Jim Black: Houseplant

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: Inkionos, Cahme, Houseplant, FYR, Malomice, Littel, Elight, Naluch, Cadmium Waits, Adbear, Lowers in a Nine Sense, Downstrum; all songs by Jim Black.
"As a sideman in experimental-music circles, the drummer Jim Black can usually be counted on for fast-tumbling or convulsive momentum. With his own band, AlasNoAxis, he pulls back to panorama mode. 'Houseplant,' the group’s involving new album, due out in the United States in June but available now as an import, frequently courts a slurred and hazy grandeur, like the effect of certain vistas by Sonic Youth. Mr. Black’s longtime partner Chris Speed, a tenor saxophonist with elastic intonation, generally takes the melodies; the harmonic glue comes courtesy of a pair of Icelanders, Skuli Sverrisson on bass and Hilmar Jensson on guitar. Sometimes, as on a tune called 'Malomice,' quietude yields to an eruptive squall, with amplifiers cranked and cymbals bashed. Distortion needn’t be harsh, though, as this band proves on a number of other tracks. …" (Nate Chinen, "Playlist," New York Times, 5/3/09).