It's A Love Song

Caspar Brotzmann, founder and leader of the avant-rock power trio Massaker, has been away from the spotlight for a while without being inactive. The band went on hiatus after releasing five glorious albums between 1986 and 1994, and touring the globe several times. They continued to play live occasionally, but werent interested in recording. The guitarist recorded an album with his father Peter Brotzmanns tentette (The Marz Combo Live in Wuppertal), issued three duo albums with F.M. Einheit, Page Hamilton, and Robin Guthrie, and did session work. In 2013, he formed the power trio Nohome and issued an eponymous album. In 2017, Brotzmann teamed with bassist Massimo Pupillo and drummer Alexandre Babel for the completely improvised Live at Candy Bomber Studios, Vol. 1. In 2024, he signed with Exile on Mainstream and issued The Lovers and Destroyers as Caspar Brotzmann Bass Totem. He was its only member and played bass instead of guitar. Its a Love Song by Caspar Brotzmann Massaker, co-released by Exile on Mainstream and Chicagos Corbett vs. Dempsey, is a long, three-track EP, consisting of the dark, booming, doomy ambient "Bar Open" and two lengthy versions of the original composition "All This Violence" recorded live in Vienna and Dresden. The bands rhythm section consists of bassist Eduardo Delgado Lopez and drummer Saskia von Klitzing. The Vienna version of "All this Violence" is nearly four minutes shorter than the Dresden performance. Part of Massakers sonic trademarks are long, booming drone passages that border formless improv and overarching structure. Brotzmanns guitar seldom sounds like one, but does sometimes sound like something between swirling free-form noise and a bomber taking off. The droning interplay between guitarist and bassist develops slowly, dissonantly. Following a long drone passage in the middle, the band erupts, colliding and assaulting one another in the blackened maelstrom. Von Klitzing introduces the final section with her hissing ride cymbals and lays into her tom-toms and kick drum atop the drone as Brotzmann starts vocalizing before wrapping his bandmates in a striated, distorted guitar vamp that Lopez amplifies before winding down into silence. The Dresden version of "All This Violence" spends its first minute in almost total silence before bass and guitar join in a low, doomy drone. At three minutes, the pair offer contrasting articulations of distorted drones, sheets of grey, washed-out sound, and sizzling feedback. Lopez lays down a dissonant vamp that Brotzmann paints in abstraction while shifting dynamics and textures. The guitarists disciplined use of feedback and controlled sonic distortion in the middle section alternates between silence and Lopezs bass throb. Passages of near silence temper the attack as von Klitzings kit attack is colored in unidentifiable noise before Brotzmann starts singing. The closing movement doesnt move between motion and stasis like its predecessor does, but fades very slowly into dark ether. While there is some tedium on Its a Love Song during a first listen, additional encounters with this material yield a startlingly intuitive canvass of power, menace, and intent. ~ Thom Jurek