Rent Romus | The Lords of Outland | You can sleep when you’re dead | Edgetone Records

The Lords of Outland present their latest black metal deth jazz sequel to Culture of Pain. In this day, this dawn, when privacy rapidly begins to dwindle…where the difference between inside and outside of one’s head or one’s house or one’s inbox are growing more blurred….we find ourselves in new territory, a no man’s land where everyone has fifteen hours of fame, whether they know it or not. There is no choice anymore in what is open to the electronic voyeur. The eyes of the world are upon us and we are all stripped naked on the internet, over the phone, in our email and in our very thoughts. Nothing is hidden from the watchful eyes of the ‘gods’. We are on display for their amusement. However, as the watcher watches so too do we watch him. So too do we indulge in voyeuristic fashion, in the analysis of his behavior. He is the wolf to our sheep, but we are the hunter to his wolf, and as the spiral turns so to the watcher and the watched become one in a dance, the pull eternal, between fascism and freedom. Continue reading

Jazz on the Line | No Boundaries | Edgetone Records

This is the first CD recording of the band founded by a then young Rent Romus called Jazz on the Line released in 1991. This genre founding album featured a cross section of jazz with hints of pre-acid jazz that became the fad hitting the west coast during the mid-nineties. It featured Rent Romus during his college years at UC Santa Cruz as well as Jason Olaine who went on to become the driving force behind the success that is Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland California, Ben Leinbach who worked with artists such as Jai Utal and pianist and now doctorate and author Stefano Dezerega. This was also the debut recording for vocalist Anna Gurski. Continue reading

Rent Romus’ Lords of Outland | You’ll Never Be The Same! | Edgetone Records

This raw, gut level, on the edge recording places the listener smack dab in the middle of Blondie’s Jazz Bar in San Francisco on a cold night in February 1995. YOU’LL NEVER BE THE SAME is a musical journey combining a prima sense of groove and improvisation with Romus’ “X” generation angst. This seven-cut release pushes the envelope with Romus’ original compositions, which follows a gut level groove, and then builds upon that structure with free form improvisation. The music takes the attitude of the grunge music movement, and incorporates it into an acoustic, improvised setting. Through this concept of strange bedfellows the music appeals to the hard core jazz fan as well as the alternative music fan.

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Guinea Pig | Out of Town | Edgetone Records

This rare recording thought to be lost was presented live from the Hotel Utah in San Francisco. The group was specifically formed for this performance presented by the late great Dark Circle Lounge Series in the mid ninties. Now the band has reformed and is armed and dangerous with their first release, Out of Town, mixing free form noise, jazz, and grunge funk beats. Continue reading

Rent Romus | Lords of Outland | Culture of Pain | Edgetone Records

Rent Romus’ long awaited release since 2000 with his ever changing group collective The Lords of Outland, crosses over the boundries of jazz and improvisation infusing noise, free thematic creation, and dismayed sonic expression on the state of the ‘union’, and its self-proclaimed iron fisted mighty hand of destruction and power as a means to world diplomacy and control. Continue reading

C.O.M.A. | COMA | California Outside Music Associates | Edgetone Records

C.O.M.A. California Outside Music Associates inspired by the influences of Ornette Coleman and world music, blend sound creating a free expressive music. Originating from backgrounds in music education and performance, their styles have ranged from classical to modern rock and everything in between. Dax Compise and Brian Clark are both graduates of the Conservatory at the University of the Pacific (UOP), and John Vaughn has a bachelors and masters degree in music as well as a long history of working the east coast and mid-west jazz scenes. Their debut CD on Edgetone features original composition featuring their unique explorations and solid music traditions. Continue reading

Rent Romus | Steven Baker | Thollem McDonas | Jon Brumit | Bloom | Edgetone Records

Bloom a spirited and colossal collaboration between pianist Thollem Mcdonas, multi-saxophonist and electronician Rent Romus also featuring guests performers instrument builder Steven Baker, and drummer and found-object player Jon Brumit. The CD features free group improvisations as well as interpretations of numerous textual and graphical scores offered up by Mcdonas and Brumit. The entire album is an organic construction and expression of solos, duos, and trios combining disparate and divergent stylistic histories with a sense of refreshing immediacy, intensity, and spontaneous inventiveness. Continue reading

John Tchicai with Rent Romus’ Lords of Outland | Adapt… or Die! | Edgetone Records

Rent Romus extends his ethos “to continually be on the path for something new” with the self-explanatory Adapt… or Die!. This recording revamps the Lords of Outland insto a more deviant configuration joined by drummer Dave Mihaly and sousaphonist Jon Birdsong. This project is also blessed with the immense presence of master tenor saxist John Tchicai. The shift in instrumentation provides a punchier, more expansive format for Romus’ self-proclaimed “Nordic Viking Jazz” or “Bull in China Shop” attitude toward improv. With a post-grunge audacity, Romus kicks solos that he says come “straight from the groin” — all of which bodes well for this sonic explorer. Continue reading