Chris Corsano - The Key (Became the Important Thing [and Then Just Faded Away])

restock arriving early July

Rare solo billing for drummer wunderkind Chris Corsano, with what is apparently only the sixth record to be issued solely under his name. As a collaborator, Corsano is near-peerless, a giving but still wholly distinctive presence across what is detailed in the press notes as close to 150-odd releases with various other noiseniks and outliers. He's never just a sideman, but in case that was ever a doubt, The Key... makes it clear the man's fully equipped to take on all challenges. We're entirely in service to a vision here, Corsano involved in near-every process of making the album, building his own instruments (of course), recording, over-dubbing, mixing, even painting the album cover. The results are obscenely impressive, not simply because of the virtuoso drumming we expect from the man anyway, but for how taut and fired up the whole presentation is, an amalgam of Neu-like motorik, noise rock dynamics, post-hardcore tension and free jazz impulse. As if aware of his own precociousness, Corsano assiduously keeps the run time short, limiting to just six tracks, that rare example of the savant child who knows just how many places of Pi it's worth calculating to. And so that's the key to Corsano's allure, mathy, to a point - he can do whatever he pleases, but he knows just when to and when not, a master economist of flair, detail and timing.