Miniaturas by Torso Corso

For fans of Yowie, Black Midi, Deafkids, free jazz, and the sinking feeling you get when catharsis doesn’t lead to a lasting inner peace, Miniaturas by Torso Corso combines influences from progressive rock and experimental jazz to craft an explosive work of discordant energy, a sound which builds suffocating tension only to be relieved through raw power alone. Most fusions of these two sounds tend to lean in one direction or the other, and in this album’s case the primacy of the drums and bass lend the entire composition a prominently rock foundation, albeit one with so much mathy variation as to already live on the edges of rock music. From here, the addition of piano and saxophones invoke that jazz connection, with the saxophones specifically taking chances to spiral off of the main rhythmic path and freely improvise. Even in these most abstract moments, everything here points back to that rhythmic core, one rattling in fits and spurts of chaotic energy, constantly trading our tension between potential and kinetic energy as our spirits thrash in every direction.