Bruce Lamont – 9/4

A solo show from Bruce Lamont of Yazuka. Man’s Gin and 100000 Leagues Under My Nutsack open.

So Feral Songs for the Epic Decline (At a Loss, 2011) is a welcome jettisoning of metal. Various experimental sides rear their heads: droning ambience, neofolk, the twang of spaghetti westerns. Lamont’s voices – singing and saxophone – are strong throughout. A white man with a sax can be a menace to society, but Lamont doesn’t try to… be anything but himself. So the mystical parts aren’t yoga soundtracks. They’re vaguely Asian, but Lamont knows not to impersonate, say, Tibetan monks. Instead, like the Beastie Boys (“Shambala”, “Bodhisattva Vow”), he adds himself to the mix in big dollops: impassioned singing, pensive sax licks, electronic trickery.

That last bit might be knob-twiddler Sanford Parker. “Deconstructing Self Deconstruction” descends into stutter-edited brutality with a runaway drum machine halfway between Gnaw Their Tongues and Blut aus Nord. It’s unpleasant, but it works in the context of the album, providing a valley from which to rebound for the finale. When heavy music guys get old, they go acoustic – see Michael Gira, Steve Von Till, Scott Kelly, Wino, Dwid Hellion – and maybe Lamont is acknowledging a time after Yakuza. He’ll have more weaponry at his disposal than most.