Album Review: Hmph!- Headrush

Pat Metheny’s noisy Zero Tolerance For Silence is one of the most challenging albums of the 1990s. 

I may not be the only person who continues to listen to the abrasive project for pleasure.  Headrush, the debut album by Kansas City’s Hmph!, is a similarly corrosive guitar-based freakout. 

Hmph! may well be a math-rock band rather than a jazz group.  Whatever label is applied to the approach, it’s clear that Hmph and the like-minded Jorge Arana Trio are two of the most interesting improvisatory instrumental ensembles in Kansas City.

Hmph! performs Friday, August 21, at Harlings and Wednesday, August 26, at Mills Record Company.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)