On a steep incline north of New York City, a peculiar sonic ritual took place, resulting in the vivid and unpredictable collection known as ‘State Fête.’ This is not a standard studio assembly, but rather a collision of three distinct inventories of sound brought to life by Billy Martin, Matt Glassmeyer, and Jonathan Goldberger. Together, they have manufactured a landscape that feels like a rural carnival seen through a distorted lens, where the smell of sawdust and the hum of high-voltage machinery create a sense of ecstatic disorientation.
The album begins with “Triangle Upon Triangle,” a track that immediately establishes the record’s reliance on geometric repetition and spontaneous architecture. Martin, known to many as Illy B, utilizes a percussion kit that blurs the line between traditional drumming and found-object exploration. His use of bamboo and plastic waste alongside standard skins creates a tactile, earthy foundation. This sense of structural layering returns toward the end of the journey with “Upon Triangle,” a companion piece that feels like the same structure viewed from a different, perhaps more shadows-swept, angle.
Between these bookends lies a world of invented timbres. Glassmeyer is the primary instigator of the album’s more alien textures. His contributions on the reedless saxophone and a heavily modified electric piano offer sounds that defy conventional classification. On “Queen Substance,” the trio dives into a thick, almost pheromonal atmosphere where the instruments seem to mimic the biological buzzing of a hive. Glassmeyer’s ability to pull melodicism out of mechanical modification gives the record a spirit that is simultaneously playful and eerie.
Jonathan Goldberger provides the essential atmospheric glue that prevents these experiments from drifting into total abstraction. His guitar work on “Tal Vez Distante” is a study in cinematic longing, suggesting a horizon that remains perpetually out of reach. Goldberger possesses a rare ability to shift between ambient washes and sharp, focused phrasing, a skill that serves the trio well on “Teaspoons,” where the intimacy of the sound suggests a microcosmic focus.
The album thrives on its willingness to embrace the grotesque alongside the rhythmic. Jan Hooks stands out as a tribute to the comedic and the uncanny, possessing a skeletal funk that feels like a marionette dancing to a broken transmission. This leads into the submerged, swaying grace of “Anemone,” a piece that showcases the band’s mastery of textural depth. Here, the percussion, the modified keys, and the guitar tendrils weave together like underwater flora, proving that even in their most abstract moments, these musicians never lose their sense of lyrical flow.
Recorded as a series of live compositions, ‘State Fête’ captures the raw friction of three minds working in real-time to solve a puzzle they are creating as they go. It is a celebratory work that refuses to shy away from the darker or more chaotic corners of the human experience. Martin, Glassmeyer, and Goldberger have documented a specific environment: a hillside summit where the ancient and the avant-garde find a common language. The result is a document of profound curiosity and high-functioning play.
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