Talking

Baltimore-based quintet Crying Laughing joins the Hausu Mountain family with the release of their debut album Talking. The lineup of longtime participants in Baltimore’s vibrant experimental underground got together in 2024 with a clear vision for their new band: a fusion of saxophone-led polymetric composition in the Reich/Glass/Riley school of minimalism with the energy and groove of post-punk and the rhythmic sensibilities of Moondog’s street recordings; head music as much as body music. With the freewheeling nature of the band members’ omnivorous menu of projects in mind, the laser focus of Crying Laughing’s music, with its meticulously juxtaposed dual saxophone leads and lock-groove rhythm section, might initially come as a surprise. Though Talking highlights precise arrangements and tight transitions ironed out through endless rehearsals, aligning more closely with the songwriting and performance strategies of a new music ensemble instead of a traditional “rock band,” the album’s live-in-the-studio takes sidestep academic pomposity and seek out the surreal and supercharged potential of a group of close friends playing their handmade music in a room together. While Talking shifts from tight polymetric lattices of melody to headbobbing groove passages to broader landscapes of moody and melted harmonies, every atmosphere reflects Crying Laughing’s collaborative compositional mindset. With the live takes captured on Talking as a testament, Crying Laughing has already achieved a collective melding of minds and hands in their relatively short existence as a band - one that can only deepen into who-knows-what forms as they keep exploring sound together.