I spent an inordinate amount of my teen years listening to a record by David Fiuczynski called Lunar Crush. It came out in 1994 and it featured John Medeski’s keyboard work all over it. Much of the joy of this record can be found in how wide the palette of sounds is. Multiple keyboards, percussion appearing from unexpected sides of my headphones, and at times powerful unidentifiable sonic blasts. Some of the arrangements on the record remind more of Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad than Fuiczynski’s fellow 90s jazz peers.
Why am I telling you about a song that came out thirty years ago in a paragraph ostensibly about a new release? Well, when I heard the Society of Chemists tune “Panopticon” I was transported back to the sound and ethos of Lunar Crush. “Panopticon” has a driving rhythm section groove from drummer Ben Ehrlich and bassist Charlie Bruber. That hypnotic groove is augmented by a found sample of Martha Stewart saying “I’m very happy” that pulled me even further into the track. Stewart’s iconic voice with her cyborg-like self-assuredness sits so perfectly on top of the repetitive groove. The layers that sneak in across different keyboard sounds keep the tune evolving and it all works in service of the primary melodic voice of Stephanie Wieseler’s saxophone. The group of players that make up Society of Chemists (Stephanie Wieseler (sax and keys) Jack Barrett (keys), Charlie Bruber (bass) and Ben Ehrlich (drums) have really full calendars with their other projects, but I hope they will find time to churn out some more music as Society of Chemists cause the project is solid gold. Check out a full interview with Society of Chemists and Jazz88’s Sam Keenan here.
Hot New Local Singles highlights new, local songs. Minnesota has a lot of great jazz, funk, soul, and jazz- adjacent music, and Jazz88 is highlighting what is fresh.
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