BABs

“The Vulture Watches”

(Loop Records, Loop 1024)

The group identifier BABs is an acronym of the names of its members, double bassist Olie Brice, clarinettist James Allsopp and electronics wizard Alex Bonney who is credited with real-time laptop processing and synths.

The three individuals are part of North London’s Loop Collective and to date the trio has released two albums on the Collective’s ‘Mini Loop’ record label, 2012’s “Diving Bells” and 2015’s “The Vulture Watches”. Both recordings are available as digital releases on the Loop Collective’s Bandcamp page http://www.loopcollective.bandcamp.com 
“The Vulture Watches” is also available as a limited edition CD (of 100) via the Bandcamp page or at the trio’s gigs.

Brice, Allsopp and Bonney are very busy musicians who are involved in a myriad of other projects, as both leaders and sidemen, within and beyond the bounds of the Loop Collective and too many to mention here. Bonney is also an acclaimed recording engineer and producer who has been involved with some of the best UK jazz recordings of recent years. He is also a talented trumpeter but in the context of BABs his role is purely that of sound artist / soundscaper.

Although it is entirely improvised the electronic element ensures that the music of BABs is very different to both mainstream jazz and idiomatic free improv, although spiritually it is closer to the latter. During the 2015 EFG London Jazz Festival I saw the group give an absorbing late night live performance at a semi-darkened Vortex. The music was uncompromising and sometimes unsettling, but never less than fascinating. It was here that Olie Brice was kind enough to provide me with a review copy of this CD, so my thanks to him for that.

The performance at the Vortex consisted of a single forty minute improvisation that ebbed and flowed as it explored various aspects of sonic texturing with Bonney radically treating the sounds of his colleagues’ instruments, some of these already pretty extreme thanks to the use of extended techniques. Bonney’s electronics also helped to give the music rhythmic impetus thanks to a series of electronically generated percussive sounds.

Recorded over the course of two days in June 2014 at Earconnector Studios “The Vulture Watches” consists of six shorter improvised pieces. Whereas “Diving Bells” adopted something of an aquatic theme “The Vulture Watches” draws its inspiration from desert landscapes and scenes with the titles of the individual pieces reflecting this. At the Vortex Allsopp’s only instrument was the bass clarinet and it remains his main horn here, although he is also credited with regular clarinet.

The album commences with “Ant,Termite,Scorpion (The Vulture Watches)” which introduces the trio’s highly individual soundworld, - the sounds of drum sticks on bass strings, a vague electronic pulse and other electronically generated percussive rustlings, grainy bass clarinet sounds – all of it subtly manipulated via Bonney’s laptop. Gently atmospheric at first the music becomes more animated and unsettling as the piece progresses, the intensity increasing as Allsopp’s blowing becomes more forceful with a plaintive vocalised edge. He almost enters into a duel with Brice, whose bass shudders with both pizzicato and arco generated sounds, Bonney seeming to act as referee as he channels the sounds through his laptop. Eventually the music peaks and the piece resolves itself in a fading electronic pulse. It’s not music for the faint hearted, but like the group’s live performance it represents a strangely absorbing experience for the adventurous listener.

The richly atmospheric “Coyote, Moonthief” begins in near silence, one can imagine the chill stillness of the desert night. This is an improvisation that is primarily concerned with mood building, an almost subliminal electronic pulse approximates the hum of cicadas as Allsopp’s reeds brood and keen gently alongside the gentle drone of Brice’s bowed bass. Again the sounds are filtered and processed by Bonney as snatches of melody abound and Allsopp’s reeds acquire a Middle Eastern inflection. The piece seems to evolve organically and logically and to develop a spontaneous, self contained sense of structure. The overall effect is hauntingly beautiful making this piece a real album highlight.

“Drinking In Droplets, Blooming With Bats” opens with the sound of pecked reeds and plucked and struck strings, the cumulative effect approximating the sound of water droplets falling. More conventional clarinet/bass clarinet sounds subsequently emerge but Brice’s bass playing is fairly extreme throughout, a highly physical combination of bowing, plucking, slapping and striking as Bonney continues the subtle manipulation of the sounds generated by his colleagues.

“Bleached Bone, Shimmering Haze” is as atmospheric and unsettling as its title suggests with eerie multiphonics from Allsopp and ominous deep register bowing from Brice allied to the other worldly sounds of Bonney’s electronica. There’s a plaintive, keening edge to Allsopp’s playing that suggests the cry of an animal, or even a human, in distress. Like the earlier “Coyote, Moon Thief” this is music that is rich in visual imagery, but this time the effect is dramatic and disturbing. Both pieces would make effective movie soundtracks and it strikes me that a project that saw BABs collaborating with improvising visual artists might be a suitable avenue for the trio to explore in the future.

Multiphonics also feature on the sinister, diaphanous “Mesozoic Yawn” which conjures up images of thick, swirling fog with its low register bass clarinet sounds and accompanying arco and electronic drones. Indeed the piece is so murkily ethereal that one is tempted to forget about the desert imagery and instead focus on the nebulae of deep space in one’s inner search for the appropriate visual imagery.

The album concludes with “Mojave Drag”, one final example of the trio’s ability to create mood, atmosphere, colour and texture from their improvisatory ingredients. Brice’s playing is particularly physical and gives the music a real percussive edge, something doubtless enhanced by Bonney’s processing skills. Allsopp plays with genuine passion here and whilst not being exactly easy listening the piece is undeniably striking and dramatic, rising to a peak of intensity before a long, slow electronic decay.

“The Vulture Watches” won’t be to everybody’s tastes but I found it an absorbing and surprisingly enjoyable listen. The well chosen track titles provide strong prompts that encourage listeners to approach the music in a certain way and search for the visual imagery implicit in the group’s sound, whilst also coming up with images of their own. It certainly focuses one’s attention on the music and the sonic detail within it. There’s a unified approach but each piece represents its own self contained universe.

As improvisers BABs are skilled mood builders and sound painters who deal in colour and texture rather than aggression and bluster and shows of technique. It’s not a unique approach but nevertheless BABs have developed an increasingly distinctive soundworld that is very much their own.

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