#tornlightrecords

Crazy Doberman, —/haunted, non/haunted (Torn Light, 2019)

Having spent the better part of the year locked in my home with no access to the joys of playing with people, I started having real feelings towards Crazy Doberman. Their MO is almost completely at odds with my current situation, and I started listening to them with a mix of envy and escapist fervor.

They are an open collective that mostly operates by storming any studio and recording free-form jams with a variable number of musicians (2 to 17), editing them down to a digestible size and releasing them. By releasing practically everything they do, they fuck with the essence of what making music means. Most musicians are lakes: a river of creativity flows in and another, different stream comes out. Crazy Doberman are a shallow pool in between waterfalls. Everything is in constant flux, and the music is so raw, the musicians are barely there.

Unfortunately, living in Europe, I haven’t been able to find most of their records and tapes at affordable prices, but I recently scored —/haunted, non/haunted from a local distro. In comparison to other CD works, this one is, excuse the pun, more haunting. Whereas in the s/t album on Mastermind they had adopted a psychedelic, colorful approach to their psycho-jazz skronk, they went way darker on this one. Everything is wailing in pain: synths, horns, vocals and strings, at times challenged by unruly drums and percussions. And when they’re not wailing, they’re booming, crackling, slithering out of control.

The record is short (33 minutes) but moves slowly, alternating cold, sharp stretches of industrial noise and disjointed free jazz, until everything comes together for the last monster track “No Body” (one of their finest moments in my opinion), equally frightening and exciting. This isn’t background music: it requires your full attention and is best enjoyed at high volume and without distractions. This came out in 2019, which means that CD have probably released a dozen more sessions of fucked-up improvisations filled with bum notes, sharp cuts and a glorious sense of freedom.

Click here to listen to ---/haunted, non/haunted on Bandcamp.