We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

In Extremis

by Thinking Plague

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    This album includes a digital booklet.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

1.
Dead Silence 04:02
2.
3.
4.
5.
Maelstrom 03:34
6.
The Aesthete 04:38
7.
Kingdom Come 13:44

about

Founded in 1982 by Mike Johnson and the legendary Bob Drake, they have been a continuous presence in the underground since then, although many years have elapsed between recordings, and only Johnson remains from the original line-up.

When a band has gone 9 years between releases, I suppose it's fair to call this new release "greatly anticipated"! In Extremis includes leader/composer Mike Johnson, Bob Drake, Dave Kerman as well as a host of new names, all of whom turn in tremendous performances on vocals, guitars, multiple reeds, accordion, keyboards, bass, drums and more. Tuneful, well composed & strongly structured, this is very much in the vanguard of the RIO art-rock song style, along with peers such as U Totem, the 5uu's & the Art Bears.

“Rating: Aces/ hands down classic / Head-spinningly complex prog-rock of the highest order.
Among the vanguard of groups riding the crest of a largely unheralded contemporary avant-progressive tsunami, Denver’s Thinking Plague stand out in bas-relief....the manner in which Thinking Plague…have condensed only the most fertile (and often the most pulverizing) aspect of he last 30 years of progressive exploration into an nth-degree endgame is nothing short of awe-inspiring. On In Extremis… these unsung geniuses have channeled the crushing fury of King Crimson, the existential angst of the Art Bears, the dense contrapuntal irregularity of Henry Cow and the pitch-black angularity of Present into a disquieting concoction whose ceaseless paroxysms of unabated intensity are tempered only by “Les Etudes D’Organism"’s disturbed
diversion into perversely cheerful and structurally perverse circus music.… a relentless tide of head-spinning complexity…wildly shifting plates of sound. …for those who enjoy rising to the challenge…the feverish surfeit of spellbind ideas investigated here are almost without precedent.” - Eric Lumbleau, Alternative Press, v13, #126, Jan 1999

“If this is prog-rock, it’s progressive music with sharp teeth, making serious demands on most listeners.”– Jason Gross and Steve Smith,
“American Contraband: Alternative Rock and American Experimental Music,” New Music Box, Issue 15, v.2 #3, July 2000

credits

released September 8, 1998

Mike Johnson - electric, acoustic, nylon string & 12-string guitars, lap-steel guitar, synthesizer, computer, sequencing
David Kerman - drums, percussion
Mark Harris - soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxes, clarinet, flute, bass clarinet
Deborah Perry - vocals
Dave Willey - bass guitar (on 1, 2, 5, 7), accordion
Shane Holte - piano and synthesizers (on 4, 5, 7), mellotron (7)
Bob Drake - bass guitar (on 3, 4, 5), violin (on 3, 4), voice (on 3) electric guitar, banjo (4)
with
Kirk Jameson - bass guitar ( 7)
Kim Marsh - piano & synthesizers (1, 2)
Sanjay Kumar - synthesizers (3)
Scott Braziel - piano & synthesizers (6)
Mark Fuller - drums (5)
Katie Cox - violins (5)
Mike Fitzmaurice - double bass & erhu (6)
Kirk Benjamin - trombone (4)

Produced and engineered by Mike Johnson and Bob Drake. Recorded 1992-1998.
Mixed by Bob Drake.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Cuneiform Records Washington, D.C.

Cuneiform Records is an independent record label releasing adventurous, boundary-bursting music by artists from around the world.

Founded in 1984.
Based in Washington D.C.

contact / help

Contact Cuneiform Records

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Cuneiform Records recommends:

If you like In Extremis, you may also like: