Despite its sexy name, the free-form progressive-jazz-fusion trio Stripsearch is more off-the-wall jam than sonic titillation. And that's not a bad thing. With a lineup that will first blow your mind — Wallflowers guitarist Michael Ward, A Perfect Circle's drummer Josh Freese and hip-hop drummer Michael Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem) — Stripsearch will then proceed to blow your speakers with a cacophonous aural display of King Crimsonesque chaos and Tool-like technical prowess. (Jason Freese contributes a mean-ass saxophone on some of these tracks, too.)
Heavy on percussion and psychedelia, the nine-track all-instrumental album has a few quiet passages (the airiness of "Orange Fragile" and the slightly tribal inclinations of "The Motor City Cobra") amidst plenty of crushing moments. In fact, the one minute and two seconds of "The Real Deal" sound like a bomb detonation, and opener "The Baby-Faced Assassin" will fray your nerves if you let it. Screeching guitars, rumbling drums and downright terrifying bass lines either signal the beginning of the apocalypse or the unlikely melding of three twisted musical minds.
This is definitely not Sunday-morning music…
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