Referring to themselves as the two quiet King Crimson players, TU combines the formidable skills and fiercely experimental vision of multi-instrumentalist (and Robert Fripp disciple) Trey Gunn who played in Crimson from 1994 until 2003 and was known primarily for playing the Chapman Stick and percussionist Pat Mastelotto, who also joined Crimson in the early 90s following his tenure in the 80s band Mr. Mister. As TU, they sculpt engrossing, complex, breathtaking instrumental soundscapes, oftentimes improvised, that nod to their progressive rock backgrounds, with forays into jazz-kissed IDM (not unlike, say, Squarepusher), reptilian prog-metal (which explains why they were once invited to open for Tool), and trippy, sample-flecked ambient and noise constructs. Musos will definitely cream their pants over this stuff, but TUs hardly alienating theres enough melodic and compositional goodness here for all but the most closed-minded to grab onto.
Fri., July 24, 9 p.m., 2009
