You already know three members of this Portuguese band – alto saxophonist Bruno Figueira, guitarist João Clemente and drummer Duarte Fonseca – from Slow is Possible. The other is bassist João Lucas, also born in Portugal but living and working in Holland. His deep and acid bass sound is the axis of everything happening in “Cat in a Bag”. Sometimes it reminds you of the sublow harmonics of Bill Laswell, but in a context not very far from John Zorn’s compositions for rock-oriented power trios. Here and there the mindset of the music take it to the experimental and contemporary classical music fields, in a kind of Kasper Toeplitz garage version. When all the conditions seem reunited for the existence of another jazzcore unit, the quartet put aside punk and metal references and dive in the tradition of progressive and art rock: then the bass guitar seems to assume the heritage of Hugh Hopper, but exchanging the jazz factor in Soft Machine by a blues one and its psychedelia by hard rock configurations. All the rest is spontaneous creativity, the kind you find in free improvised music, yes, but electrical, noisy and full of joy and rage.

Recorded in KellerTone Studio by Peter Kolpakov, 12&13 June 2019 – Berlim | Mixed, Edited and Mastered by João Clemente
Produced by Cat in a Bag | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos