The Face of Us, Smiling on Its Own by The Big Fuss Ensemble

Unyielding walls of the damp, smoky basement close in, forming an emotional pressure cooker as tension leaks from every open orifice. Though free jazz frequently draws from a collective creative euphoria, the dark sound of The Face of Us, Smiling on Its Own by The Big Fuss Ensemble builds its emotion in the complete opposite direction. Unlike more structured musical forms that build tension through calculated dynamic shifts or engineered chord progressions, every note, rhythm, and tone on this album transparently reflects the player’s neurosis until a palpable panic fills the air. Even as dynamics slope downwards and chaotic rhythmic patterns taper, the anxious energy in the room still intensifies, drawing us into the musicians’ orbit and dialing up our own discomfort in turn. Though we find no immediate relief, we acquire invaluable company, confirming our anxieties as a normal fact of life and giving us a space to vent, externalizing our tension into the environment as we gradually stabilize internally.