Sumo Princess
When An Electric Storm
Educational Recordings
Do you ever wonder about the hired guns playing with the stars? Are they really into the music they’re playing or are they just in it for the paycheck? If you’re a gigging, professional musician you take the work when it comes. Abby Travis has played with everyone from Cher to KMFDM to Beck and Spinal Tap. She’s currently the bassist in The Go Go’s. Sumo Princess (with drummer Gene Trautmann), are two session aces letting their imaginations run wild.
Sumo Princess is a bass and drums duo. They make a raw, primal noise. Abby’s bass is fuzzed-out, distorted and feels like an over-caffeinated Black Sabbath. Abby gets to make full use of her three octave vocal range. On songs like “Click Bait,” she takes off for the vocal outer limits touching on iconoclasts like Nina Hagan, Lene Lovich and Klaus Nomi. “Crooked Plough” has overdubbed vocal harmonies to compliment her proggy lead. The instrumental “Angel Dust” is a trippy, instrumental that feels like super stripped down Can.
When An Electric Storm includes five bonus tracks. I’m not sure I really need a fuzzed-out rendition of “Star Spangled Banner.” “Tinsel Man” is has some of Abby’s craziest vocals and the song, “Sumo Princess” is the sort of jazz-metal fusion Greg Ginn did with his band Gone.
I have a feeling that Travis and Trautmann had more fun making When An Electric Storm than I had listening to it.
