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Beauty is also present in the music of trumpeter Cuong Vu but on It’s Mostly Residual it is a beauty that comes with a threatening darkness and dramatic shades. The music moves into the territory of art rock and heavy metal, changing between lyrical introspection and mind-blowing walls of noise with guitarist Bill Frisell tearing the structures of the music apart with violent screeches and screams, but also giving samples of his trademark reverb-drenched sound. In the middle of it all is the leader whose ethereal, long-drawn lines lies like mist on a mountain top while occasionally piercing through the wall of sound with crystalline sharpness. There’s an orchestral grandeur about Vu’s compositions that spans the elegiac title number, the apocalyptic mood of “Expressions of a Neurotic Impulse” and the chaotic free funk of “Brittle, Like Twigs” with the driving rhythm of electric bassist Stomu Takeishi and drummer Ted Poor. It’s impressive how the four musicians are able to make so much sound without resorting to the sheer violence of loudness. Instead, the group creates order in chaos and paints on a large canvas of melody and noise with several nuances of grey, black and white, altogether forming an ambitiously conceived circle of compositions.
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