Viking's Choice: Kid Millions & Jim Sauter, 'Game Jump'

i i

Jim Sauter (left) and Kid Millions, blowin' your ears out. Lisa Corson/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

itoggle caption Lisa Corson/Courtesy of the artist

Jim Sauter (left) and Kid Millions, blowin' your ears out.

Lisa Corson/Courtesy of the artist

In the noise-improv trio Borbetomagus, Jim Sauter hooks bells with Don Dietrich to obliterate any notion you have of the saxophone (sorry, birthday boy Adolphe Sax). In Oneida and Man Forever, Kid Millions is a psychedelic shaman of the drums. In "Game Jump," Sauter issues a brief warning that sounds something like a zombie-infested cruise ship bellowing its final notes before it plummets into a blood-freezing ocean. Then it's on.

Sauter stabs at his feedback-ridden sax while Millions enters a manic headspace with his hydra-armed drum work. But their collective years of experience lock in at key moments — as at 3:05, when Sauter lets out a drawn-out honk and Millions responds with a snare fill that chops it to pieces. This is improvised mayhem, but it seems to grin from ear to ear.

Fountain comes out Dec. 2 on Family Vineyard.