Blood Quartet "Root 7" Essential Listening (Cardinal Fuzz / Feeding Tube Records)

Some of us first ran across Mark Cunningham as a member of legendary New York No Wave band MARS back in the late 70's.  If you were in on the first wave of punk and new music you owned a copy of the Brian Eno produced "No New York" comp LP on the Antilles label which had Mars onboard.  

Roll way forward to 1997 and Mark Cunningham's "Blood River Dusk" solo album is unleashed in Spain on CD. Some  16 years later on wax through Feeding Tube Records.  This one blew my mind and I championed it instantly in my shop as a permanent fixture.  Never an album that flew out the door by any stretch and it sported a sticker that simply said; "Dude from Mars plays trumpet with a fucked up jazz vibe akin to Miles Davis early 70's period".  Anyone that bought it over the next 7 years fucking had their minds blown!  Naturally at Birdman, this made the 2nd and 3rd Blood Quartet LPs (both on Feeding Tube 2016 and 2018 respectively) "Deep Red" and "Until My Darkness Goes", hot sellers and are carried to this very day in the shop!  I was thrilled in late 2020 when Dave Cambridge(headmaster at Cardinal Fuzz told me that he and Feeding Tube Records were presenting a brand new album entitled "Root 7", "just fucking WOW" I said to myself !  Coincidentally this record has just seen light of day the past few weeks and although I've had the final mixes of "Root 7" sitting on my desktop for over a year now, I and only ever listened to the first 2 tracks, not wanting to spoil the maiden voyage once waxed! Blood Quartet have up'd the anti on this 4th offering.  I still hear Miles and all the other very best free jazz sounds of the deep shit underground of the early 1970's and make no mistake Blood Quartet are firmly in the here and now, this ain't no retro excursion whatsoever!.  In some ways to me, it's spiritually related to a wicked series of LPs unleashed over the last few years by an awesome French trio consisting of Jac Berrocal, David Fenech and Vincent Epplay. Firmly in place with Blood Quartet (like their previous work) is a sense of darkness and a profund melancholic mood.  In this understated sadness I do hear and feel a sense of beauty.  Every piece on "Root 7" is coated with thematic imagery and really pulls at the soul.  The record grooves in a perfectly off kilter fashion that on ocassion threatens to go bersirk but never quite pulls the trigger. What a wicked trip and I can't recommend this record enough!💕💣  

I must also commend Dave Cambridge, Byron Coley and Ted Lee for being consistently on the cutting edge of releasing what music they do.  An insanely wide range of sounds and styles that cannot be pidgeonholed at all! This ocassional union of committed trailblazers with their labels is incredible and it's purely an alliance built from being like minded, deep shit motherfuckers at the end of the day!

Blood Quartet is not a cookie cutter band, nor are their albums.  There's no pretense, there's no fucking 5 color variation wax versions, there's no glow in the dark sleeves and no phony Japanese OB strips.  It'a all about brain blowing music on a good old fashioned black slab!  We should feel lucky that Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube exist and give a fuck about artists like Blood Quartet...I know I do.💕👽