Date: April 14, 2015
Venue: Shapeshifter (Brooklyn, NY)

Review by Dawoud Kringle – Photos by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Black Cube SP “Return of the Tides” tour came to NYC on Tuesday, April 14th to celebrate the release of their debut CD Return of the Tides: Ascension Suite & Holy Ghost. Led by Chicago’s Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics,) the band includes Brasil’s Guilherme Granado (keyboards, electronics, sampler), Mauricio Takara (percussion, cavaquino, electronics), and Thomas Rohrer (rabeca, soprano saxophone).  Black Cube SP is Rob Mazurek’s newest ensemble which features his long standing São Paulo Underground trio with the addition of Thomas Rohrer.

On a dimly red lit stage, Black Cube SP took the stage and began with a collage of bells and Rohrer on a homemade percussion instrument made evidently from a kitchen utensil that sounded vaguely like a gamelan. Drums started easing in, joined by synthesizer. Then Mazurek on cornet cut through the wall of sound with Bitches Brew type abstractions. Rohrer took over the melodies on rabeca (a Brazilian instrument resembling a viola). Takara on drums and Granado on keyboards provided a thick background through which the soloists explored.

Then the drums began a solid groove. The band responded and the music took a different turn, evoking a mood of energetic optimism. Soon, however, the mood became chaotic and the groove collapsed, falling beyond the event horizon of a black hole, where it then emerged into a parallel universe. The band drove this to the intensity of berserker Vikings on acid. Then seamlessly, the music disassembled itself and reappeared in another aspect of its own mad quest for a musical holy grail,

The piece came to a startling end. The keyboardist, who’s been providing the bass lines, brought out a new groove, and the rabeca responded with a peaceful pizzicato Asian melody. The cornet took over the melody, and the rabeca joined him. While this happened, a loop that at first sounded like feedback faded in and out in the song’s key. It was a bit loud in the mix for my taste, but still worked within the context of the music. The melodies bifurcated into more  variations of itself. The drums kept low, only occasionally rising over its own groove to make a statement.

The song drew to a close and synthesizers came forward with a melange of sounds like R2D2 making love with a vintage Moog. Then the kitchen utensil, augmented with what I assume was a ring modulator, joined the free for all, and complimented the sounds nicely. Then, Mazurek sat at the piano, and Rohrer came in with the soprano saxophone. The two then played their horns into the grand piano, exploiting its unique acoustic properties. The drums and bass made occasional interjections. Then the drums took a sparse solo, and the other rejoined the music with a free form march.

The drummer picked up a cavaquino that was run through heavy signal processing and began a riff. The others responded with a masterfully controlled cacophony that merged into a jazzy piece. It was not possible to identify the roots of this piece; they mixed styles quite well.

This was brought to two or three different climaxes. Then it shifted into an almost Latin metal excursion. After some marvelous solos, this dissolved into a cloud of smoky sound.

Out of this emerged an indistinct beat. The rabeca played a mad ostinato and the trumpet made a cheerful melody over this. Then the song shifted to a different groove while the soloists shrieked like banshees.

After a gentle fall into s gentle syncopated phrase, a new variation of the groove emerged and all hell broke loose. After a climax, the sounds melted into echoes and angular loops of quasi-organic liquid horror movie mayhem. The set ended with the band standing at the front if the stage chanting over a scary loop, then walking off stage, leaving the loop going, and going, and going,,,,

Black Cube SP is an ensemble that has clearly developed its own concepts of music. The influence of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew period (i.e. blending of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, and used it in the realm of improvised music) is obvious. But this is no mere imitation of what’s been done before. Black Cube SP has its own voice, its own vision, and its own mission. They perform their music with a determination and intensity that throws their musical genius into raw, sharp relief.

These guys aren’t kidding around.