(2023) Black Duck - Black Duck  


Review:
Black Duck brings together three Chicago music scene staples: guitarist/bassist Douglas McCombs (Tortoise, Pullman, Eleventh Dream Day), guitarist Bill MacKay (collaborations with Ryley Walker and Nathan Bowles), and drummer Charles Rumback (Colorlist, Stirrup). The trio had played improvised live sets together for years before entering the studio with Hefty Records' John Hughes III behind the board. Each member had only written one song for the project beforehand, and the rest of the album was created by the group during the recording sessions. Black Duck's self-titled debut seems to paint eight distinct portraits using largely the same tonal palette. The musicians' individual styles are easily identifiable, but they veer in different directions, sometimes emphasizing rootsy melodies while branching off to more free-form textural explorations on other tracks. Opener "Of the Lit Backyards" is McCombs' contribution, and it could easily have been performed by his group Brokeback, combining Spaghetti Western guitar melodies with the sentimental drift of a '50s slow-dance rock & roll ballad. MacKay's "Delivery" is a much more rugged, bluesy exercise with a touch of spice, and Rumback's "The Trees Are Dancing" is a slow stomp resembling an evenly paced walk through a clear, vast desert. "Second Guess" is one of the album's most beautifully unrestrained moments, with Rumback's free jazz drumming rolling along beneath the waves of sliding, vaguely surfy guitars. "Thunder Fade That Earth Smells" is darker and more aggressive, with pummeling drums and molten riffs, though it doesn't quite get heavy enough to pulverize, or all-encompassing enough to block out the sun. "Lemon Treasure" is much more of a cheerful jaunt, with blissful guitars foaming over an insistent, throbbing rhythm. Black Duck's sprawling improv and cosmic Americana is the product of three experienced musicians deeply in tune with one another, eager to travel anywhere the spirit takes them. — by Paul Simpson @ allmusic



Track List:
01 - Of the Lit Backyards
02 - Foothill Daze
03 - Delivery
04 - Second Guess
05 - The Trees Are Dancing
06 - Thunder Fade That Earth Smells
07 - Lemon Treasure
08 - Light's New Measure


Media Report:
Genre: alternative folk, americana
Country: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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