but finale "Mortality Sweep" slowly trudges in the direction of some sort of acceptance or understanding rather than just giving up and retreating into depression. ~ Paul Simpson