Pitchfork

NOMO + Sun Ra = hot 12" action. Michigan's afro-funk big band takes on the man from Jupiter with knives out, and winds up with a deep groove monster topped by freaked-out horns and spaced chanting.The track begins with a squall of cosmic jungle noise, as horns squeal freely and percussion piles up to lay the groundwork for the nasty two-chord swivel the rest of the song rides.  Leader Elliot Bergman's recent fetish for "sawblade gamelan"-- amplified metal not unlike the tricked-out likembes used by Konono No. 1-- gives the already sick rhythm section yet another source of kinetic energy. The metal instruments are each given their own locked groove at the end of the twelve-inch's first side, thrown like bait for an adventurous DJ-- that's if his stylus ever makes it there.

On the flip, Matthew Dear takes the lead track from the band's excellent Nu-Tones album apart by stripping it down to the beat then slowly mixing and matching various musical elements from the rest of the song. Nothing he comes up with equals the ass-shaking drama when the synth-bass drops in on the original. But his reductionist approach creates a hypertense ball of rhythm that keeps gathering steam but never blows it off, teasing with snatches of flute and sawblade gamelan, but always pulling away from the explosion when it's almost in reach. If you need a final release, feel free to turn it back over.