Chris Speed - Despite ObstaclesChris Speed's superb trio with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Dave King continues to write it's band history with Despite Obstacles, their third album on Intakt Records. Releasing ten years after their debut album, Despite Obstacles is a testament to the band's continued vitality. Speed, a recent member of the newly arranged The Bad Plus where he is reunited with Dave King in another working band, explains the constitutive impetus for this trio:

and they listened through the legions of songs he had amassed throughout the previous year

which are on this album

With a repertoire ranging from Mozart to Schnittke

Hard Skin - If The Kids Are United

and with smoke swirling around some very cool stoner flourishes

Raised in East Los Angeles

Appalled by the un-Christian behavior and barbaric cruelty of the Fifth Crusade shown by men who confess his own faith

Emile Barnes

rang bittersweet with the absence of touring & personal loss

Jon Appleton - Dartmouth Digital Synth / Various

and proudly idiosyncratic

including a cooking version of 'Expansions' and a beautiful take on both Phases of 'Visions Of A New World'