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Review: Greg Fox – Contact

Written by on 06/15/2020

JP Meldrum

Music Dept.

Greg Fox’s “Contact” for RVNG INTL is a rhythmic flurry, harkening back to the epic outros of Rock n Roll classics, the complex and quirky patterns of Matmos, the insanely fast tempos of Black Metal, and the overdubbed chaotic-grooves of Miles Davis’s “Live-Evil.”

“Contact” sees Fox using any and all percussive instruments, from crashing trash cans to water glasses to steel drums, creating intense rhythmic structures, loose melodies, and vicious atmosphere. The non-percussive instruments are even handled with a rhythmic sensibility and a free-jazzian approach. “Contact” retains its drive throughout it’s runtime without abandoning a sense of structure; this is a record with a narrative-like, emotional rise-and-fall.

“Contact” is a dynamic, unpretentious, experimental record that gives it’s listeners room to breathe again after it’s first non-stop go-for-the-kill first half; this is the antithesis of ‘wallpaper music’: it demands engagement.  Fox is best known for drumming with noisey metal-adjacent, outside-the-box groups such as Liturgy, Ex Eye and Zs, but the single-handed “Contact” explores more Zorn-esque, spiritual, and cinematic territory.  If you are in search of an avant-garde, palatable, contemporary spin on Ginger Baker’s best drum solos, you’ve found your record.


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