Guitar maestro Brandon Seabrook crafts a disorienting but intoxicating take on experimental jazz with his newest album.
Release date: October 2, 2026 | Out Of Your Head Records | Instagram | Bandcamp | Website
In music, weirdness for weird’s sake usually comes off as indulgent and/or pretentious. I’m all in favor of experimentation, but it should serve the purpose of getting to the heart of something, expressing an unidentifiable emotion, or leaving the listener with their jaw on the floor over what they’ve just heard. New York guitarist Brandon Seabrook understands this better than most “avant-garde” jazz musicians I’ve heard in recent times. His newest album, Utility Modern, boasts odd tunings, sour chord progressions, and above all a willingness to explore uncomfortable sonic territory without feeling impenetrable. He’s a stranger in a strange land, and he’s willingly inviting us in.
Looking at the song titles, one would never guess that this album is anything other than a singularly befuddling experience. “Crater For Ascending Angles” sounds like strapping into a Kubrickian torture device with its mixture of bizarre acoustic strumming, trip-hop drum beats, and funky but akilter basslines. Halfway through, the willfully obtuse guitar leads, cymbal bell rolls, and sputtering delay effects have an overwhelmingly abstract effect, like falling through an endless hallway of Jackson Pollock paintings. This feeling continues on the even more restless “The Serial Fabulist”, in which drummer Marcus Gilmore shows his mettle with lightning fast cymbal work and expertly placed kick drum hits. When Seabrook busts in with his brief acoustic sections, they somehow don’t derail the momentum but enhance the tense atmosphere. It all builds to a fantastic climax of unsettling noise, leaving the listener wondering what on Earth they just heard. It’s a glorious one-two punch to start Utility Modern off with.
By comparison, “Star-Crossed Phantasms” begins almost conventionally: layered clean tones echo and soothe the listener before things lurch sideways into discordant jazzy passages and then straighten out again. Gilmore gets the spotlight around the mid-point with an astonishing drum solo, zig-zagging around the kit with aplomb. The closing guitar solo is red-hot with distortion, like staring straight into the sun. Elsewhere, “Once Upon A Time In The Quest” has nearly two minutes of disturbing ambient buildup before the J.R.R. Tolkien-on-meth groove takes over, simultaneously brutal and textured, while “Document and Tapestry” simmers and crackles, each member adding to the slow burn without overplaying. Bassist Rashaan Carter especially shines here, his playing subtly enhancing the bewildering guitar plucking and perfectly timed drum fills.
Seabrook saves some of his most enjoyable ideas for last: “Membrane Soundtable” features his banjo playing, giving the track a distinctly earthy feel while his backing band bores forward in 5/4 before its climactic violin shredding takes it home. First single “The Guitar Is A Weather Event, Even” is perhaps the most traditional (relatively speaking) jazz composition on Utility Modern, its cycling waltz feel underpinning the legitimately frightening notes coming from the guitars. “Tapestry and Document” closes the album out with an at-first gentle, then angular sound that captures exactly what makes music like this so exciting: the unpredictability of the playing, the improvisational nature of the composing, and the craziness necessary to make it all work. When the final notes hit and the song fades away, it feels like the listener’s brain has been through a meat grinder.
Of course, all this is to say that Brandon Seabrook and his band are worth hearing. Even if one isn’t a fan of such out-there shades of jazz, the sounds conjured on Utility Modern are daring and wholly unique. No doubt there are people who read the first few sentences of this review and decided ‘nope, not for me’. But for those more inclined to something stubbornly, defiantly different, you’ll want to give this a listen.
