Teeth - EP

Album Review

The four-song debut EP by Brooklyn-based noise jazz ensemble Little Women stakes out territory somewhere between Last Exit and Orthrelm, with strong echoes of the Flying Luttenbachers. Two saxophonists — Darius Jones on alto and Travis LaPlante on tenor — are joined by guitarist Ben Greenberg and drummer Jason Nazary, all working together to create music of great intensity, but with a surprising beauty at its core. The disc begins with a jagged and assaultive track with guitar and drums flailing in post-metal abandon, but for the first half of "Teeth II," Jones and LaPlante conduct an unaccompanied duo that's very much in the mode of late-'60s free jazz. Then the other two come rampaging back in, and the whole thing explodes again. This track leads seamlessly into the next, which is based on a repeated ensemble riff — the members of Little Women are clearly aware of how well-focused, full-bore repetition has worked for both Albert Ayler and Slayer. The EP's concluding track, "Teeth IV," breaks down at its midpoint, and ends with three minutes of weird glossolalia-like chanting and shouting. This is highly disciplined, clearly thought-out music that carries an aura of frenzied abandon — an unexpected and uncommon combination.