THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS

— First review of this album —

well this is where the luttenbachers start! weasel walter's avant/jazz/concept/band started as a free jazz band and as a admiration to a personal hero for weasel hal russell while russell was co-founder and origin of the band's name he never had a chance to appear any of the studio albums after the foundation of the band russell decided to spent more time with his legendary nrg ensemble and died in 92 and in 94 came the debut of "the luttenbachers" with full free jazz/style and this is (IMHO) the only "real" free jazz record luttenbachers did and what they did is absolutely magnificent body of work! the luttenbachers of this album are(aside from resident luttenbacher weasel) chad organ,jeb bishop,dylan posa, and a fellow nrg ensemble saxophonist ken vandermark. and the music is really have a chicago jazz scene feeling while saxophones holds a great deal of space here chad organ's work really impressed me he is really nothing less than russell or vendermark are and does a great job dealing with saxes. particularly in this album the whole "luttenbachers" epic conceptual end of the world story is not evident here signs of future sound can be traced between almost hardcore rhythm section still chaotic as a free jazz should be but not as inaccessible as noise prog sound of gods of chaos... so this is a very powerful debut for a very very strange band and a terrific starting point for a fresh "luttenbachers" listener. one of the accessible records of luttenbachers and while the band will change into some kind of brutal prog band along their career and develop a epic story based concept discography(just like magma) this one itself separates itself from the rest of the work of the band and stand alone as a good example of avant/jazz/rock fusion especially pointed stick 93B reminds me of the king crimson and maybe the strongest track in the album, playing in the dumpster shows some ornette coleman sensitivity and another strong piece. there are also some other songs have a really tightly composed feeling especially brainstorm is a strong and really enjoyable listen. while the songs like critic stomp and the indiscreet notion are just free-form jazz chaotic but extremely powerful songs. so this is a very fine and strong debut effort from weasel and co. and gives you a hint of what will come afterwards a definite listen for jazz enthusiast and maybe the only place that you can hear the saxes that strong in an luttenbachers record so recommended and a solid 4.5 out of 5...

The Flying Luttenbachers is easily one of the strangest and least commercial bands in ProgArchives.

The music is esoteric free jazz and there is not a melody in sight on this album. The third song Black Perversion is a cover version, originally done by the primitive black metal band Havohej. To say that The Flying Luttenbachers version here is different is an understatement.

It is almost impossible to describe the music coming out of my speakers. Dissonant noises with no melody lines or any sense of purpose besides of creating havoc and total confusion among the listeners. Well, I am truly confused. Mission accomplished.

The problem is that the music is too esoteric and too chaotic even for avant-garde fans. I do not doubt the music is intelligent. But it is not for me and I am hastily withdrawing myself from their music. In fact; I am running away. This is not music for me.

2 stars

Let me start off by saying this album is not for everyone.

If you want to hear the same old Yes guitar riff or Genesis mellotron or Gentle Giant vocal harmony... skip this. If you want to hear some real progressive music that pushes the boundries of song structure/counterpoint/brutal shredding then pic this up right now. I would love to see any of the bands mentioned above play this music. HA! Keep in mind I'm a fan of all those bands; however, compared to The Flying Luttenbachers they're pop rock bands playing pop music. The Flying Luttenbachers have more to do with Arnold Schoenberg and Béla Bartók then they do with pop music. So if you want to hear something progressive or you're a fan of Schoenberg, Bartok, Xenakis, or Olivier Messiaen then I suggest you check this album out! If not... then steer clear and listen to your pop rock.

an experimusic.com review

Originally founded in 1991 as a punk jazz trio, The Flying Luttenbachers have since gone on to become something of a reclusive, sub-underground phenomenon (maybe that's what the title of this album is refers to?), releasing 17 records of innovative, envelope-pushing free-jazz laced, death-prog soundscapes all complemented by vibrant and visually stunning artwork. In their various guises they have involved a floating cast of sonic freedom fighters and jazz-warriors including Ken Vandermark (Witches and Devils, Vandermark 5) and Mick Barr (Octis, Ocrilim, Crom-Tech) but their latest (and possibly final) album 'Incarceration by Abstraction' is amazingly the sole work of one Weasel Walter. Originally intended to feature both Mick Barr and/or Ed Rodriguez, neither musician was available so instead of shelf the project, Weasel Walter defied these restraints and recorded definitive solo versions of each piece for the sake of documentation!

