Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas emerged from different corners of Chicago’s music scene, but the commonalities between the two ensembles made their collaborations feel inevitable. Joshua Abrams has been a first-call bassist for jazz, postrock, and improvised-music projects since the early 1990s. He first instituted Natural Information Society (NIS) in 2010 as a setting to play trance-inducing music that vibrated sympathetically with his guimbri, a three-string bass lute associated with Gnawa community of Morocco. The NIS lineup expands and shrinks around Abrams and harmonium player Lisa Alvarado (who also creates the group’s striking visual backdrops), but since 2017 the core ensemble has also included drummer Mikel Patrick Avery and bass clarinetist Jason Stein. Bitchin Bajas, aka synth and organ player Cooper Crain, woodwinds player Rob Frye, and electronic musician Daniel Quinlivan, began as a synth-oriented side project of instrumental rock band Cave in 2010. Like NIS, they’re besotted by hypnotic rhythms and rich textures, and the groups first collaborated on 2015’s Automaginary—an example of how two great visions can go great together. Their brand-new second effort, Totality (Drag City), goes further and synthesizes the sounds of NIS and Bitchin Bajas to arrive at a new third thing with a character uniquely its own. Neither group is big on ballads, but that’s exactly what the ultra-lento “Always 9 Seconds Away” evolves into. And while the title track’s interwoven layers of circuit-generated and breath-driven textures will sound familiar to followers of either band, its abandonment of explicitly articulated time in favor of a drifting pace will not. This concert celebrates the release of Totality.
Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas Wed 4/23, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $25, 18+
