Max Jaffe - "Reduction of Man" LP
Limited to 300 copies. Max Jaffe wasn’t planning on creating an album commemorating the decade-plus he spent living in New York City while recording Reduction of Man. Operating as a preemptive elegy, Reduction of Man traces Jaffe’s musical trajectory while in New York City - a process of becoming fluent in several musical languages and cultures all at once, rather than the linear education of an MFA musician (which Jaffe also is). Jaffe’s second “solo” album finds him at the helm of an ensemble - leading the project as he plays: one hand drumming, the other composing and editing on the fly, shepherding multiple musical voices towards a single end - a sinewy tension between noise and groove.As an early adopter of the Sensory Percussion drum set technology, Jaffe has been expanding the drum set into exciting sonic territory. As his artistic practice using SP developed, he began to feel that his relationship with the process had hit a wall. Having previously used the sensor system as a w