The first thing that will strike Luttenbacher fans of old about this 8 track, 44 minute release is just how downright cohesive and powerful it sounds, I mean, listen hard enough and you'll even uncover a few grooves! The chunky production work is a definite contributing factor as it strips away most of the raw- to-the-bone harshness in favour of rounded basses and sharp but not piercing trebles placed in a wider soundstage. Mainly though, it is the fact that song structures are rooted in the energetic skeleton of epic noisecore. This strategy creates a loose structure which is fleshed out by attacks of ultra-spazzed, angular instrumentation that utilises complex drum patterns and highly unorthodox time signatures to create an unadulterated slice of brutal prog with a mathrock dynamic. Sounding like a nothing-to-lose Don Cabellero or Oxes that are being forced at gunpoint to play for their lives after being raised on a strict diet of Anaal Nathrakh and early Rush, 'Incarcertation by Abstraction' explodes forth with a menacing, no-holds barred intent. Frenzied riffs swirl uncharted within throbbing and immensely varied percussives that move from grindcore to free jazz arrangements in a bat of an eyelid whilst hypnotic inside-out melodies dart unrestrained, dragging the listener into the music's sphere of cosmic-meltdown and sonic discontent.

'Electrocution' encapsulates the devilish jazz-prog dynamic perfectly with splintered and clashing harmonics engaging in epic battle, a soundscape that is gradually supplemented by further instrumental turbulence. Refreshingly, the whole entity of agitated sound drops into a downtuned bout of bombast mayhem that reminds one of an irate 'Behold The Arctopus'. If the previous two tracks hinted at it, 'Medusa' fully embraces the metallic agenda, chugging along forcefully like a twisted ghost-train propelled by a foundation of grinding bass, pulsing riffage, disharmonious anti-melodies and shattering percussives that creates a black-metal meets noisecore meets spazz-jazz sound a bit like Teen Cthulhu placed in a kaleidoscopic musical blender. Steeped in a hardcore punk aesthetic, 'Violent Shade's' cloaked death-prog melodics yo-yo heroically across the scales with such ferocious intensity it is like the sound is continuously running away from you, the listener trying in vein to capture it. 'Triplex' follows suit with its meandering string-based anti-melodies that branch out in a sporadic fast-forward motion that helps the track charge ahead with a sociopathic momentum that fully manipulates the disorientating power of tempo switches and off-kilter, hyper-complex drumming. After the head- nodding and dizzying, doom-laden rock'n'drone of 'Crypt Emission' which features Weasel Walter in animated drumming mode, the story moves on to the anti-melodious cosmic swirl of 'The Serialization of Cruelty'; a head-rotating, 8bit mash of angular instrumental abstraction. What then appears from the speakers is a real ear-opener as 'The First Time' commences with the soothing, atmospheric vocals of Aurora Josephson seeping out and drifting across an ever intensifying soundscape of noir-ish, metallic mathcore before being lost in a heavily manipulated Mr Bungle-ish coalescence of Jonathan Joe's comic operatic vocals.

With 'Incarceration for Abstraction', Weasel Walter has kept committed to the out-and-out intensity of previous offerings but spiced things up by experimenting with new soundscapes. He has successfully scored and produced an epic body of psyched-out battlecore, serially unrelenting in its delivery and twisting and turning at every step like the ground below it is continuously giving way. Gear shifts down into epic metal-inspired plateaus such as those featured towards the end of 'Medusa' and 'The First Time' deliver a real sense of mosh-inducing energy and unification that ties the album together beautifully. The overall 'epicness' of the sound comes as no surprise considering that the meta-text of these songs concerns the hypothetical rebirth of the robot out of the debris resulting from the cosmic battle between the void and the behemoth. Although slightly more accessible than previous recordings, to many uninitiated's, The Flying Luttenbachers sound will remain out of range as it is just a bit too claustrophobic and intimidating to be able to seep into the hipsters mindset. To the lucky few though, this release will engage the mind and body in a state of complex disorientation and bathe listening arena's in a manic, out-of-scope cloak of non-conformist combat-sonic's. One sincerely hopes that The Flying Luttenbacher's story will live on. (KS)

p.s. Try playing 'Incarceration by Abstraction' to the amazing animated video's featured on Lightning Bolt's 'Power of Salad.' DVD in a darkened room for an ultimate sonic/visual trip.

