The photo you see above stretches across the inner spread of Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano’s The Raw and the Cooked LP. Each man’s mid-shred image occupies a whole half of the gatefold stage, their eyes connecting across the jacket’s spine, which lines up with the mic stand in the middle. The gloss from the paper, or from the printing process, or from some aspect of the camera, or from the sweat gleaming on these men — one or all of these soften the photo into the object. With the needle dropped, nothing is softened: strikes of the E-string correspond with cymbal crashes; both players reach the end of a winding phrase and stop on a dime before swinging into a new barrage; shouts rise up into the room mic; a guitar is picked with such speed and savagery that it seems to both diverge into too many discrete voices and spiral into itself as if it could chew into the vinyl (the MP3 will probably be fine); a snare drum is struck hard enough, you think, to split it. This is the sound of two minds and four hands striking in every direction and covering the mix in treble shrapnel.
You know Bill Orcutt from dozens of releases with now-defunct Miami noise legends Harry Pussy (including the recent One Plus One 2xLP comp on his own Palilalia Records, and the reissue of Let’s Build a Pussy via Editions Mego) or from his skull-obliterating solo acoustic guitar work. If you’ve seen him live, I bet you know him as one of the most memorable guitarists you’ve encountered.
You know Chris Corsano from dozens of releases with collaborators in the avant/free-jazz/improvised music scenes, as one third of Rangda, or as improviser-in-residence at Hopscotch 2012. If you’ve seen him live, I bet you know him as one of the most memorable drummers you’ve encountered.
The Raw and the Cooked LP documents their duo performances on tour from August to September 2012. Hear an excerpt of the 10th track below. You can still find copies of it at Mimaroglu, Forced Exposure, or Fusetron. Better yet, you can see them live in front of your face on tour this June at these dates.
• Bill Orcutt / Palilalia Records: http://palilalia.com
• Chris Corsano: http://cor-sano.com
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