Starebaby

Craig Taborn - piano, fender rhodes, Matt Mitchell - piano, prophet 6, modular synthesizers, Ben Monder - guitar, Trevor Dunn - electric bass, Dan Weiss - drums

Latest Album

‘NATURAL SELECTION’ RELEASED SEPTEMBER 18, 2020 (PI RECORDINGS)

Natural Selection is the highly-anticipated follow-up to drummer/composer Dan Weiss’s 2018 release Starebaby, an unconventional compounding of doom metal, electronic music, and improvisation into a dark and mystic brew.

That album was named to many best-of 2018 lists, including Rolling Stone, which described it as “an album that creates its own sonic cinematic reality,” while NPR called it “Astonishing… A true convergence of heavy trudge and spontaneous combustion.” As with Starebaby, the new album is deeply inspired by the 2017 return of David Lynch’s television show Twin Peaks, whose dreamlike, foreboding feel pervades much of this music.

The entire group – comprised of a dream-team of musicians who share a love for heavy metal and whose playing is unbound by genre – returns from the first album: Ben Monder (who plays on David Bowie’s Blackstar) on guitar, Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Secret Chiefs 3) on bass, and the twin-keyboard/piano/electronics attack of the exceptionally creative Matt Mitchell and Craig Taborn. The recording of Natural Selection came fast at the end of a run of performances for the band, which helped further cement the group’s unique sound. It’s staggering to contemplate the wide-ranging ability of these musicians: from bone-crunching power to pensive reflection; exacting hits to improvised texture; faith to the compositions and manic improvisation, all played with imagination and conviction.

Press

New York Times / WBGO Premiere / PopMatters / Avant Music News / Burning Ambulance / Two Guys Metal Reviews / All Music / Calgary Herald / Elintruso / Pop Matters - Best Jazz Albums of 2020

PRevious Album

“STAREBABY”RELEASED APRIL 6TH, 2018 (PI RECORDINGS)

Starebaby is the upshot of drummer Dan Weiss’s long-running dream to bring together some of the most accomplished players on the jazz scene to play music that combines jazz with the power of heavy metal and electronic new music. As with his two critically-acclaimed previous releases -- “Fourteen,” which was named one of the best releases of 2014 by The New York Times, and “Sixteen: Drummers Suite,” -- Starebaby is a decidedly original work that is largely without precedence, reflecting the power of conviction coming from a single, brimming wellspring. One of the most in-demand drummers in jazz, Weiss performs with such disparate artists as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Chris Potter, John Zorn and Jen Shyu, evidence of the breadth of his artistry. The music of Starebaby, which features Craig Taborn and Matt Mitchell on keyboards, piano, and electronics, Ben Monder on guitar, and Trevor Dunn on bass, ebbs and flows, surging to thundering swells of foreboding doom before tempering to quiet reflection, finding a deep space where brutal aggression meets ghostly vulnerability.