New Bad Plus with Ben Monder

[Doctor Jeff]

Just dropped this week. Great stuff as expected.

Ben Monder is his usual excellent self, and interplays well with the other players—sax Chris Speed, drums Dave King, bass Reid Anderson. Lots of great out of the box playing.

Check it out!

[Christian Miller]

Hell yeah!

[Paulie2]

Thanks for sharing, didn’t know this was out.

[Jimmy blue note]

Yeah, just got it. Great chemistry!

[Cunamara]

Perhaps this is because I'm listening to it in my car, I find Monder's guitar sound on this album to be indistinguishable from background noise frequently. Some of it is just a vague rumble with no discernible tonality to it. The bass and drums are clear and punchy, especially the bass which is really well recorded, the sax less so (kazoo-like at times) and the guitar frequently sounding like it's in another room and down the hall. Maybe that will be resolved with better speakers; Apple's sound quality often leaves a lot to be desired.

[Christian Miller]

Ben’s distorted guitar sound does have a bit of a tendency to disappear into the mix sometimes. I noticed this on Black Star as well. i think it might be partly the way it’s EQ’d and also it’s quite heavily distorted tone so it ends up being pretty compressed.

i can still hear what he’s playing though, unlike the Bowie because there’s obviously much less going on in the mix. I think with engine noise it might get lost.

Sometimes the distortion guitar seems more textural anyway which I like.

The cleans seem much better defined.

Anyway, really enjoying the album. It sounds like four guys in a room in the best possible way. Also some really nice tunes. I’m enjoying the looseness and improvisatory-ness of it… I really like the jazz rock thing when it gets away from fusion

[Jimmy blue note]

Perhaps this is because I'm listening to it in my car, I find Monder's guitar sound on this album to be indistinguishable from background noise frequently. Some of it is just a vague rumble with no discernible tonality to it. .

This is one of the many reasons I don't listen to Mahler or Xenakas in the car.

[Doctor Jeff]

Ben’s distorted guitar sound does have a bit of a tendency to disappear into the mix sometimes. I noticed this on Black Star as well. i think it might be partly the way it’s EQ’d and also it’s quite heavily distorted tone so it ends up being pretty compressed.

i can still hear what he’s playing though, unlike the Bowie because there’s obviously much less going on in the mix. I think with engine noise it might get lost.

Sometimes the distortion guitar seems more textural anyway which I like.

The cleans seem much better defined.

Anyway, really enjoying the album. It sounds like four guys in a room in the best possible way. Also some really nice tunes. I’m enjoying the looseness and improvisatory-ness of it… I really like the jazz rock thing when it gets away from fusion

I certainly think it was intentional on Blackstar, i.e., for the guitar to be mostly an industrial sound in the background. He only really cuts loose on I Can’t Give It All Away. Best to remember that that was a Bowie record, not a Monder record. Similar to David Torn’s guitars in The Next Day.

As always, listening with good headphones or a good sound system rewards the music fan.

[Christian Miller]

I certainly think it was intentional on Blackstar, i.e., for the guitar to be mostly an industrial sound in the background. He only really cuts loose on I Can’t Give It All Away. Best to remember that that was a Bowie record, not a Monder record. Similar to David Torn’s guitars in The Next Day.

Yes, I expect Visconti knows what he is doing.

But as a jazzer I want to nerd out about every note he's playing haha. The solo on I Can't Give it All Away is still a little bit buried for my tastes. I feel that tone is similar to the one he uses on the Bad Plus record, which is to say there's a lot of high end roll off and quite a lot of drive.

Didn't know Torn was on the Next Day. I didn't really check that one out.

[Doctor Jeff]

Yes, I expect Visconti knows what he is doing.

But as a jazzer I want to nerd out about every note he's playing haha. The solo on I Can't Give it All Away is still a little bit buried for my tastes. I feel that tone is similar to the one he uses on the Bad Plus record, which is to say there's a lot of high end roll off and quite a lot of drive.

Didn't know Torn was on the Next Day. I didn't really check that one out.

I didn’t know Torn was on it either until I saw the documentary The Last Five Years. Very good doc by the way, and very affecting if you’re a David fan.

[Christian Miller]

I didn’t know Torn was on it either until I saw the documentary The Last Five Years. Very good doc by the way, and very affecting if you’re a David fan.

I will check it out when I get the chance. Love Bowie