Dosh and Roll

Foscil was so well-suited to open for Dosh that when we showed up at Chop Suey last night we weren’t sure which band was playing---after all, both are bass-heavy, horn-y jazz outfits with lots of electro elements. To this end, Foscil is a local four-piece who have never met a midi trigger they didn’t like. Their music is competent enough, though the amount of muted horns makes them veer dangerously close to smooth jazz territory, and ultimately a lot of their songs end up sounding similar. Like, here’s the atmospheric Latin song, and there’s the atmospheric Parisian accordion song. Don’t get us wrong; Foscil is solid, just not exceptional. You could hear their album and get as much out of the music as you would seeing them perform live…

Which is the exact opposite of Dosh. Drummer/jack of all trades Martin Dosh made a great album last year with about a dozen of his best musical friends from the Twin Cities. But live, it’s just Dosh and Mike Lewis, the two of them building his complex compositions from the ground up, with a lot of samples (some pre-recorded, but most made on the spot) and major use of delay pedals. The music-making is playful and charming, and Dosh and Lewis’ rapport manages to be both professional and cute. As musicians, they are totally on it. With so much delay and other effects pedals being used, it’d be easy for one of them to screw up and have to start a song over, but they were flawless, especially impressive when you consider the instrumentation handled by each: Lewis on a well-worn sax, bass, and a tiny Yamaha keyboard; Dosh on drums and Rhodes organ, also using his drumsticks on the guts of the Rhodes and a baritone glockenspiel (or was that a couple octaves of a vibraphone taken apart and reassembled?). Dosh on the album is really good, but Dosh live is a whole other kinetic experience.

Photos care of Flickr / user right-on.