Hard Vibe

Talibam! delights in creating music that cannot be pinned down within the safe-spaces of existing genres. With each new album, Talibam! reinvents their methodological
palette in order to bolster a fresh clarity of joyous auditory surprise, something their fans have come to depend on. Talibam! focuses on compositional clarity, with reverence for their diverse interest in genre. On this new album they push the pulse of Motorik rhythm through a Psychedelic Jazz filter. This time out, they have created a sonic edifice so radical, so intricate in its density, that additional hands were required to bring it to life; thus was born the Talibam! Hard Vibe Band with Matt Nelson (Battle Trance, tUnE-yArDs) and Ron Stabinsky (Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Peter Evans Quintet, Relâche) joining Mottel (CSC Funk Band, Alien Whale, Nymph, Platinum Vision) and Village Voice “Best
Drummer in New York” Shea (Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Rhys Chatham, People featuring Mary Halvorson).

The scientists in the Talibam! laboratory describe the results thusly: The HARD VIBE composition transforms aspects of rhythm changes into a disciplined sequence of minor key modulations to create a rigorous Hard Vibe obstacle course for
the soloists over a tight melodic/rhythmic grid. Inspired by Herbie Hancock’s ‘70s cosmic music, long-form repetitive
works such as Miles Davis’s On the Corner, Charlie Parker’s “Salt Peanuts,” Tenor Sax endurance soloists, Albert Ayler’s
New Grass, the legendary organ brutality of Larry Young, and the NYC Avant-Garde Rock Minimalism of Rhys Chatham
and Glenn Branca, Hard Vibe maintains an infectious pulse with virtuosic structural jazz improvisation. The Jan
Hammer/’80s soundtrack-inspired Keytar payoff (second half of side B) brings festival audiences to its feet in epic dance
and ripping solo proportions.
But those are inspirations more than ingredients. As we at ESP-Disk’ are fond of saying, “You never heard such sounds in
your life.”