Colin Webster & Mark Holub - Viscera (2014)

VISCERA - from the belly of the beast! This is the third album by the domineering power duo of saxophonist Colin Webster and drummer Mark Holub. True to it's name, Viscera delivers raw, guttural free jazz in the tradition of the past masters.

Evincing a musical dialog informed by nearly ten years of collaboration, sweat, and growth, Viscera is the duo's fourth recording, and a vital slab of energy improvisation. In 2010, they recorded Koi Bombs (Gaffer Records, 2011) with keyboardist Toby McLaren. The Claw was released the following year via the Raw Tonk label (Colin's own imprint) in 2012. The duo toured extensively in the UK and France, honing their free-ranging, forceful take on free jazz, and incorporating elements from free improvisation, avant rock, doom metal, noise, and more. In November of 2013 the duo released Gutty Mutter (Raw Tonk), a limited edition live CD recorded at The Vortex Jazz Club in London.

Mark Holub is best known as leader of avant-jazz quintet Led Bib, a unit with a discography that boasts several critically acclaimed albums. Now a resident of Vienna, he is also highly active within the Austrian experimental music community. Colin Webster has collaborated with many of the key figures of improvised music, including Archie Shepp, Joseph Bowie, Steve Noble, and Alex Ward, as well as burgeoning heavyweights of the underground Sheik Anorak and Dead Neanderthals.

Viscera was recorded in one day at the notorious Dropout Studios in South London, a nexus for many of the city's underground noise rock bands. With this aesthetic in mind, the duo approached producer Tim Cedar (Part Chimp) to imbue the record with it's starkly heavy sound. No discussion was had before the takes were recorded, holding true to the duo’s high-energy, “just start” ethos - the only exception being the final tribute to the mighty Roscoe Mitchell, on ‘Chant’.