Three new releases from Sexmob, Lily Guarneros Maase, and the Ralph Alessi Quartet offer wildly different but equally captivating musical experiences.

Sexmob
The Hard Way (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
A review
Founded by slide trumpeter and inspired madman Steven Bernstein, with Briggan Krauss (alto/baritone saxophones, guitar), Tony Scherr (upright/electric bass, guitar), and Kenny Wollesen (acoustic/electric drums), the quartet Sexmob delights in exploded expectations and in-your-face musical confrontations. Its latest album, The Hard Way (available May 12 on Bandcamp), is no exception. It romps through several layers of anxiety reflective of the current world condition but somehow manages not to generate thoughts of suicide in the listener. It’s just one of many contradictions that the music presents. The 10 tracks are as aggressive as they are trippy, as in as out, as strange as familiar. That familiarity comes in part from the blues that thread through just about every track—stretched and reformulated as they may be. The strangeness and trippiness come in part from Scotty Hard, who has been at the board for a number of previous Sexmob albums. On this album, he joins the band with credits for upright bass, electronic beats and soundscapes, and synth bass, adding a tripped-out depth and dimension to the band’s sound. The groove is heavy, riding on Scherr and Wollesen and, occasionally, Hardy, and Bernstein and Krauss offer caustic expressions over the top of that groove, often in a dramatically contrasting tempo.

Bernstein has a way of writing eccentric melodic lines that, when first heard, sound like a weird mistake but which, on the second delivery, sound inspired and tend to alter one’s ideas about consonance/dissonance. His lines are always rational, even if they start from unusual assumptions. Adding to the delightfully deranged soundscape are guest appearances from John Medeski (Hammond organ, Mellotron), Vijay Iyer (piano), and DJ Olive (turntables, synths, sonics). “Club Pythagorean” may be the single track in the history of music that includes balafon samples (Hardy) paired with a Mellotron (Medeski). (It is one of two tracks included on a bonus 12-inch 45rpm EP. The other, “Dominion,” was created with DJ Olive.) Uncomfortable and fascinating, The Hard Way makes it easy to appreciate the sui generis genius of Sexmob.

P.S. Sexmob will be Laurie Anderson’s band for her upcoming X=X tour this summer in Europe, her first tour in decades performing songs from throughout her catalog.

Lily Guarneros Maase
blood::face (Infrequent Seams)
A review
Guitarist/composer Lily Maase has added her middle name to her billing and taken a giant and surprising step into new musical territory with her latest release, blood::face. It’s the first of two 2023 releases, she says, that are character sketches for a forthcoming folk opera, The Tale of the Bloody River, that reworks the La Llorona myth. More specifically, that project and the contemporary folk ensemble Maase has assembled for it, Curandera, are “dedicated to transforming misogynist themes in ancient lore into tales of empowerment, redemption, and hope,” she says. Maase calls the project “the product of a lot of reflection and transformation on my end,” and no music that I’ve heard from her sounds more authentically connected to her heart. These lyrics, from “Face,” an anthem at half-speed, seem to speak to that:

Everything’s always changing
We become who we are
Everything’s always changing
And the mask melts in

And I went for my past
And my past came for me

And I fell in

Previous music from Maase—such as The Suite Unraveling (reviewed here)—has often been difficult, electric, and aggressive, and it has taken some work to recognize its beauty and depth. blood::face, however, is primarily acoustic and opens itself easily to the ear. (Maase’s electric guitar solo on “Blood” delivers a beautiful, keening exception.) As with The Suite Unraveling, Maase uses simple repeating patterns with ongoing minor alterations to capture and hold attention, and the dreamy, often multitracked vocals—appropriately ghostly, given the La Llorona connection—cast a mesmeric spell and, at times, take on the character of a classical Greek chorus. In fact, the album’s deliberate pace and sonic environment recalls the heightened and formal reality of classical Greek tragedy.

The album includes four short instrumental sketches, three tracks with lyrics, and one long instrumental improvisation—a playful conversation between guitars that follows a free-flowing organic path. These richly evocative and sonically fascinating sketches offer a compelling and complete musical experience and tease the imagination regarding what is yet to come.

The ensemble includes
Lily Maase— voice; electric, nylon and steel string guitars
Natti Vogel—featured vocalist, 7
Vicken Hovsepian—percussion: 2, 4, 7
Insun Blemel—slide guitar, 2
Armando Wood—acoustic bass, 2, 4, 7
Tom McNalley—steel string guitar, 5
Nonbinary choir (#7) – Emma Alabaster, Chelsea Baratz, AJ Haynes, Cameron Nico, Jordan Von Hinson, Socks Whitmore

Ralph Alessi quartet
It’s always Now (ECM Records)
A review
Trumpeter Ralph Alessi has always made music with a braininess that is full of feeling, and It’s Always Now—with Florian Weber (piano), Bänz Oester (double bass), and Gerry Hemingway (drums)—is no exception. Alessi’s spareness is well complemented by the dreamy lushness of Weber’s piano, as in the opener, “Hypnagogic,” and both Oester and Hemingway are well matched to the material’s sensibility. The 13 tracks give everyone a place to shine, and the four musicians mix and match in duo, trio, and quartet setups. Alessi’s superlatively expressive command of his instrument, his storytelling ability, his clarity of purpose, and his willingness to follow where the music leads bind the listener to the spell of the music. Among the many highlights are the top-down, air-in-your-hair jumpiness of “His Hopes, His Fears, His Tears,” which negotiates tight hairpin turns at high speed; the abstract swing of “Portion Control,” which underscores how much space there is in Alessi’s music and the commanding logic of his improvisations; the Latin feel that heats up “Residue;” the chamber jazz of “Hypnagogic” and “Old Baby;” the light-footed “Everything Mirrors Everything,” which goes spilling down the hill like a frisky mountain stream; and the lovely trio section in the worried “Hanging by a Thread.” It’s Always Now will hold you in the now and enrich it if you give the music your attention.

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© 2023 Mel Minter