Improv group
Bang! Bros. are somewhere in between a basement noise act and a free jazz trio, with bashed-out electronics joined by jagged saxophone by Andy Allen (formerly of
Guerilla Toss). Arkm Foam and Mark Johnson often seem like they're playing Whack-a-Mole with their gear, attacking drum machines and twisting feedback noises into oblivion. Typical of their first-take, in-the-moment spirit, both volumes of Big Bang! Theory were bashed out in a single morning. On the first one, there are moments that start out calm and steady before quickly derailing into confusion and absurdity. "Luminous Blue Variable" starts out hinting at a steadily booming beatbox rhythm, but this gets blitzed out by the end. "Snack Hole" has some relatively mellow keyboards near the beginning which begin to suggest a demo of a deep house cut, but this gets caught in a rut and swarmed by erratic thudding beats, glitches, and skronking sax. "Jeans Instability" is a fun, disorienting mess of clattering drums and pulverized, spluttering noises, while the mind-obliterating "Traversable Wormhole" probably won't be heard at Tresor any time soon. ~ Paul Simpson