Safe & Sane by Jim Sauter & Kid Millions

Outrageous. Rabid. Explosive. #WTF? Whatever words you throw at Borbetomagus saxophonist Jim Sauter and Oneida / Man Forever drummer Kid Millions, they’ll chomp ‘em up and respond with a gargantuan roar to erase all notions of what a horn and skins can do.

The duo’s prior albums were built of tightly, clustered bursts and barbed assaults. On Safe & Sane, Sauter and Millions eschew brevity for ultra-endurance. The opening “Chrysanthemum,” clocks in at 32 minutes and continues on Side B before a final 12-minute avalanche that is “Falling Spider.”

Sauter’s blowhole is jacked straight into a battery of electronics and amplification. He summons the reedy, shifting drones of the hurdy-gurdy or Hendrix’s scree, and spits forth monstrous overtones. Those sheets-of-sound Coltrane chased after -- it’s here.

Millions doesn’t even attempt to nail down the flow. He’s egging it on with rapid rolls and polyrhythmic propulsion that smears the line of fire/energy music -- think classics like Black Beings -- and primitive punk fury. At times, it’s as if Millions is outrunning Sauter’s tornado of multi-channel horns but he never gets sucked in. Rather, he pounds holes and slices cracks across the landscape for the reed streams to slip inside.

Safe & Sane is the first split release between Astral Spirits and Family Vineyard -- each previously issued Sauter/Millions albums: Bloom (2015) and Fountain (2014), respectively. The LP comes dressed in fab Dan Schechter cover art in an edition of 500 copies worldwide.

Kid Millions a.k.a. John Colpitts, perhaps better known as the drummer for Oneida, has also recorded several drums-only records as Man Forever. Jim Sauter plays his sax amplified, with effects, and thus can often come on somewhat like a guitarist, though there's no mistaking his sound. If you've heard Borbetomagus As a duo with no over-arching structures to contend with, they let fly.