Some albums seem to arrive fully formed; others carry the traces of a long, uncertain journey. Mike Reed’s Sing the Color Blue, the second effort from Separatist Party and the band’s Thrill Jockey debut, belongs to the latter. Recorded across several years, the album brings together Reed, Rob Frye, Cooper Crain, Dan Quinlivan, Marvin Tate, and Ben LaMar Gay in a fascinating meeting of experimental jazz, spoken word, and improvisation.
The record’s greatest strength lies in how naturally its contrasting elements come together. Reed’s drumming gives the music a restless pulse, while Frye’s saxophone, Gay’s cornet, and Crain and Quinlivan’s electronics create a wonderfully unpredictable sonic landscape. Frye, Cain, and Quinlivan are also the experimental psych trio Bitchin Bajas, so their chemistry is already locked in.
The opening track, ‘Closing‘, has a certain rawness, and the ensemble’s live interplay feels almost volatile. Yet the album can just as easily find beauty in restraint. ‘New Angels‘ draws from Tate’s distinctive vocal presence, weaving fragments of language into something poetic and dreamlike. His words feel less like conventional lyrics and more like memories slowly taking shape.
‘Last Night on Earth‘ is another striking moment, carrying an unsettling emotional weight through Tate’s vocal delivery and shifting musical textures. Elsewhere, the arrangement of Conlon Nancarrow’s Study for Player Piano No. 6, here stylised as Nancarrow Study #6, introduces a fascinating abstract rhythmic complexity, while the cover of avant-garde cellist Tristan Honsinger’s ‘Restless in Pieces‘ reflects the ensemble’s willingness to reinterpret rather than reproduce.
What makes Sing the Color Blue particularly compelling is its transformative power. Reed reshapes years of recordings, performances, and lyrical fragments into a cohesive musical statement. Even its title suggests this process: turning color into sound, mood into form, and fragments of lived experience into something new.
Adventurous but not without its emotional core, Sing the Color Blue rewards patience. Give it a proper listen, and its strange, beautiful world begins to reveal itself.