For fans of: Playing Crom-Tech, Don Cab, Upsilon Acrux, Supersilent, Crowpath, Teen Cthulhu and Nebelnest discs at the same time, backwards!

For those folks who fancy progressive rock as a genre which encompasses several fairly distinct sound templates, RIO is seen as the one where people play things that don't make sense. Accomplished musicians sometimes lack the deft categorizational know-how prized by rock critics (prog-rock critics often being the smarmiest among them), but do have ears which can separate the new and adventurous from the tired old cliches which routinely dog prog-rock and frustrate those who crave true progression. The Flying Luttenbachers are (or were, at least) at the helm of this movement, their template-shredding music rendering nonsensical the symph/neo/pop wannabe acts that have littered and confused the musical playing field since the 70's.

Incarcerated by Abstraction is the period that mastermind Weasel Walter chose to put at the end of his stint with the Luttenbachers, and a careful review of their work reveals it is a logical place to make such a turn. It is by far Walter's best work, one which bolsters the importance and validity of The Flying Luttenbachers' body of music as a whole. One doesn't have to possess a musical degree to grasp the complexity of this band; it is a hallmark of Walter's music. Complexity and richness dominate throughout, even within the frequent minimalistic segments present on the album.

It is perhaps not unfair to point out the similar influences that avant-rock bands such as Thinking Plague, 5uu's, Zs, and Henry Cow share: Bartok, Stravinsky, Penderecki, etc. The Luttenbachers often venture into these Bartokian realms of angularity, creating a distinct brand of sonic warpage which will surely send even the most ardent prog-rock critic into fits of condescending, epileptic rage.

But music such as this deserves to be separated from prog as a genre. Walter manages to meld disparate elements of the seemingly unrelated musical genres of punk, jazz, classical and, yes, PROG in order to nullify the genres altogether. This latest album is seemingly the angriest in Walter's body of work with this band. It tore me to shreds, made Henry Cow into a laughingstock. It is not for fans of Marillion, and it is not digested easily by those who seek to compare it to other RIO bands (they are not, in fact, RIO). It is adventure in the purest form that progressive music can manifest.

As for the Luttenbachers, well, some of us hate to see them go. For fans of music which absolutely destroys the air with complete abandon, go buy their stuff... all of it. Don't listen to anyone tell you otherwise.

so called prog-music exhibits a very special form of masculinity. where 'normal' rock music is operating in a first-person-shooter of muscle-packed action heroes matrix, prog-rock fashions itself as the real-time-strategy genre of the genre: dominance through brains.

unsurprisingly the scene is characterized by introversion, mannerism, romantic ideas and full of specialist discourses of people that imagine a better world if only everybody would listen to their 'more intelligent music'. since that routinely fails listening to prog still provides the mental surplus of perceived intellectual superiority.

within a world of such auto-affection the flying luttenbachers certainly bring a different set of sensibilities to the table. the will to disassemble, limitless curiosity and certainly no respect for song-structure, harmonic and rhythmic binding. rather the opposite: the forms of the rock-idiom routinely were questioned, dissected, toyed around with and put together just to see if the resulting corpse still walks. and it does, since whomever mr. weasel walter - who did not even respect the very concept of the 'band' this very special machine to stimulate male-desires - took aboard was sure to bring enough energy along to make even the stinkiest zombie jolt forward.

that said cataclysm is a more conventional output in the stretch of statements offered by weasel walter during the 15 years of existence of the luttenbachers concept. it is nonetheless their finest hour. a mature band (yes band!), that had grown together on two tours, then plugged guitar-maniac mick barr directly into their collective brain to force-develop the missing grammar between death-metal and no-wave music. 9 songs (yes songs!) of splendid abrasivenes, coldhearded isolationism, breathless stop and go eccentrics and yet it all is delivered with a tacit sensitivity not found elsewhere. the last four songs, starting with a cover-version of olivier messiaen's l'ascension, take back the forcefulness and feverishness a bit, explore quieter, more chromatic regions, turn inward and convey even a reconciliatory yet disillusioned mood.

together with the spectral warrior mythos ep cataclysm is the best showcase of the powers weasel and his luttenbachers concept could evoke, and not least why rock still matters - although you need at least 20,000,000 volts to make it fun.

recording quality is superior to other luttenbachers offerings and cataclysm is certainly an apt choice for your next visit to your audiophile dealer. in any case: make sure to listen LOUD or not listen at all!

and remember - it is not the spoon that bends!

