Natural Selection
Dan Weiss
Awards:
-
AllMusic, Editor's Choice, September 2020
While Starebaby was more visceral, Natural Selection's more complex compositions offer more musical, textural, and dynamic complexity and imagination. At 80 minutes long, it continues to engage...
Natural Selection
Dan Weiss
Purchase product
Awards:
-
AllMusic, Editor's Choice, September 2020
While Starebaby was more visceral, Natural Selection's more complex compositions offer more musical, textural, and dynamic complexity and imagination. At 80 minutes long, it continues to engage...
About
'Natural Selection' is the highly-anticipated follow-up to drummer/composer Dan Weiss's 2018 release 'Starebaby', an unconventional compounding of doom metal, electronic music, and improvisation into a dark and mystic brew.
That album was named to many best-of 2018 lists, including Rolling Stone, which described it as "an album that creates its own sonic cinematic reality," while NPR called it "Astonishing... A true convergence of heavy trudge and spontaneous combustion." As with 'Starebaby', 'Natural Selection' is deeply inspired by the 2017 return of David Lynch's television show Twin Peaks, whose dreamlike, foreboding feel pervades much of this music. The entire group - comprised of a dream-team of musicians who share a love for heavy metal and whose playing is unbound by genre - returns from the first album: Ben Monder (who plays on David Bowie's Blackstar) on guitar, Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Secret Chiefs 3) on bass, and the twin-keyboard/piano/electronics attack of the exceptionally creative Matt Mitchell and Craig Taborn.
The recording of Natural Selection came fast at the end of a run of performances for the band, which helped further cement the group's unique sound. It's staggering to contemplate the wide-ranging ability of these musicians: from bone-crunching power to pensive reflection; exacting hits to improvised texture; faith to the compositions and manic improvisation, all played with imagination and conviction.
Personnel: Dan Weiss (drums, tabla, piano), Matt Mitchell (piano, Prophet-6), Craig Taborn (piano, Fender Rhodes, synthesizers), Ben Monder (guitars), Trevor Dunn (electric bass)
Contents and tracklist
- Natural Selection
Awards and reviews
-
AllMusicEditor's ChoiceSeptember 2020
September 2020
While Starebaby was more visceral, Natural Selection's more complex compositions offer more musical, textural, and dynamic complexity and imagination. At 80 minutes long, it continues to engage the listener from start to finish with its sophisticated playing and tunes. It offers surprise at nearly every turn, and new revelations with each listen.