Who started crossing the borders between genres and within musical genres? The question might be moot at this point in time, but musicians doing it were never in the middle ground – the critics and listeners were almost always divided in two camps – they either hated it or loved it.
Within both jazz and rock in all their variants you had names like John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis to name just a few on the jazz side, while, within rock, starting in the more cross-pollinating 60s you had Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Velvet Underground and counltess more from there on.
Why specifically mention jazz and rock here? Because here we have an intriguing boundary-pushing musical conglomerate that is doing exactly that – The Messthetics, a trio born out of hardcore pioneers Fugazi (bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty joined by guitarist Anthony Pirog) and jazz saxophonist extraordinaire James Brandon Lewis and their second joint effort Deface The Currency.
Ok, you can place the music here loosely within jazz as such, but neither part of this musical equation ever stuck to the strict rules of either (or any) genre. The Messthetics members always brought that punk/hardcore urgency and energy to their music, and Brandon Lewis, while respecting his roots (Coltrane, Ayler, Coleman, among others), also explored everything from gospel and blues to R&B and hip hop.
The combination of the two brings here some intriguing music that those wanting their musical genres strictly defined will hate, and those with a more daring minds wanting to explore will love – from the full-throttle energy assaults of the title track or “Universal Security” to moody movements of “Gestations” slow-paced “30 Years of Knowing” or melody-driven “Clutch”.
With the centrepiece being the tongue in cheek-titled “Rules of The Game”, they give all the clues – all the rules set in music are there to be broken so you can set them up again giving a chance to somebody else to brake them again.
