Anti-Social Music
Pat Muchmore gets his compositional kicks from genre clashing. He’s a self-described “bon vivant” punk nut who wrote his Ph.D. thesis on Nine Inch Nails; he’s also a former student of John Corigliano who teaches music theory at Sarah Lawrence College. The tightrope walk between discipline and abandon makes Muchmore’s compositions frequently thrilling, occasionally confusing and a tad nauseating.
As a cellist, trombonist and pianist, the New Yorker’s been part of the tongue-in-cheek punk-chamber collective Anti-Social Music since its first show in 2000. The 11-member ensemble, which includes players from the Hold Steady and Balkan Beat Box (and has featured a rotating stage lineup of members ranging from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to the New Jersey Philharmonic), has a playful and challenging artistic spirit that suits Muchmore’s visceral, rebellious music.
Certainly, the compositions in Fracture are fun to play. Listening to them is another matter, or at least an acquired taste. Songs like “shitfuckcumbastard” are as abrasive as you’d expect, and sweetly titled tracks like “gumdrops and kittens” provide no respite. The chaos lies somewhere between John Zorn’s Naked City skronk and a nightmarish noir score, a little bit organ-grinder meets meat grinder. But there’s more to this than wild, antagonizing dissonance.
Muchmore doesn’t subscribe to time or key signatures, but he has a fine ear for detail and finds unique ways to transition between fragments, fusing acoustic instruments with samples and electronic tones. This disorienting melee may not be new territory (consider Mr. Bungle), and it offers a limited palate of emotion (mostly fury). But Anti-Social provokes more than it infuriates.
