Schnellertollermeier – “X” – [Cuneiform Records]

abacus   6/17/2015   A Library, CD

Swiss trio Andi Schnellmann (bass), Manuel Troller (guitar) and David Meier (drums) unleash a powerful barrage of minimalist muscle and progressive brutality. holed up in a house in the Alps to hone their sonic mastery, concocting a fusion of rock’s brute force and a jazz-inspired conceptualism: the eponymous side-long building and peaking tension on its teetering march to oblivion, heaving its mass about and subsiding to lurching drones; Riot showcasing their syncopated asymmetry and Massacre du Printemps especially highlighting the jarring unpredictability of experimental music’s predecessors. Surely the mountainous backdrop of their alpine landscape instilled a sense of something colossal coming forth in their music. a landscape fit for legends.