Rescue Mission ­ The Wally Shoup/Jeph Jerman Duo (Shrat 9905)

Why this album wasn't done in the same great VINYL format that Shrat previously used, is something I'd like to know. I mean, what the fuck? Still, there's no reason to deny the splendor of the music here, regardless of the format's relative duppiness.

Wally Shoup, expatriated from the Alabama surrealist scene that spawned him, has done some great work in the northwest. His alto playing is both acerbic and moist, yanking maximum blood as his reeds spiral downward into a hell that contains the ashes of Alfred Jarry.

Jeph Jerman is another great Northwest player, although the bulk of his explorations since the demise of Blowhole have tended to be along strange, site-oriented, futurist-ethnographic lines. Here, Jeph plays in the tradition (well, the Free Tradition, as he also has in Project W) ­ splaying time and rhythm off to the side so that Wally can barge through in unexpected ways (as on the recomposed version of Ayler's "Bells"), or using weird press rolls and fumbles to take over harmonies when Wally gets into fast, multi-phonic splat-runs.

Recorded in a wonderfully lo-fi way (am I the only listener in the world who prefers mystery to clarity?), this live session is a great display of pure duo inter-action. And, as w/sex, who really needs another dick poking around? Two is very much the way to go. Baby.

-Byron Coley

B.B. Gun Magazine ­ Issue #6 2003