Talibam! / Wasteland Jazz Unit split 12"
(Thor's Rubber Hammer)

"The first installment in Thor's Rubber Hammer's Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP series kicks things off right. I've been scooping up Wasteland tapes like nobody's business this year - there are few groups out there that do the blown-out, balls-to-the-walls free jazz skronkfests this well. Half the time it sounds like you're travelling down some side street in Marrakech with a swarm of locusts inside your ears. Like I said, fucking awesome. Talibam slow it down a bit, but there's still some scattered chaos and thick-as-thieves percussion action coupled with cacaphonous synth action and vocals... you're getting there. It's pretty wild stuff that builds up over an entire side of wax. You really should subscribe for the whole series cuz there's splits from I Heart Lung/DWMTG and Valerio Cosi & Enzo Franchini/Jeremiah Cymerman & Matthew Welch. Good. Real good."
-Brad Rose (Digitalis blog)

"The folks over at Thor’s Rubber Hammer (home of the recently highlighted Chartreuse debut) have just released the first split LP in their inspired 3-part Ecstatic Jazz Duosseries. The series already boasts an impressive line up for the remaining two installations in the series but I can’t imagine that those LPs could do much to eclipse what we’ve been blessed with here from Talibam! and Wasteland Jazz Unit. Let’s start with who I’m familiar. Talibam! (one of very few bands who have earned theirmandatory exclamation mark) is America’s very own free-jazz/noise-rock terrorists. Bursting onto the seen fairly recently, Talibam! has secured a nod of reliability through a slew of maddening releases mostly put out on CDr. In the world of free form prog and jazz, reliability is key. With the ranks of improvisation swelling, it is hard not to get suckered into some second rate jam session pitched as some new hipster salvation. Fortunately, Talibam! is the real deal. Coupling inhuman drum schizophrenia (a requirement for successful free jazz in my book) and synthesized electronic buffoonery, this drum n’ keys duo plows through 18+ minutes of manipulated prog rock lunacy. The piece constantly evolves into various contortions of noise addled madness that even breaks away momentarily at about the midway point to introduce vocals to the mix with some type of alternate reality rap. Yeah, it’s definitely out there and, yes, it’s definitely good. On the flip, I was happy to discover my new best friends, Wasteland Jazz Unit. This duo leans much farther into noise territory with two extended jams that reach just past eight minutes. Both are experiments in audio brutality. Using a saxophone and clarinet to unrecognizable ends, Wasteland Jazz Unit produces an abrasive aural commotion that sounds a little bit like a batch of Axolotl tracks layered on top of each other and then pounded together with a jackhammer. It really is a beautiful destruction (emphasis on the destruction). Yep, with two more records left to go in the series, it is going to be hard to top the level ridiculously enjoyable confusion the two duos have served up."
-Mr. Thistle (Forest Gospel)

"The idea that this type of playing is being identified as jazz is a fact that makes me proud to be alive in my particular time and place. It tells me that people are taking the energy from previous jazz forms,but none of the structure. Talibam!, while sometimes a trio with a sax player, are streamlined here to a drum and synth duo. The drumming is an exhausting and pleasurable listen; the synth work is totally remedial. As for the Wasteland Jazz side, horns are heard trilling throughout the piece, but most of the reed work is processed into pure noise. You can sign up on the label’s website as a subscriber to the entire Ecstatic Jazz Duo series. I can’t wait for the second installment."
-Bardos Freedoom (#10 in Alex Shaw's Top 10 Out Jazz Records of 2008)

