The Extemporaneous Music Society asks a lot of listeners on its recently released debut album. Not only does the recording clock in at almost two hours, the six selections consist of formidably spiky improvisations. The sounds made by Ben Baker (woodwinds), Seth Andrew Davis (guitars and electronics), Krista Kopper (bass) and Evan Verploegh (drums) are uncompromisingly noisy.
Shifting between interstellar space music, ambient landscapes, craggy free jazz and bracing contemporary classical music, the 26-minute “One” contains several discrete movements. A portion of the 36-minute “Two” resembles a sideways version of last year’s celebrated collaboration between Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders.
Kopper’s analog instrument scrapes against Davis’ electronics on the comparatively concise 11-minute “Four.” As with all of the dense and difficult album, it’s only tangentially related to the conventional notion of Kansas City jazz. EMS Quartet is a robust reminder that the artistic conservatism that’s long stifled regional output can be respectfully disregarded.