News: DAN WEISS: Twin Peaks-Inspired Starebaby LP By NYC Metal-Tinged Jazz Act Streaming At New Noise Magazine; Album Out Now Through Pi Recordings

New Noise Magazine is running an exclusive full stream of Starebaby, the eerie Twin Peaks-inspired new LP by New York City jazz drummer DAN WEISS, as the record is released through acclaimed jazz label Pi Recordings. The album lineup features accomplished musicians Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, Tomahawk, Secret Chiefs 3), Matt Mitchell, Craig Taborn, and Ben Monder.

 

Encompassing elements of improv jazz, avant rock, technical metal, and suspenseful soundtrack auras, Starebaby was recorded at Systems Two Recording Studio, Brooklyn, New York by Ron Saint Germain, mixed at Saint's Place, Kinnelon, New Jersey, also by Germain, and mastered at Masterdisk, Peekskill, New York by Scott Hull.

 

Stream the entire Starebaby album from DAN WEISS and crew at New Noise Magazine at THIS LOCATION.

 

Starebaby is out now through Pi Recordings on LP, CD, and digital formats; place orders HERE.

Following the recent release show for Starebaby, a West Coast/Canadian tour is being booked for the second half of June, and a European tour for early July, with dates on both to be announced shortly.

 

Starebaby is the upshot of drummer/composer DAN WEISS's long-running dream to bring together some of the most accomplished players on the jazz scene to play music that combines the improvisation nature of that music with the power of heavy metal and electronic new music. One of the most in-demand drummers in jazz, WEISS performs with such disparate artists as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Chris Potter, John Zorn, and Jen Shyu, evidence of the breadth of his artistry. As with his two critically-acclaimed previous releases -- Fourteen, which was named one of the best releases of 2014 by The New York Times, and Sixteen: Drummers Suite -- Starebaby is a decidedly original work that is largely without precedence, reflecting the power of conviction coming from a single, brimming wellspring.

 

WEISS has wanted to put this project together for over a decade. As with his prior output, it reflects his catholic taste in music, where jazz improvisation, doom metal, electro-acoustic music, Indian beat cycles, and innumerable other influences are all compounded into an outpouring of personal expression completely beyond musical boundaries. Starebaby, though, definitely tilts towards the heavy, and WEISS, in particular, cites as influences metal bands such as Meshuggah, Burning Witch, High On Fire, Gorguts, early Metallica, Wormed, and Confessor; electronic and electro acoustic composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernard Parmegiani, and Luc Ferrari; and every type of jazz ranging from Sidney Bechet to Threadgill. It is also inspired by Season 3 of the television show Twin Peaks, whose surreal, ominous emotional landscape helped shape the overall feel of this music. The music ebbs and flows, surging to thundering swells of foreboding doom before tempering to quiet reflection, finding a deep space where brutal aggression meets ghostly vulnerability. The expansive soundscape ranges from fortissimo to pianissimo, grave to presto, and dense, roiling dissonance to exquisite, pellucid melodies.