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MAKE THEIR DEBUT
B altimore/Washington, DC-based
trio Les Rhinoceros' debut record
conjures impossible propositions:
a Bengali caught in a whirlpool
down the river Nile, floating;
Mr. Bungle in a state of fugue, composing
free-form jazz abstractions instead of ADD
pop songs. Close your eyes and you may find
yourself transported into a film noir where you
are driven to madness by the incessant mew of
a choo-choo train. However, one impossibil
ity not conjured up in these 12 sophisticated
tracks of rockist jazz is the image of the
18-year-old wunderkind making them.
Just out of Maryland's Wooton High School,
multi-instrumentalist Michael Colton is the
creative center of what, thus far, has been a
rotating cast of musical alchemists. Joined by
Peter Tran, 20, on guitar, and John Burner,
21, on drums, this will be the trio's first tour
with its current line-up, and Les Rhinos' first
in two years. Making what could be called
a type of gypsy jazz, Les Rhinos play with a
wide expanse of ideas, mixing Afro-Brazilian
polyrhythms, musique concrete, electronics,
spoken word, Vaudeville and Middle-Eastern
sounds. "Les Rhinoceros is a mix of world
music, noise, ambient, groove and jazz. Or you
could just call it experimental," Colton says.
Using "junk drums" and toys, Les Rhinos'
instruments are as experimental as their
instrumentation. "Our drummer John likes to
go to hardware stores. He uses a lot of PVC
pipes and metal, and we just hit them with
sticks. We're also into children's toys like toy
pianos and trains, and we have this Mr. Rogers
doll... Really, anything that makes sounds,
we'll run it through effects to make noise,"
says Colton.
However, the greatest coup for the band
is that its first album—the self-titled opus
coming out later this month—will be released
on Tzadik, the curatorial experimental label
of legendary avant-garde composer John
Zorn. In fact, after the band sent out demo
tapes to various labels, Zorn himself emailed
Les Rhinos five days later with the message:
"AMAZING... I LOVE the music... ALL OF IT..."
Each song on the album tells its own story,
and titles match the sound of each song.
Album opener "Whispering Intro" begins mini
mally, setting the tone with warm saxophone
and a sample of bird chirping. Midway, poetry
chimes in: "As I reached a certain age, I real
ized a fear of stress/ My feet left the ground
and I floated into the air with no control/
Claustrophobic, dream, fear, a choking bosom,
fear, I'm alright/ I'm alright."
These words more or less outline Rhinos'
agenda in sound: a playful looseness, reverie,
the feeling of floating in space. It might be
reductive to say—or perhaps too complimen
tary—but Les Rhinoceros recall the expansive
suites of cult Norwegian jazz group Food, as
if infiltrated by the raucous Bristolian septet
Fuzz Against Junk. This is to say: wow.
Starting out as a simple bass and sax duo
of high school friends, it is apparent that the
still very young band is playing to a world of
possibilities. An exciting improvisational tor
rent of whimsy and rock in a laboratory, Les
Rhinoceros' innovative tunes are fated to blow
your mind.
Colton's vision of his band is as wide open
as its music: "I see Les Rhinoceros as me add
ing people or taking away people, but with me
still being the basis of it, and working around
that... I've been talking to a friend of mine
[about] coming into the band to play Moog
[synthesizer], or adding another percussionist
or taking away some instruments."
Christopher Joshua Benton
Feast of Epiphany
WHERE: Farm 255
HOW MUCH: FREE!
16 FLAGPOLE.COM-MAY25, 2011
