Who can resist artists who call themselves Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides? The performers in question are a flute and drum improv duo from Lyon, namely Kelly Jones and Pascal Nichols.
Nichols is in the same mould as inspired Free Folk drummers Chris Corsano and Alex Neilsen and together with Jones the sound they make has been dubbed as ‘flute skronk’ and ‘avant-primitivism’ but is actually less abrasive than these labels imply.
There are elements of Japanese minimalism, Krautrock and tribal freakiness in the same league as No Neck Blues Band or Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Pretty great, in other words.
PWHMOBS have been championed by David Keenan of Volcanic Tongue and The Wire magazine which is is fine if you can stand his stoked out style from the Julian Cope school of rock journalism. In pondering whether Punk Jazz might be the best label for the French pair, Keenan writes : “she [Kelly Jones] works revenant echoes of ethnic motifs into the mix without ever falling into the shamen-in-tie-dyed-pyjamas schtick of so many would-be jazz ’mystics”.
As their chosen moniker suggests, Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides ( aTai-Chi move) are not setting out for mass accessibility and they have a thing about wood it seems. A 2009 CD-R was charmingly entitled ‘Anus Carved Into Wood’ and their latest (All Cows Are Sacred) comes in a hand-numbered edition of 123 complete with the disc (in a felt pocket) affixed to a 6″ x 6″ plank.
You can hear the duo with some online digging. Physical copies are, needless to say, harder to come by, but digital versions are floating in Cyberspace. Poisson I found here .
you can get copies of PWHMOBS stuff at rayonrecs.tk