BASIC: BASIC (CD)

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Working with guitars, drum machine, sampler, self-built electronics, and all manner of percussion, BASIC, the trio of Chris Forsyth, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Douglas McCombs, synth esize the vast influences and distinct histories of each member, producing a boundary-less, rhythm-forward amalgam of art rock, trance jazz, collective improvisation, and humming electronics on their new eponymous full-length for No Quarter. Philadelphia’s Chris Forsyth, known for his lyrical guitar compositions and mercurial improvisations as leader of the Solar Motel Band, founded BASIC in 2022 naming the project in homage to the 1984 Robert Quine/Fred Maher album “Basic,” yes, but also to indicate a desire to get down to fundamentals rhythmically and musically. Shortly thereafter, fellow Philly denizen Mikel Patrick Avery, whose subtle and propulsive drumming has provided the pulse for Natural Information Society, Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons, and Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra (amongst other projects), joined, bringing his unique combination of programed beats and acoustic percussion - a single drum with a metallic bell affixed and a variety of hand percussion run through a self-devised barrage of electronic processors and tonal filters (many controlled in real-time with touch pads) - to BASIC. Chicago stalwart Douglas McCombs came on board in late 2024 to tour their debut record “This Is BASIC,” thereby solidifying the lineup and expanding the group’s sound. As often heard in his work with Tortoise and Brokeback, McCombs’ playing in BASIC combines a mastery of musical negative space with memorable lines on Fender Bass VI, a six-string instrument with a distinctive twang tuned an octave below a standard guitar, allowing McCombs to function as both bassist and guitarist. After 35+ live gigs touring the first record and the March 2025 release of their merch table- and Bandcamp-only three-song EP “Dream City,” “Basic” was tracked by Nick Broste in a mere two days in September 2025 at Electrical Audio, the legendary Chicago studio built and operated for many years by the late Steve Albini, with minimal overdubs and a final mix conducted over three days in January at Uniform Recording in Philly with engineer/mixer Jeff Zeigler. As a result of their newfound tour chemistry, it all came together quickly and with minimal pre-production. As Forsyth puts it: "I’d say we invented 60% of this record on the spot at Electrical... This record is exciting for me because I really didn’t know what it was until we were finished with it." “Basic” inhales all the music that modernity's global connectivity (our blessing and our curse) allows us, tapping Tuareg rhythms here, angular guitar heroics there, scratchy funk, dubby low end shudder and Highlife-y rhythmic percolation everywhere. There's a fresh, intoxicating looseness to BASIC that further develops the great nocturnal guitar-nerd explorations of their debut LP, best exemplified by the ethereal flute & mutating samples Avery employs on "Index of Memories," the multifaceted interplay between drum loops and McComb's overdubbed acoustic guitar on "Premonition," and the keening delay feedback filling up cracks throughout. Adding dimension and texture, BASIC is joined on four tracks by the young Philly double bassist (and frequent collaborator of Forsyth’s and Avery’s) John Moran, known for his work in Victor Vieira-Branco’s Bark Culture and the Daniel Villareal Trio. BASIC’s “Basic” concept is groove-based, full of space and sonic fields both evocatively ancient and bracingly contemporary. It is a truly collective product with Forsyth, Avery, and McCombs balancing individual expression with surrender to the group. On “Basic” the result is entrancing and, if not “non-idiomatic” then something approaching pan-idiomatic. While still containing nods to Forsyth's taut playing on BASIC's debut, and the disciplined restraint of McCombs's work with Tortoise, Avery's presence ties everything into a subtly evolving rhythmic grid that has little precedent in rock music. He weaves programmed beats and understated drumming into an overarching processed swirl that's truly at the heart of the group, allowing Forsyth and McCombs to explore rhythmic counterpoint and new stained-glass tonal landscapes. Most exciting, perhaps, is the potential for a new renaissance of electro-acoustic groove music that fuses non-Western rhythmic boil with acid-psych moves and funky harmolodics that electrify both the body and the deepest neural pathways, and plays with the boundaries between art, technology and boogie. Premonition Brutalist With Filigree Loose Canon Pulse Index of Memories It Ignites Union Pool Melody Show more