Brighton, UK’s premiere experimental jazz dynamic duo return for a monolithic collection of sprawling explorations into surreal darkness.
Missed Openings consists of four 15 to 23-minute epic live recordings. For the most part, Noteherder, aka Chris Parfitt, dominates with his extremely talkative soprano saxophone, with the electronics of McCloud, aka Geoff Reader lurking in the darkness, along with some odd vocalizations from both musicians. The result is somewhere between Steve Lacy‘s ventures into experimentalism and Sun Ra‘s Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy. It’s the point where Interzone and Alphaville meet, a futuristic city of glass skyscrapers where mugwumps in trench coats sell bug juice in the shadows. Take it with however many grains of salt that you wish, but the brown stuff that is circulating around us isn’t too good. It is suggested that you stay away from it. Of course, it’s your own trip…
As usual, Noteherder & McCloud keep things exciting by not repeating themselves. Where it could be far too easy to slip into formulaic doldrums, Parfitt and Reader continue creating compelling music that bares the mark of their unique chemistry. Each listen of each track is another journey into a strange world, where floors and ceilings, even up and down, are not clearly defined. Turn up and take the trip.
