SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MELVIN GIBBS – AMASIA: ANAMIBIA SESSIONS 2

MELVIN GIBBS
AMASIA: ANAMIBIA SESSIONS 2
HAUSU MOUNTAIN

Melvin Gibbs has enjoyed a prolific career as a Brooklyn-based composer and jazz artist. Revered for both his songwriting and his performance as a bassist, Gibbs’ solo work is incredibly diverse, leaving no surprise that his fourth studio album, Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 takes shape as an experimental hybrid of jazz structures and electronic textures.

Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 opens with a metallic ambient tone that grows to a crescendo before a loose digital beat and jangly piano solo come in, cutting out the original effect. Without any conventional instrumentation, structure, or sounds, “Felonious Monk” opens with the same fanfare of a beat drop set to a grinding mechanical hum which contrasts greatly with the warm tone of the keyboard. There is something highly unique to the collision of jazz and electronic textures, along with an avant-garde element that remains distinct from the jazz-inspired offshoot pioneered by the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, or Ornette Coleman. Through modern textures, and a 12-tone compositional influence, Gibbs sets the listeners expectation for an album that feels like the lovechild of Coleman, John Cage, and Death Grips.

Gibbs continues to build complex tracks out of the unconventional. “Gullah Jack Style” makes use of beats, beatboxing, and a rhythmic guitar running through a slight fuzz and wah effect while “16 Dimensions of Underwater Light” features a trumpet solo set atop grating textures of layered cymbals being digitally triggered at a rapid clip with little to no resonance echoing past the initial attack. These songs can be seen as separate sonic experiments and, while innovative, they do not all stand strong. Perhaps this is the idea behind Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2; a project created for the sake of creation itself. Despite this, there is a a greater level of intention behind Gibbs’ work that should not be overlooked, as best heard on the adventure that is “Luigi Takes a Walk”. Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 is a challenging record, but that’s the point.

Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 may very well be Gibbs’ most ambitious project yet. By the very nature of such a degree of experimentation, not to mention his use of the avant-garde, this is not a record intended for popular consumption, and yet, Gibbs has managed to conjure an organic feel among these primarily digital textures. Through these six songs, Gibbs makes full use of the creative process as he explores the seemingly furthest limits of our sonic universe with a series of dystopic, space age soundscapes.

Artist Links