Went to a crazy show once down at the Fineline downtown Minneapolis. Headliner was Fantômas, a heavy rock supergroup, quite fun if not the answer to all my prayers.

But the night lives on because of the opening act, a jazz-metal three-piece by the name of Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant. They played completely vocal-free music of the most ugly, splintered variety I think I'd ever believed possible.

Three musicians: Trevor Dunn (best known as bassist for Mr. Bungle) played an upright bass. There was an effortless, lithe drummer named Ches Smith.

...and one of the most impressive guitarists I've ever witnessed in the flesh, Mary Halverson.

I quickly bought their album after the show. But I can say confidently that you had to really watch them perform this madness to appreciate the poise and intentionality of it. The recordings do not convey the agile physicality of it. Mary Halverson, especially, fully navigated the fretboard in a way that was almost disrespectful of the instrument as it is traditionally played but undeniable in its mastery. Things that seem like clicks and nicks on the recording, know that Mary is reaching for those sounds within a two-handed hail of simultaneous processes.

Listen to this one track, the way it builds on its central pulse, escalating and then regrouping, repeatedly finding its footing in this pattern. It's certainly metal-type music but also a sabotaging of metal-type music. Nearly five minutes in, the song hits ostensibly a rocking climax, and even this moment is littered with incongruous harmony and drumming that intentionally falls fractions shy all around the beat.

It is my love of ugly and heavy sound imagination incarnate.