Written by Pat Moran
Brass Tyrannosaurus is an eight-piece New Orleans brass-based fusion project that sounds far more ethereal than a typical Crescent City brass band. “Paleologic,” the combo’s first single, kicks off with a clatter of drums and percussion that resolves into a faltering steam punk, jazz adjacent grove that pulls the listener on a journey through hovering UFO sound effects and keys that bubble like the La Brea Tar Pits.
Soothing yet bold trumpets stride through a thicket of dulcet keys, until one trumpet peels away for a calmly corkscrewing solo that spills in, free fall. Pulsing trombones surround the soloing trumpet which grows increasingly bewitched and bedazzled, hurtling down a rabbit hole of post rock rhythms and wavering keyboards that suggest the sounds of renegade extraterrestrial objects tumbling end over end.
Echoing trumpets circle back upon themselves, tracing a musical Möbius band without beginning or end. Snatches of grooves and themes emerge from the track’s funk-inflected primordial soup, developing fully before dovetailing and fluttering downward to dissolve into the free jazz firmament.
Then, a not quite cacophonous squadron of instruments swoops downward for a fractured yet oddly satisfying finale.
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