Out in Worship – “Sterilized ” – [Perishable]

Rococo   7/5/2005   A Library, CD

If you have an hour to spare between the next two Bill Laswell releases, you might want to check out this eclectic new project from Joe Goldring and Doug Scharin. Incorporating elements of dub, jazz, post-rock, ambient and ethnic musics, this mostly-instrumental album is by turns hypnotizing and exhilarating. Guitarist Goldring (Clodhopper) and percussionist Scharin (HIM, Directions in Music) anchor the sound, but the album is clearly a studio overdub creation, peppered with hauntingly beautiful strings and guitar textures, turntablist sounds and samples, bass and more bass. (One track even has three bass players!) The album starts and ends with two ambitious tracks of 15+ minutes that define the breadth of the group’s sound; in between are three shorter tracks which explore specific ideas. There’s much to admire in all of them.