"The Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP features two acts crumpling up jazz and then trying to press it flat again while the Long Legged Woman 7inch in some ways feels like a lost relic of the 90s but still somehow sounds very "now.
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Talibam! covers the first side with "The Geometric Mophometrics of P.P.P.P.P. McNasticals". Beginning with chiming church bells/church organ sounds and then promptly freaking out, Talibam! gives you a good idea of what you’re in for right off the bat. Having downsized into a duo of synthesizer and drums since the last record I heard by them, they sound tighter here. They indulge more in their idiosyncrasies but also incorporate them more coherently. After that freak out full of pitch bender and modulation wheel spinning things settle into a pretty heavy, thick maelstrom of sound—always impressive coming out of two people, especially on synth and drums. The drums begin to shoulder the majority of the wigging out and the synth interjects a few sci-fi organ parts before getting heavy once more and bringing it all home. Probably my favorite moment of the whole record is this heavy pummeling is resolved with a totally unexpected hip hop section where someone is yelling “party one” or something like that and other voices are saying unintelligible stuff too. It’s a brilliant, inspired moment to be sure. After the 30 seconds of party jams things return to normal but with a slightly more rock vibe to go with the skronk. The element that makes this side work is Talibam! keeps things moving constantly. There are no dead sections or places where the two aren’t sure exactly where they are headed. This is a pretty rare and impressive aspect to find in jazz in general and especially in underground jazz stuff I’ve heard. After that freak out ends, there is a vaguely fugue-like part where the synth keeps looping parts over itself. It’s quite cool but doesn’t last as the drums crash the party rather quickly. Matt Mottel’s synthwork runs the gamut here contributing mellow organ-type parts like that as well as weird farty, ray-gun sounds that jump around Kevin Shea’s unfailingly energetic and hectic drumming. A pretty rad 18 minutes that flies by. I’m gonna be away in Europe when they’re playing Seattle in the spring, and after hearing this I’m even more bummed about it. Compared to the stuff I heard from them a year or more ago they are really taking things to the next level.

Wasteland Jazz Unit resides on the second side. I’d heard the name around but I knew nothing about them, but I figured with a name like that how can they not be great? This shit fully exceeded my expectations, not to mention that I just lost it when I saw this is only saxophone and clarinet. WJU seriously maximize the badass potential of a sax/clarinet line-up. I refuse to believe someone could make gnarlier, more intense sounds with that set-up than Jon Lorenz and John Rich do. My favorite of the two tracks here “Termite Prayer” comes first and let me say it is dangerous to listen to with headphones. The two guys spit out probably thousands of shards of feedback in this track. It’s almost like harsh noise. There are layers of sound here, but they aren’t static. Tones are very rarely sustained and when they are its meaningful. I’d describe the sounds as “jellybone” if they weren’t so punishing. You can still tell the sounds are coming from sax and clarinet but those instruments are morphed into entirely different beasts. Similarly to my comment about the Talibam! side, things are in a constant state of motion here, never getting stale or feeling long. “Cicada Sermon” begins less harshly with an almost industrial vibe (not the genre) before things explode in low-end rumble and blaring sax or clarinet not even sure which. The textures conjured up here are just phenomenally tactile and jagged. It’s not quite as in-the-red as “Termite Prayer” so there is a little bit more by way of melodic tones coming to the surface. No doubt it’s still crushing. I’m amazed how Lorenz and Rich create such a strong, if constantly shifting, sense of rhythm. They aren’t using loops that I can hear, and obviously there is no percussion driving the pieces, but they’re rhythmically driven nonetheless. I guess that ability is just one thing that separates them from your average free jazz crew. Anyone into non-traditional jazz, noise, improvisatory music or just really intense sounds should check this record. A tour-de-force of a jazz album in a way I’ve never heard before."
-Auxiliary Out

Cardboard Sax / Wasteland Jazz Unit split 12"
(Community College)

"Lastly a fine split LP (COMMUNITY COLLEGE 030) of fatal noise and deadly electronics, sent from the Community College Records label in Toledo Ohio. The B-side is given over to Wasteland Jazz Unit, a collective who have collaborated with Burning Star Core and who run a DIY venue in Cincinnati. Their brand of sparky racket is absolutely sizzling, but it's the A-side which is offering more in the way of intrigue and quizzical eyebrow-raising for this listener. Subdued, mysterious and stark, Cardboard Sax have a threatening edge to their sound that plays havoc with my nerve endings like a sort of metaphysical Jack Frost. This trio features members of Uneven Universe and Haunted Castle, and John Olson of Wolf Eyes / Dead Machines. The cover art by Jason Zeh is darn fine too, with its agonised morphing faces on one side and horrifying Rorschach blots on the verso, all rendered in no-nonsense blacks. The duck-billed platypus in the corner is, I assume, the record label logo."
-The Sound Projector

