Android Trio's "Imaginary Numbers"

Here's the second pandemic era release from a bi-coastal trio of Cal Arts grads who came together while touring with the 21st century version of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. Drummer, synthesist, and primary composer Andy Niven's in Oakland, bassist-guitarist Eric Klerks in LA, and guitarist Max Kutner across the country in Brooklyn. 

Pre-Magic Band, Klerks and Kutner had played together in an Afrobeat outfit called the Sogo TakeOver (whose 2012 album remains Bandcamp available). The genesis of Android Trio came during a 2014 Magic Band tour of Australia, when Klerks and Kutner booked a duo gig, on which Niven joined for some Paul Motian tunes.

Kutner's a busy cat. His High Flavors Quintet is recording an album with legendary producer Martin Bisi. On a recent gig, one of the group members was unable to make it, so the remaining four blew improv fire for over an hour. There's video of Kutner shredding sheets of sound, giving way to extended techniques with rock dynamics. "Nerdy but fiery," as a review quoted on his website says, he's the kind of guitarist who plays King Crimson's "impossible" tour de force "Fracture" for fun.

Besides Beefheart, Kutner's also played in Frank Zappa and Oingo Boingo legacy bands, but he always approaches the repertoire in a fresh and creative way. Back in 2018, he made an album (Wild Courses, also on Bandcamp) with experimental guitar eminence Henry Kaiser where they play 12 string guitars and 8 string basses exclusively. 

While the previous Android Trio release, Other Worlds, featured heavy friends including '88 Zappa band stalwart Mike Keneally, on Imaginary Numbers it's back to the three principals (although Kutner would like them to tour with a keyboard and another guitar). The five tunes included here are a treasure trove for fans of prog, fusion, and even heavy guitar -- and not just those like your humble chronicler o' events who went apeshit over Jeff Beck Wired and Tony Williams Believe It when they were new.

The three come blazing out of the gate with "Tough One," a ferocious burner with a knuckle busting head and an arcing, soaring guitar solo by Klerks, who penned the next tune, "One Last Step," a vehicle for a Kutner solo that's a masterpiece of touch, tone, and tension-building, as well as one by its composer on standup bass that pays homage to his Cal Arts mentor Charlie Haden.

"Theme In Three (In Four)"'s airy melodies, floating on Niven's clouds of synth texture, mask a muscular rhythmic complexity. Kutner's "Short Sight" features a pummeling theme and slash-and-burn solo full of crackling electricity, interrupted by some Beefheartian dissonance near its end, culminating in the epic release of flailing double stops and the decay of saturated chords. Ultimately, there's the idiosyncratic funk of "Face Palm," with Kutner on electric sitar. Here and throughout, Niven's tom fills recall Tony Williams at his heroic '70s best.

Here's hoping Android Trio's able to take their show on the road sooner than later. Music that's this compelling in a remote recording can only become more exciting and cathartic in live performance. In my head I'm imagining them splitting a bill with Monks of Saturnalia at the Kessler. As Mickey Rourke said in Diner, "If you don't have good dreams, you have nightmares."