Is there a better listening experience than one in which you feel completely terrified the entire time?

So here’s my lil’ secret method to discovering new underground music. I go on Bandcamp, I narrow my search results to specific micro-genres and locations (i.e. improvised music from Cleveland), and then I start listening. Do I like everything that I hear? Absolutely not. Do I enjoy 20% of the music that comes my way via this method? Uhhhh…even 20% is ambitious. But what makes it worth it to trudge through the wild world of “oh cool, now everyone has access to a microphone and Distrokid” is the discovery of music that just really connects with my ears.

Now it is funny to describe the chaos of Bandcamp’s “search by new” function and then write an article praising some of the most chaotic music that you will find on Bandcamp… I guess it’s just different types of chaos for me. I do not find much enjoyment in hearing 5 Led Zeppelin clone albums in a row. My ears are far more likely to enjoy something that other people might call “bad” in lieu of a group of musicians who managed to do a pretty good impression of Fleetwood Mac or Taylor Swift or Nas or “insert popular artist here”. Many people might consider The Shaggs’ music to be the worst of all time, but at least we are still talking about Philosophy of the World more than 50 years later. And why is that? Because it’s DIFFERENT.

Now I would have to be living under a rock to think that WELL (a quartet consisting of saxophonist Dan Wenninger, guitarist Evan Moran, bassist Max Hyde-Perry, and drummer Mat Weisman) is the first group to create improvised jazz live on the spot. The wild world of free jazz has been around since Ornette Coleman popularized the term in the late 50’s, so…not exactly new stuff. A wildly creative subgenre can become rather uncreative if the participants are more focused on recreating decades-old albums than they are on doing something new. A balance must be struck between appreciation for the musical gods and a willingness to move onwards and upwards. WELL has achieved said balance.

What really stands out in “Live at Bop Stop” is the atmosphere. My listening experience with this album / art piece is, in many moments, more akin to putting on an electronic ambient album than it is to, say, jamming to Coltrane’s “Ascension”. While this atmosphere is certainly a group effort, special note must be given to Evan Moran’s looped electric guitar work. What a fascinating and spot-on choice of an element to add to free jazz to give it an extra edge. Instead of going down the “how many scales can we all play at the same time” track, the guitar effects slow things down quite a bit, allowing the rest of the crew to add to the ambience.

Funny enough, the band that I would pair with WELL is actually a death metal band. New York’s experimental group Imperial Triumphant achieves similar unsettling atmospheres through a different lens, sure, but the intent is remarkably similar. Dissonance is a powerful tool in music, as is improvisation. Both elements will undoubtedly irritate many listeners, and that’s okay. But those of us who are into it are REALLY into it.

If you tend to prefer music with familiar song structures, simple chords, easily-hummed melodies, and four-on-the-floor grooves… yeah, I mean, WELL’s improvisations will probably not be your thing. But, should you be on the search for something different, a group of musicians who are willing to throw themselves into the void and venture into the unknown, then I highly recommend throwing on some headphones and losing yourself into the haunting beauty of “Live at Bop Stop.”