Psychotic Paramount is ex-Laddio Bolocko Americans Drew St. Ivany (guitar) and Ben Armostrong (bass) and Japanese Tatsuya Nakatani (drums). They formed the band five days before embarking on a tour in France and Italy where they recorded the live performances to a cassette recorded with one stereo microphone (performances are from Lyon, Paris, Perpignan and Naples). The result is obviously not as hi-fi, and at times it must have been so loud that the tape recorded couldn't quite take it and the result is very saturated, but at least the separation between the instruments is good and you can actually hear most of what every one of them is doing. In spite of all of the poor sound quality, the sonic aggression is perfectly translated onto tape. The trio played their heart out furiously and fiercely and the outcome is intense and powerful, unpredictable and genuine. The sense of "turbulent emergency" they speak of comes at you in the form of a freight train of distorted bass lines, improvised guitar riffs and super intense restless drumming by the amazing Nakatani (you might have heard of him through Brotzmann, Kowald, Vandermark, Masashi Harada, N.R.A., From Between Trio, Blue Collar, Yukijurushi etc) who is now replaced by another great drummer, Jeff Conaway (from Sabers). This CD (originally released as a CD-R on the band's own label Bewilderment and Illumination) comes packaged in a nice black digi-pack and also contains a very well done and interesting quick-time video-diary of the trip that will give you a better idea of how powerful these performances really were. The band has been busy and several new releases are planned for 2006 so try to catch them live and keep an eye and ear out for them...