"Speaking of the boys down at Community College, they just released this hellraisin’ slab of vinyl that ought to be on the turntable of every Midwest noise freak this winter. A side’s got Olson & friends laying down aggro bong slobber sax gunk that’ll melt your brain. Flip it over and you’ve got the W.J. Unit delivering more of the same except gunkier and sludgier. Great melting demonic cover art by Mr. Jason Zeh, too. A must have."
-Ear Bleed

"One of the only minor downfalls to the staggering output machine known as American Tapes, is this automatic assumption I have that a majority of the projects are shot lived / one offs / bound to be AM-TAPES only things, though with the obvious exceptions of Wolf Eyes, Graveyards, Dead Machines, etc. One great example would be WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT, a great duo who I wrote about a few months ago, with the false understanding of Paul C (from Murder Murder, Total Shutdown being in the band - I was confusing them with Man Slaughter). Due to them contacting me to say hello and let me know, I wound up being vacuumed to their internet space, and a few weeks (months?) later finally remembered to pick up to new LPs that they've done, both splits. One if with a John Olson / Haunted Dan /Uneven Universe' Holly trio called Cardboard Sax, who contribute a nicely recorded reeds / flute? / electronics negative space style block of sound. Nasty sounding for the shortest of moments, but mostly a hollow tin chamber channeling Michigan through your turntable loud and clear (and quiet). The other split is with a project I know nothing about, TALIBAM! which is a free-form schizophrenic drums/ organ+synthesizer duo (with occasional vocals - but not much really), definitely sounds like something that Load Records would have released in the early 2000's - like somewhere between Neon Hunk and Lightning Bolt. 

On both of their sides of these, WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT offer full throttle onslaught of jazz / noise. Credited as "sax"and "clarinet', it's obvious they are heavily processed to the point that the noise and feedback are the forefront of the sound tons of the time. An interesting idea that is coming from a pretty simple thought: why not just amplify, distort, and generally further destroy a pure "free jazz" style chunk of sound. Thick, textured grime peeled from the depths of true wasteland environment. Pretty fucking awesome, and I bet this is wild to see live. I'm glad I picked both of these up, and there are not exactly boat loads of these sitting around, so if it sounds interesting,... you know."
-Gilgongo Records / Clap and Cough blog


Wasteland Jazz Unit- Solar Static Coves
(American Tapes)

"In 1986, Frank Zappa released an album titled Jazz From Hell, and now, nearly 20 years later, it seems that we finally have a proper referent for that term, one I’m sure not even Zappa could have seen coming. Wasteland Jazz Unit is the Cincinnati duo of saxophonist Jon Lorenz and clarinetist John Rich. These Midwestern boys have been releasing music for about two years but have brutally murdered and simultaneously freed more instruments than most so-called “free jazz” groups do in their lifetimes. Solar Static Coves is a relentless demand for a genre apocalypse and an ensuing rebirth. Saxophones bleat for their lives at the slaughterhouse of the droning tones that crawl around the periphery of the album. Clarinets are tied to chairs in cement rooms with no windows, beaten daily for years with oscillating noise bats. A sort of coerced nirvana arises among these elements who constantly assure the mutual destruction of all the others. Jazz from hell, from mars, from the depths of Gary Busey’s soul— call it whatever you want, but it’s the future."
-Gabriel Keehn (Tiny Mix Tapes- Eureka! Favorite Albums of 2008)

"Who knew biker gangs dug jazz? This sounds like some leather clad dudes in that scary dark alley pounding the shit out of you with a saxophone. And they waste no time either. Put a random album of theirs in and they totally rip your ears apart from the get go. The ultimate free jazz."
-Joris Heemskerk, Foxy Digitalis (Best CD-R Only 2008)