What a Wonderful Death-Metal World

Posted 2010/04/07 17:09:06
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Look out: When Louis Armstrong clears his throat, he’s liable to blow your ears back to the Jazz Age. Actually, the audio comes courtesy of a Slovenian artist calling himself “The Markness.” His real name is Mark Andrajus, and he used to front a band called The The (not THAT The The, another The The entirely) until it thrashed to destruction at the end of 2009. Now The Markness rumbles alone, with a Myspace page proffering tastes of his hearty, dissonant bark — all downloadable for free, because, as the artist says, “that’s just the kind of guy I am.”

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Here The Markness’ guttural gruff is shoved along by talented Los Angeles studio musician Andy Rehfeldt (check out his smooth-jazz roll on Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, or his metal’d-up Lady Gaga. Combine their tag-team rush with Stephanie Wooten’s editing skills and you’ve got a video/music mash-up that gnashes with a grin. This marriage of death-metal and an American standard, once so lovingly growled by one of jazz’s most venerable figures, becomes something akin to diabolical genius. Satchmo brings the thunder!