Yawiquo | Sax Ruins

My review of Sax Ruins’ Yawiquo ran today in the Boston Phoenix.

I’m of two minds here. First, I’m a sucker for a saxophone and Ono Ryoko’s work on this is great. In some ways, Yawiquo is exactly what I had hoped Zu’s Carboniferous would be. On the other hand, the shift to a sax/drum duo after twenty-five years as a bass/drum duo seems oddly timed. Zu and Sax Ruins share a label, Ipecac, whose leader Mike Patton is clearly a fan of this melding of hard rock and free jazz. His collaborations with John Zorn are evidence enough. Yawiquo sees Tatsuya Yoshida shedding his longtime sound and approach to progressive rock music in favor of one that more closely resembles other acts. The imitative nature of the album is strange.