Cactus Truck

Based in Amsterdam, the blistering improvisational trio unites bassist/guitarist Jasper Stadhouders, drummer Onno Govaert, and American-born saxophonist John Dikeman. Their music delivers an unrelenting, high-octane strain of free jazz shaped most powerfully by the ferocious peaks of Albert Ayler and Peter Brötzmann while also weaving in strands of Delta blues, Japanese noise, and no wave. The group issued its own self-titled CD-R in 2011, then released the 2012 cassette Macho Sex, which includes a guest appearance by Terrie Ex of the Ex. Their debut official full-length, Brand New for China!, appeared on Public Eyesore in March 2012. From late October through mid-December that same year, Cactus Truck undertook a grueling 37-date American trek that began with a run up the East Coast from Atlanta to Boston, continued across the Midwest and West, descended the West Coast from Seattle to Los Angeles, and concluded with three final shows in New York City. Material captured during those performances—at Squidco Records in Wilmington, Delaware alongside trombonist Jeb Bishop; at Astro Black Records in Louisville, Kentucky; and at the closing concert at JACK in N.Y.C. with the late Roy Campbell on trumpet—surfaced as the March 2013 album Live in USA on the band’s own Tractata imprint in partnership with the eh? label. The explosive unit returned in 2014 with Seizures Palace, issued jointly by Not Two and Tractata and titled for Jason LaFarge’s Brooklyn studio where the sessions took place. Liner-note writer Sybren Renema noted that the tracks were laid down past midnight on 12 December 2012, right after the 36th date of the prior year’s U.S. tour, “after consuming enough coffee and whiskey to reboot the musicians’ weary minds.”