Full House featured David Moss and an array of other experimental musicians attempting to create avantgarde pop tunes through utilizing free improvisation for pop song-lengths. While a reasonably entertaining record, it did not accomplish that mission: instead of avantgarde pop, the pieces felt like brief, often minimalist, experimental sketches. Dense Band, the follow-up to that record, features the same approach as Full House, but it is much more successful. Perhaps this is due to Fred Frith's co-composing the tracks here. At any rate, Moss utilizes more steady rhythms on this one than Full House, allowing the other musicians (including John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, and Wayne Horvitz) room to improvise, and as a result the 'avantgarde pop' sound striven for is more fully realized. The fact that more than two musicians are on each track means the songs are denser and more interesting, too (hence the title). Opener "Stride," featuring Moss' off-the-wall vocal style, is a great example of how avantgarde and pop collide on this release.
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