Fontanelle
(Kranky)
Thanks to Sony/Legacy’s impressive re-issue program of early 1970’s Miles Davis titles, hepsters everywhere have been filling in the blanks on the amazingly forward thinking music the trumpter’s band was creating at the time. Trouble is, many of them started walking around acting like they had been hip to it along, even though many folks shouting “Miles!” the loudest were only like six years old when the records first came out. The other repercussion of the reappearance of things like Live-Evil is a spate of groups who are doing their best to channel some of that magic themselves by launching into “free” music of their own.
Portland, Oregon quartet Fontanelle might be mistakenly lumped in with this new barrage of bands, but the truth is the leaders behind the group have been at this same kind of thing for a while. They are what sometimes is called ahead of the curve. Headed by Andy Brown and Rex Ritter, formerly with Jessamine, there is a definite whiff of electric Miles in the air on tracks like “Reflex vs. Parallax” and “Telephone Fade” from their eponymous debut. Things start up with softly lunging blends of organ, guitar and bass and shapeshift from there, morphing like a mellow acid trip into a different animal by composistion’s end.
Mat Morgan’s drum work (Michael Faeth is in the chair for one tune, “Niagra”) is straight outta the Can school and it anchors things when they get a bit ragged and perhaps best of all, leaves up in the air the question of how much these pieces were actually rehearsed beforehand and how many are just straight improvisational captures. Fontanelle have employed the cut and paste techniques of Miles’ longtime producer Teo Macero, stitching certain passages back and forward to create a rhythmic underpinning, with fine results.
Regardless of how it got there, it would be difficult to imagine those who appreciated the burbling otherworldliness that Jessamine’s final recordings induced not being stoked by Fontanelle debut recording as well. Besides, this record serves to illustrate a bigger point: imitating Miles is one thing, trying to understand and absorb Miles and having him come out in your music because he’s an influence is quite another. With much promise, this record places Fontanelle squarely in the latter camp.
Stinkweeds, 2000
