Perfect Sounds Listening Booth, Fall 2010: Adam Lane

• Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra: Ascan Rantings (Clean Feed, 2010) - Adam Lane's talents as a distinctive bassplayer, composer and bandlander continue to shine on Ashcan Rantings. While the speed and agility of the music Lane has played in nimbler, smaller ensembles has always been full of excitement, the full punch and power of his compositions came into fruition on his previous record with the Full Throttle Orchestra, New Magical Kingdom, a brash and joyfull record by a "little big band" that seemingly took its cues from Charles Mingus and David Murray's Octet while simultaneously being spurred on by an affinity for the noisier realms of rock. At least half of the ten compostitions on Ashcan Rantings have appeared on previous Adam Lane related albums. The ominous title track, for example, was a highlight on the 4 Corners album from 2007 that Lane recorded with Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilsen Love and Magnus Broo, but appears here in a more fully formed version. The band on Ashcan ..., an octet consisting of several up-and-coming players -- such as trumpet player Tylor Ho Bynum -- sounds great; full bodied yet loose, with the man himself leading from the center with assertive basslines. While the music here shares the boisterous energy and brash confidence as well as the occasional excursions into skronkier territories that was typical of much of New Magical Kingdom -- as for example in "Nine Man Morris" and the playful "House of Elegant" -- the compositions and arrangements are now more lush and expansive. Ashcan Rantings is just as fierce and lively as it's predecessor, but it is also much more than that. Listening to songs such as the closing "Bright Star Calypso", you realize that it is also at times very, very beautiful. (Reassessed grade as of Dec. 1st, 2010 10/10). *

* Grades are tentative, based on three or four listens, sometimes a few more. Much of the writing is done during listens, and should be considered notes more than final reviews.

Note: the write-up has been slightly corrected and edited for clarity since it was first posted.