Home Read Classic Album Review: Cul de Sac & Damo Suzuki | Abhayamudra

Classic Album Review: Cul de Sac & Damo Suzuki | Abhayamudra

The former Can vocalist and the Boston avant-rockers make it up as they go along.

This came out in 2005 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):

 


In 2002, the story goes, former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki contacted Boston avant-rockers Cul de Sac and asked them to tour with him, with one condition: No rehearsals whatsoever.

The results of that bold proposition are captured on Abhayamudra, a two-disc set with more than two hours of live cuts from the tour. And considering they’re all completely improvised — or, as Suzuki terms it, instantly composed — many of these epic-length collaborations are surprisingly coherent. Cul de Sac create tightly wound, propulsively funky post-rock grooves that provide a strong foundation for Suzuki’s off-the-cuff (and often over-the-edge) rambling and speaking-in-tongues jabbering. Kinda makes you wonder what they could have written if they had the inclination.