Recording: Made to Break

Artist: Made to Break

Song: E(8)^*

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall, March 31, 2016.

Made to Break - E(8)

I saw Ken Vandermark's Made To Break a couple years back when it was a new-ish unit. With more time and more music under its belt, it has definitely developed its sound, feeling less like the Ethiopia-meets-The-Ex-meets-Cage-and-Feldman project it was originally pitched as and more like a really feral funk band driven by the rhythm section of Tim Daisy and Jasper Stadhouders. (Stadhouders had to deal with the most conceptual improvising during the show, not only dealing with a music stand that seemed designed to drop his lead sheets onto the floor, but also a failing cable that he had to play through until a replacement could be wrangled on the fly.) The sonic curveball came with Christof Kurzmann's "lloopp" electronics, spitting back chopped-up samples and distorted fragments of Vandermark's sax back into the mix. The set was structured as long, continuous suites of music with solo spots for each of the members as linking segues — groovy throughout, but never easily predictable. The first night out on their tour, it was encouraging to see a packed house for this in a good-sounding room.

^* The group's setlist consisted of a list of cues like this instead of titles, although at some point these pieces will possibly be named. Please leave a comment if you're reading this at some future point where you know the title of this!