(Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazzcore, ugEXPLODE) [WEB] Vinny Golia, Damon Smith, Weasel Walter - Grosses Messer - 2009, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Recorded on August 3, 2008 at 21 Grand in Oakland, CA by Scott R. Looney, except tracks 4,7 and 9 recorded at True Love Cafe, Sacramento, CA on August 2, 2008 by Weasel Walter. Mixed and mastered by Weasel Walter.
Drummer and bandleader Weasel Walter has spent time leading guitar-heavy electrified spazz-improv units under the Flying Luttenbachers moniker, not to mention the Masayuki Takayanagi-inspired Plane Crash (ugExplode, 2009, with guitarist Henry Kaiser and bassist Damon Smith). But just as much of his discography centers on taking free improvisation to its densest extremes. One of the last sessions that Walter cut while living in the Bay Area, before his recent relocation to Brooklyn, was this power trio with Smith and reedman Vinny Golia, Grosses Messer ("Large Knives"). Golia's recordings of late have tended to focus on spare, moody chamber improvisation or huffing explorations of breath's lower depths. An excellent composer to boot, it has been some time since his lung power has been captured in a raucous set of free playing. "Plancon a Picot" finds Golia on bass saxophone, digging in with wide swaths of gaudy reed-paint as Smith yanks and pummels an amplified upright bass. Rare indeed is the recording where Weasel Walter's particle barrage is nearly overpowered by masses of air and string. That's not to say Golia's blowing isn't without a discernible sense of phrasing—on the contrary, his sweeping clear-cuts of saxophony have a chugging relentlessness.
Smith and Walter are positively furious on "Murder-Hole," gritty arco and pummeling triplicate gallop displaying a fat lilt, while Golia's possessed saxello trills punch holes in coagulation. There's a crazed dance to "Butterknife," country-punk at light-speed mated with buzzing piccolo saxophone, Golia riding high above the thrash. Honest-to-goodness timekeeping makes an appearance on "Mercygiver" with meaty pizzicato and Walter's hyperactive take on drummer Rashied Ali
's barnstorming free-bop. Though amazingly cutting, the soprillo doesn't exactly fill in as much area as a bass sax. Only one piece, "Voluge," features tenor, on which Golia's hard-bitten lyricism comes through. But there's more than enough out-front excitement and manic facility at the low end to make pieces like "Lance, Bill and French Dirk" sing in overdrive, a boppish snatch even appearing during an unaccompanied bass saxophone blast. Despite a few abrupt edits, this limited-edition disc is recommended listening for those who like their improv in the red. - Clifford Allen, All About Jazz

Vinny Golia: soprillo, tenor and bass saxophones, saxello
Damon Smith: double bass
Weasel Walter: drums