wondercaprecords

DJ Bonebrake
The Other Outside

It's funny, the tricks some old rockers have up their sleeves. Bonebrake, the engine behind first-gen L.A. punks X, has traded in his drum kit for the evocative sound of the vibraphone and reimagined himself as a kind of new school jazzbo.
Backed by the lean rhythms of Danny Frankel on drums and Paul Eckman on upright bass, Bonebrake acquits himself nicely across nine moody, riff-based compositions. While he doesn't display the dexterity or harmonic sophistication of a jazz veteran, he has managed to shape an album's worth of unexpectedly intriguing music. Certain moments here conjure the essence of exotica,
while other tracks seem to be in search of guest vocals from Tom Waits. By the time the disc drifts into the penultimate piece, "Abstract," with its appropriately off-kilter rhythms and assonant clusters, you know Bonebrake's not just goofing. It's jazz, all right, but in a whole new bag.