Local! Black Spirituals are the Oakland duo of Zachary James Watkins (guitar, electronics) and Marshall Trammell (percussion). They’ve given several powerful live performances at KZSU. Their improvisation-heavy music contains elements of jazz, noise, rock, and drone metal—it’s no surprise they’ve toured with Earth—but it’s not tied to the idiom of any genre. These two long pieces are full of seemingly free playing that sounds like a cross between Oren Ambarchi and ‘60s avant-jazz. Right now a bunch of East Bay artists are making mind-blowing work by combining their academic backgrounds in electronic music (Watkins has an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, and both members of Black Spirituals teach) with community-based political activism. Watkins and Trammell are at the vanguard. Long may they play.

1. (26:26)—Deep, staticky guitar at start. Free breakbeat drumming. Droning breakdown. Gets relatively quiet at the 11 minute mark, then lumbers back to life. Gets really gorgeous around 15 min. Gains in speed again, gets very noisy. Really nice free drumming coda.
2. (19:54)—Begins with glitchy, sound-installation-esque noise. Rolling toms. The drumming hits a frantic pitch for several minutes, and the guitar crashes in and out for the piece’s duration.