Bloody Ear Candy

Not since, well, ever, has a band like San Diego-based quintet Upsilon Acrux seamlessly married the spontaneity and energy of freeform jazz with the abstract and angular rhythms of progressive rock.

Often described as “brutal prog,” the group jams in a style that is both spontaneous and tightly composed. (Think if Albert Ayler’s conflagrant New York Eye and Ear Control was fused with any number of King Crimson’s signature prog-rocky tunes.) The ensemble -- which features Paul Lai’s and David Moeggenberg’s teeth-shattering guitar-shredding, moody Moog synthesizer-comping by Phil Cobb, octopus-armed drumming by Chris Meszler, and Marty Sataman’s outerplanetary bass licks -- plays in an uncompromising style that awes and challenges. With five albums to its credit, including the recently released Galapagos Momentum (Cuneiform Records), Upsilon doesn't necessarily create music that will make your ears bleed, but witnessing one of its gigs is definitely the best sonic workout you’ll have in a long time.