BADBADNOTGOOD - Talk Memory

BadBadNotGood's fifth studio full-length, and first without founding keyboardist Matthew Tavares, was largely composed from studio improvisations, rather than developed on tour like their previous albums. Going back to the band's instrumental roots, the record doesn't overtly incorporate hip-hop and R&B influences the way their previous best-known works did. The group stress the importance of collective harmony this time around, even as they welcome contributions from guest musicians. The album opens with "Signal from the Noise," a nine-minute epic co-produced by Floating Points. After a drawn-out, slightly ominous intro, the trio launch into a riveting, fuzz guitar-heavy midsection that recalls vintage '70s fusion more than anything else the band have attempted before. As the song cools down, tape effects cause the instruments (particularly Leland Whitty's saxophone) to fragment and disintegrate. Laraaji's electric zither floats around the fluttering saxophones during the gentle "