Biography
Talibam!, a New York pair, might be recalled across several guises: a straightforward keys-and-drums free-jazz unit, irreverent Dadaist agitators endowed with sharp musical memory, or participants in Brooklyn’s self-reliant underground. Their moniker and occasional lo-fi surrealism could invite dismissal as mere pranksters, yet keyboardist Matthew Mottel and drummer Kevin Shea never earned any charge of indolence.
Mottel, who grew up in Manhattan and entered the downtown jazz circuit while still a teenager, encountered Shea, a Pittsburgh native, once both had relocated to Brooklyn as part of the initial wave of musicians dispersing from the historic downtown scene. The two launched Talibam! in 2003; their first CD-Rs arrived inside sliced-up Bruce Springsteen album sleeves and, attitude notwithstanding, echoed the groove-oriented organ-trio style of Medeski, Martin & Wood. Frequent road work and multiple weekly New York performances—then an uncommon schedule—carried them from obscure Brooklyn gatherings to the shrinking Manhattan jazz circuit, among them the now-defunct venue Tonic. Certain editions were housed in folded Vice magazine sheets or coated so heavily in spray paint that the discs themselves became unplayable.
Joint projects arrived often, encompassing stage work with the Karole Armitage dance company, trumpet player and occasional bandmate Ed Bear, free-jazz saxophonist Daniel Carter on the 2009 album The New Nixon Tapes, and additional partners. Their concerts delivered a frenetic blend of profane improvised humor, song shards, and abrupt free-form improvisations. In 2009 the duo joined the historic New York avant-garde imprint ESP-Disk and cut Boogie in the Breeze Blocks, a recording that gave full voice to Mottel and Shea’s surreal aesthetic through layered horns, singers, guitars, studio treatments, comic interludes, and location recordings. Outside the duo, Mottel collaborated with USA Is a Monster founder Colin Matthews in CSC Funk Band, while Shea toured with bassist Moppa Elliott’s Mostly Other People Do the Killing.
After joint albums with Peeesseye and Sam Kulik, Talibam! moved to Critical Heights for the 2012 release Puff Up the Volume. A sharp turn from earlier efforts, the record pursued absurdist hip-hop reminiscent of indie-rap acts such as Grand Buffet. Polyp, a collaboration with Weasel Walter, appeared in 2014. The group next joined Kulik and glitch pioneer Yasunao Tone for the disorienting LP Double Automatism, issued by Karlrecords in 2015. It Is Dangerous to Lean Out, a project with British saxophonist Alan Wilkinson, came out on cassette via Monofonus Press in 2016. Talibam! returned to ESP-Disk in 2017 with two markedly contrasting albums. Endgame of the Anthropocene, constructed almost wholly on analog synthesizers, formed a science-fiction concept piece centered on the struggle for Antarctic resources in 2048. The companion release, Hard Vibe, presented a trance-like avant-rock/jazz session featuring Battle Trance’s Matt Nelson and Mostly Other People’s Ron Stabinsky.
Mottel, who grew up in Manhattan and entered the downtown jazz circuit while still a teenager, encountered Shea, a Pittsburgh native, once both had relocated to Brooklyn as part of the initial wave of musicians dispersing from the historic downtown scene. The two launched Talibam! in 2003; their first CD-Rs arrived inside sliced-up Bruce Springsteen album sleeves and, attitude notwithstanding, echoed the groove-oriented organ-trio style of Medeski, Martin & Wood. Frequent road work and multiple weekly New York performances—then an uncommon schedule—carried them from obscure Brooklyn gatherings to the shrinking Manhattan jazz circuit, among them the now-defunct venue Tonic. Certain editions were housed in folded Vice magazine sheets or coated so heavily in spray paint that the discs themselves became unplayable.
Joint projects arrived often, encompassing stage work with the Karole Armitage dance company, trumpet player and occasional bandmate Ed Bear, free-jazz saxophonist Daniel Carter on the 2009 album The New Nixon Tapes, and additional partners. Their concerts delivered a frenetic blend of profane improvised humor, song shards, and abrupt free-form improvisations. In 2009 the duo joined the historic New York avant-garde imprint ESP-Disk and cut Boogie in the Breeze Blocks, a recording that gave full voice to Mottel and Shea’s surreal aesthetic through layered horns, singers, guitars, studio treatments, comic interludes, and location recordings. Outside the duo, Mottel collaborated with USA Is a Monster founder Colin Matthews in CSC Funk Band, while Shea toured with bassist Moppa Elliott’s Mostly Other People Do the Killing.
After joint albums with Peeesseye and Sam Kulik, Talibam! moved to Critical Heights for the 2012 release Puff Up the Volume. A sharp turn from earlier efforts, the record pursued absurdist hip-hop reminiscent of indie-rap acts such as Grand Buffet. Polyp, a collaboration with Weasel Walter, appeared in 2014. The group next joined Kulik and glitch pioneer Yasunao Tone for the disorienting LP Double Automatism, issued by Karlrecords in 2015. It Is Dangerous to Lean Out, a project with British saxophonist Alan Wilkinson, came out on cassette via Monofonus Press in 2016. Talibam! returned to ESP-Disk in 2017 with two markedly contrasting albums. Endgame of the Anthropocene, constructed almost wholly on analog synthesizers, formed a science-fiction concept piece centered on the struggle for Antarctic resources in 2048. The companion release, Hard Vibe, presented a trance-like avant-rock/jazz session featuring Battle Trance’s Matt Nelson and Mostly Other People’s Ron Stabinsky.
Albums
Endgame of the Anthropocene
2017
Puff Up the Volume
2012
Peesseye & Talibam!
2010
Boogie in the Breeze Blocks
2009
Singles
