X-legged Sally - Slow-Up

It's easy to see why Bill Laswell was impressed when Peter Vermeersch sent him the demo from Belgium. This band was hot, hotter in fact than pretty much anyone the big, bad N.Y.C. producer/bassist was working with at the time. So X-Legged Sally was invited to record at Laswell's Greenpoint Studio in Brooklyn, and Slow-Up is the result. The band's debut full-length nearly overflows with energy, a sax-driven riff feast with full-tilt forward momentum from the rhythm section and no-holds-barred solos from reeds, guitar, and keys -- all packaged in 15 concise tunes (mainly instrumental and mainly penned by bandleader/clarinetist/saxophonist Vermeersch) that reveal how hooks, melodies, and straightforward harmonic and rhythmic foundations can be an asset even in the world of avant-prog music. Read More