I also really like Niggli's work with Steamboat Switzerland. I saw them over a year ago at a very poorly attended show in Chicago, and they were amazing, especially Niggli. The SS disc on Unit is a lot of fun, but I've heard less than positive reviews of the newer ones on Grob.
This I don't understand. Both the Budapest and AC/dB cd's on Grob are really extensions of the 1998 cd "Live" on Unit. But Budapest is completely improvised, where "Live" and "AC/dB" use well-thought out, sometimes even modernclassically notated compositions. AC/dB is one of the great Hammondtrio albums of these days. Composed especially for Steamboat Switzerland by Sam Hayden, it explores the possible roles of the old Hammond organ in present-day noisemaking, improvisation and new music. AC/dB is one of the few funky records played from a notated score, "Live", also with heavily written out elements, is a mere pastiche or collage type of thing (of Emerson Lake & Palmer and Medeski, Martin & Wood). The "Budapest" concert recording is cool when you have seen the band live, it's the most abstract outing to date. When other people compose for Steamboat Switzerland, they work in close collaboration. So, in a way, "Budapest" can be seen as a disc full of raw material for composers. Steamboat Switzerland is as much a chamber group as it is an improvising hammond trio, which makes it easy to see why not everybody likes *all* of their records. Regards, Remco Takken