MUSIC > Weapons of Jazz Destruction - Tyondai Braxton 'Battles' at warp speed

EARPLUG.CC: Somewhere between a juggler and a shaman, Tyondai Braxton performs amidst a bed of pedals and cables, alternately intoning into a microphone, hammering away at his guitar, and working the effects with any limbs still available. The overall impression is one of a practiced ritual, with stern melodies slowly but surely emerging from a murky undercurrent of precisely constructed loops. "Though I consider what I do to be fully composed," Braxton explains, "I can understand why people would think a lot of it is improvised."

Braxton certainly takes cues from free jazz and noise, but his performances firmly position him as the conductor of an ensemble of machines. A Connecticut native who now lives in New York City, he has been accruing praise since the release of 2002's History That Has No Effect. In that time, he has collaborated with a range of musicians, from Elliot Sharp and Prefuse 73 to Glenn Branca, and performed with Thurston Moore, Oval, and Black Dice. Earlier this month, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council commissioned Braxton for a two-night multimedia performance called "Memory Remember Me."