Ron Anderson’s PAK – Secret Curve
Tzadik CD

  Certain artworks seem inextricably bound to the place where they were conceived and created. In the case of Secret Curve, the latest release from Ron Anderson’s trio PAK, that place is New York City. The collection exists in a state of insanely high tension almost from the beginning to the end. Structurally, and in its harmonic changes, PAK’s music evokes the exaggeratedly dramatic work of such European chamber outfits as Universe Zero or Art Zoyd, but it’s definitely rock, played brutal, fast and frenzied as possible.

  As a showcase for Keith Abram’s power drumming – Anderson’s stated goal for the project – it would be hard to imagine anything more perfect. But it’s the rhythm section he forms with Anderson on bass that dominates the disc. Pushing both speed and accuracy to the limit, the pair run through 46 minutes of metronome-busting changes that evoke nothing so much as the overwhelming pace and information assaults of modern urban life. It might have more sweat and bile that most math rock, which was often about working through a soulless set of time changes, and it might be brainier than most Metal, but Secret Curve owes a clear debt to both. 

  In its combination of virtuosity and evil, the disc easily rivals Fred Frith and Bill Laswell’s Massacre. Occasionally, semi-orchestral relief is provide by Third PAK member Tim Byrnes, on horns and keyboards, and a handful of guests including Jerome Noetinger on electronics and Anthony Coleman on piano.  The track “E4 or D4?” also features a long passage of post-produced studio manipulation, in the form of an avalanche of spliced cymbal sounds, and laptop percussion in the vein of o.blaat or JG Thirlwell. But for the most part, this music is live, stark and blistering.