What The Messthetics They are a group with artistic concerns, it is something that no one can deny. Joe Lally, the bassist, and Brendan Canty, the drummer, have a legendary past as part of one of the groups that changed punk forever: Fugazi. From this band led by the do-it-yourself guru Ian MacKaye, punk opened possibilities to other genres and above all to other sensations since these guys were able to change the meaning of the word urgency, a term eternally related to punk and hardcore.
The post-Fugazi is long and juicy and makes total sense in The Messtheticsowners of a jazz sound with attitude and without prejudices, with energy and 4×4 timing, but also with striking incidental flight.
In 2024 they came to corporatize this interesting partnership with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, a music activist, consecrated jazzman in constant search of the sonic challenge. The result of the team is excellent: an amalgam of vivid creatives that respect and love each other, a kind of perfect marriage. The rusticity of the base sound stands out and stands out in the intrepid playing of Lally and Canty, while Lewis and the guitarist Anthony Pirog complement each other in some labyrinthine melodies and others with clear output, favoring the overall listening of the album.
The references that emerge when listening are obvious and make total sense. There are sections in which the group reminds us of a kind of minimalist Naked City, then echoes of the atmosphere that Marc Ribot usually proposes are heard. The thing is that the spirit of John Zorn flies over the cause: although he comes out through Impulse, a subsidiary of Verve, The Messthetics They release their albums through Dischord (owned by MacKaye), but the first label that set their sights on them was Tzadik, owned by John Zorn, whose Marc Ribot is one of his main collaborators and is also Lewis’s adventure partner on other projects.
“The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis” It is a disc to put on at any time of the day, it can work as a double espresso in the morning (“That Thang” which happily remembers Morphine) or as an Indian spliff after scene (“Asthenia” or the intriguing and brilliant “Boatly”). He even goes up to the art rock sound in “Fourth Wall”a theme that Thom Yorke could have added to the “In Rainbows” by Radiohead and then play blues in “Railroad Tracks Home”. The quartet definitely finds a magnificent sense of coherence within eclecticism. Shall we say it more clearly? What a great disc, man.