On “Blurry Face,” Ari Joshua joins forces with two improvisational heavyweights, John Medeski and Billy Martin, and the three deliver a raw, single-take performance that derives its life force from trust, tension, and fearless interplay. Recorded live at Applehead Studios, the song is preserved in its rawest form, a chance creation of three superlative vocalists meeting and melding as one.
Billy Martin grounds the piece, immersing you in a hypnotic rhythmic loop that seems foreign and futuristic. His drumming here is instinctive, multilayered, never static, always in motion, pushing the groove into unpredictable zones. John Medeski, as always, performs with gleeful abandon, offsetting hard-nosed clavinet riffs with warm, swelling organ tones that careen like a psychedelic storm cloud.
Ari Joshua’s guitar hums in thick, loquacious tones that are edgy, sprawling, and human. Instead of owning the space, his playing engages in conversation, responding, and challenging. There's a sense, distinct, that the trio is more interested in getting something real and unrepeatable than something perfect and dead.
“Blurry Face” became a meditation on presence, risk, and connection. It encapsulates the ethos of musicians who believe in the moment above all, in one another and are not afraid to follow wherever the sound will take them. This is a blast of savage, electric air in a world of overproduction.