Black Duck – Black Duck (Album Review)

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Oh, how I love Chicago for its creative musical prowess, and this ton of fun featuring three of the scene’s big hitters is a winner. Guitarist Bill Mackay has been playing intelligent, underrated music for years now, collaborating with Ryley Walker (I think everyone here has collaborated with Ryley Walker at some stage), Nathan Bowles and Bill Callahan, among many others. Guitarist and bassist Douglas McCombs is a Chicago mainstay, best known for his pioneering band Tortoise, but cropping up most recently on Mute Duo’s Migrant Flocks album (reviewed here). Drummer Charles Rumback has been on the Chicago improvised music scene for many years and has put out some cracking duo albums with Ryley Walker )(read the review of LIttle Common Twist); he has also worked with Chicagan pianist Jim Baker on recordings. Credentials galore, you might say, and thankfully this dynamic, experimental set of instrumentals oozes the kind of confidence you would hope for from such a power trio.

The eight songs present here blend genres and compositions with improvised pieces, resulting in a set that feels very free within the parameters of guitar, guitar and drums. McCombs’ Of the Lit Backyards begins things with a casually paced tune boasting a wry, deep guitar part happily co-existing with a more trebly line and easy percussion. Conversely, Mackay’s Delivery is a far grittier tune, with distorted guitar parts gathering momentum alongside Rumback’s drums before a meaty lead line slices its way through the mix.

Rumback’s own The Trees are Dancing balances the previous two pieces by echoing the cinematic qualities of Mackay’s Delivery and the more relaxed pacing of McCombs’ Of the Lit Backyards. As the tune develops, it seems to gain scuzz and blurs slightly out of focus, giving it a pleasing, lo-fi audio quality that shifts into a more direct intensity with the introduction to Thunder Fade that Earth Smells, a grungy, fuzzy improvised piece that is delightfully loose in structure and happy to fill the ear with distorted guitar and explosions of drums.

Different again are other improvised tracks, Second Guess and Lemon Treasure; the former using rumbling drums and shards of guitar to stitch a tapestry and the latter using an uneasy, paranoid intro of warped slide guitar to introduce a more driving song, with a fun raised eyebrow of a bass line.

Best of all is the final and longest track, Light’s New Measure, a song that uses space and washes of drums and symbols to create a relaxed, calming environment. The restraint that is the key to this piece is where all three players flourish, and the clean backdrop of white silence ensures each note can be heard and appreciated. A very fine conclusion to a splendid album from three musicians of the highest order.

Black Duck live dates
Jun. 29 – Milwaukee, WI – ACME Records 
Jun. 30 – Chicago, IL – Hungry Brain
Jul. 1 – Chicago, IL – Hungry Brain

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