I saw Ed Schrader's Music Beat perform a few years ago and was immediately blown away. All he had at his disposal was a single drum & his own twisted musical vision which he milked for all they were worth It was one of those moments where it seemed like everything could & possibly should go wrong. It didn't. I was wrong and it is now one of those performances I have held onto over the years.
Ed Schrader's Music Beat's most recent album Jazz Mind follows a similar line of logic. The main difference here is the expansion of the project into a duo with the addition of bassist Devlin Rice (of Nuclear Power Pants) whose subtle contributions really help propel Schrader's vision into the outer realms. They explode out of the gates with "Sermon" a tune that immediately grabs a listeners attention with it's punk aesthetics before letting us know what's really going on here.
The mood over the rest of the album drastically changes from the hard-edged punk of the aforementioned track to more open ended vocal music that seems to searching for some sort of spiritual transcendence through odd-ball mantra's & weirdo associative logic. Ed Schrader's Music Beat are really doing their own thing here delving into a sound and musical philosophy few are willing or able to pursue.
Ed Schrader's Music Beat's Jazz Mind is available now via Load Records.
