CD Review: Tiger Hatchery - Breathing in the Walls

Tiger Hatchery
Breathing In The Walls
(ESP) www.espdisk.com

One of the most intense and well-crafted sets I ever saw happened at the Oakland Beehive in December of 1991. That's a long time ago, for sure, but certain things stick in my mind all these years later. The band was UFO Or Die, a trio fronted by Yamatsuka Eye of the Boredoms. That band's drummer, Yoshimmy P-We also played in this trio. Although the band's Discogs profile doesn't mention him anywhere, I believe Railroad Jerk's bassist Tony Lee completed the lineup.

Armed with a guitar and a microphone, Eye kicked off the set with a call to arms: "U! F! O! Or! Die!" Then - wham! - they were into it. Melody had no place that night. Instead the trio delivered rhythmic blasts in groups of three, four, five or seven beats. The order and number changed a lot, and this is only an approximation. But whatever the attack called for, all three of them made it together, like clockwork.

Then, after about 12 minutes - again, an estimate - it was over. Eye put down his guitar and walked off. They had played about five "songs." And that was all they needed to do. We were satiated. Anything more would've been too much.

Those thoughts came back while listening to Breathing In the Walls, the second album on ESP by the jazz-noise trio Tiger Hatchery. Toward the end of it, saxophonist Mike Forbes yells through his horn with an agonized sound that recalls Eye's fury. At the other end of the album, Andrew Scott Young begins the album with some distorted bass noise that sets the chaotic tone for what will come. The answer comes in a sheet of drum clatter from Ben Billington and some sax wails that may or may not resemble a theme but pulls you into an exciting adventure.

The trio is all about free blowing but they do offer some contrast throughout the set. In "Drawing Down the Moon," Forbes - whose credits list merely "sax" - switches from tenor (?) to bass sax and the trio as a whole sounds more inquisitive. Young even drop tunes as low as he can go by the end of the piece. "Breathing Down the Walls," Parts One and Two (the latter with vocalizing) stand as the ambient calm among the storms at the middle and end of the set."Triple Penny" alternates on-the-bridge string plinking with full band skronks.

The strength of Tiger Hatchery is their brevity. Much like Sun Worship, their previous ESP album, the whole thing lasts exactly 30 minutes, with most tracks coming in around the three-minute mark. They understand the need to making a strong point in a short space and get out

If fire music was the sound of the '60s, Tiger Hatchery is making scorched earth music for the current times, to rework one of their song titles.