Things we like: Threshold of Devotion, Iconoclast

A couple of duos, one brand new, one of longer duration. 

Threshold of Devotion is the moniker for a collaboration between Louise Fristensky, an academically trained (Ph.D in Music from UNT) composer and sound sculptor, and noise rocker Jack O'Hara Harris (Bone Leech, Inverted Candles). She's known for her solo electronic noise performances on "Mooglet," while he's been variously pegged by your humble chronicler o' events and a middle aged punk rock pal as a ringer for either Stiv Bators or Nick Cave. Their debut digital release, A Certain Amount of Cake: Live at the Growl comes, as the subtitle implies, from their very first show, at a noise-friendly rock dump in downtown Arlington. (I was there.)

On "Salty Sounds," O'Hara plays skronky, reverb-drenched guitar over synthetically generated bass and drums while Fristensky intones, now seductively, now stridently, a moody melody that reminded me as it was going down of a Wim Wenders movie about Arlington. "Biting Time" is a droning pounder, replete with fuzzed-out guitar, over which Fristensky croons, building to a chaotic intensity while she sings a snatch of "Why Don't We Do It In the Road?" You might well arsk. Sweet kids, just getting started.

NYC-based Iconoclast has been together a little longer -- since 1987, to be exact. Drummer-keyboardist-vocalist Leo Ciesa has drummed for the prog/RIO octet Doctor Nerve since 1988, while alto saxophonist-violinist-vocalist-electronic musician Julie Joslyn is a former student of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and has performed with the Indian-influenced rock outfit Church of Betty. Their new disc Cobalt Confidential, released in May on Fang Records, is their 13th release as a band. (Ciesa's polyrhythmic power is showcased to good advantage on his 2012 solo CD Coat of Arms: Music for Solo Drumset.)

Iconoclast's multi-instrumentalism gives their music a broader sonic palette than one might expect from a duo, and they seamlessly incorporate acoustic and electronic textures, composed material and improvisation, and sounds from the worlds of New Music, jazz, and rock. Having performed together for so long, their musical communication is near telepathic. They produce a tempestuous sound, well suited to our turbulent times.

The opening "Noise of Assumption," for example, opens with harp-like downward glissandos that give way to a tumult of drum clatter, over which Joslyn interjects electronically altered alto flurries. "A Phrase of Mine" juxtaposes a militaristic tattoo with a somber saxophone soliloquy that has an Eastern European flavor, like something from Zorn's Masada catalog. On "Where the Blooming Shadows Roam" and "The Spy Upstairs," Joslyn's aggressively-bowed violin reinforces Ciesa's accents, reminding us that every instrument can be a rhythm instrument. The title track features Ciesa coming on like an erupting volcano a la Elvin and Rashied on Meditations while Joslyn overlays a vibrato-laden lament on alto. On "The Heartless Maiden" and "Comfort Me," Joslyn adopts a Diamanda Galas-like tone of vocal menace. "The Secret Code" has a theme that briefly tips its hat to Roscoe Mitchell's "Chant" before taking off in other directions.

Iconoclast has mainly toured in Europe, but in my mind's eye I'd dig to see these two outfits perform together. So there.