A very self-assured album with more than a few nods to the experimental musicians of previous generations, "Cataclysm" is an accomplished album that none the less feels a little, well, generic.

The pace is kept hectic throughout - what with all the "angular" guitar lines that excite the music journalists - and the compositions are performed with skill and confidence, but the songs themselves are the problem as none of them really exhibits anything new - each is just a refinement of music that has already happened, be it by Henry Cow or Ruins or any of a hundred other bands who actually pioneered (some would say progressed!) during their existence. What makes it hard to swallow is that The Flying Luttenbachers aren't a new band, but one with fifteen years of history and exposure to the business - so surely they realised that they were releasing a relatively mundane collection of songs?

"Cataclysm" still has its moments (the two parter "Regime" is a lot of fun and would have made a more impressive EP on its own) but don't feel compelled to pick this up until you've exhausted the more earnestly progressive bands from the avant-progressive realm.

After a mail exchange with Weasel Walter, the leader of The Flying Luttenbachers about a previous review, I had promised him to get another albums of their under my belt, but much later in their career (since I knew only the albums around Destroy All Music), so here goes. One independent observer might say that I chose another album with a very hard- sounding program, but looking at their complete discography, there is no real chance to find an easy-listening Cd under their name.

Contrary to their early albums, here we have an owner's manual to explain us how to come to grips with their chaotic infernal music and what to make of it: apparently this is eighth installment of their concept (started with 96's Revenge) and we are now in a recombination cycle (although you'd never know if they hadn't told you) of "life after the extinction of all earthly matter". Actually in a way it makes sense: this music actually sounds like molecular fusion coming from a particle accelerator working backwards. Again as previously, there is very little normal words to describe this music that seems to be written for over 95% of it, but generic terms as chaotic, noisy, industrial, obtuse (but in an impressive way) etc. Don't get me wrong, there are moments where the music does seem to make sense, but it simply does not last beyond a minute at a time. Tracks go in increasing length, from the short Enthropic Field to the 7 minutes Thorned Lattices, but it seems that the 20-min+ Iridescent Behemoth is the cornerstone of the album, but it is certainly the most difficult of tracks in this phase.

OK, Walter! I admit it, your concept of musical experimentation is well beyond my comprehension or at least beyond my patience, but I will salute yours (or more likely your persistence), for this very experimental project that seems to stretch the boundaries of human tolerance for nonsensical

With such an album, I guess you'll want to stay away, if you are a neo-prog fan, and to be quite truthful, I couldn't blame them for doing so. Generally, I enjoy some off-the-wall music especially in the RIO field, but this band is taking things a bit far, without actually bringing anything new to the debate. This quintet is really about just being as obtuse and repulsive as one can get, by staying in a realms of written music (at least at times) and improvisation. They call themselves Spazzcore and in some ways this is not unjustified, but maybe not the way they'd like the term to be taken.

Not completely devoid of sense, the FL's soundscape is mostly stuff that's been done before, and therefore nothing new under the sun, since the 60's with Ornette Coleman or Pharoah Sanders, but without the brilliance or the sense of reaching beyond themselves. Which of course brings the vital question: why duplicate such obtuse music, if you do not bring something more. I have a hard time believing that it is for the sex & drugs & RnR trilogy, and unless their artistic vocation is to remain "nerds", they are not far from being poseurs, IMHO. In the genre, I've heard much worse and in some ways, the group does what it does rather well, but again, what's the use?

Just in case you're wondering this is usually considered their better album and arguably so, I can say it is the least uninteresting of the ones I've heard, the others not exactly inspiring me words polite enough to be able to write them here and remain to be read by my loyal "readership". Only for those who have a bit too much money and time on their hands. I have neither, and the library at least saved the second.