Mark Applebaum - Catfish (2003)

"Ferneyhough Remix," an action-packed couple of minutes for two percussionists and tape using samples from Brian Ferneyhough's "Bone Alphabet" kicks off this colorful survey of Mark Applebaum's diverse activities as composer and improviser. The music displays a wide range of influences, from the ensemble piece "Janus" (shades of Varèse and French musique spectrale), written at the age of 25, to the fiercely avant-garde flute of "Entre Funérailles IV" via the fascinating motivic schemes of "Discipline V -- From Saturn to Alabama: Travels in Outer Space," the motorik frozen pitch virtuosity of "Omnibus Etude" and the wan white-note Feldman of "Meditation." True to the time-honored tradition of his adopted state of California, Applebaum also builds instruments, and his "mouseketier," a colorful pile of contact mic'ed junk, is featured on "Licensed To Fail," a brief improvised mix of strange gurgles and twangs also featuring Paul Dresher on his quadrachord. By way of homage and thank you to another notable "Janus", Tzadik label boss John Zorn, "Catfish" goes out in style with a cunning remix of Naked City's "Snagglepuss" that gives the curious impression of being twice as long as the original while having exactly the same duration. © Dan Warburton