If one were to explain to the unitiated that noise was a (pretend) reputable genre to work in, there’d be a great  deal of history to relate. But that’s fine. The mental calisthenics required to listen to – and more over create – the most visceral of sounds is probably well beyond a significant portion of the population.

It sounds odd, but it takes years to coax out the right wrong note.

Perseverance in the case of Weasel Walter, though, has paid off. Wrenching noise from a drum kit, or whatever’s actually available to the guy, over the last decade and change has resulted in a bevy of albums under almost as many headings. Perhaps best known for founding the Flying Luttenbachers, Weasel Walter disbanded the group to play in settings that most would refer to as free improve. He doesn’t like that name.

Regardless of what’s it’s called, the interplay between musicians, even if each is working from a proper composition, allows for a great deal of in-the-moment playing and figuring. It would seem that charts function only as scaffolding from which players have the ability to escape from and insert personal glitches and eccentricities.

Issuing music through his own ugEXPLODE imprint, has granted Weasel Walter the ability to control his own output as well as its dissemination. And since no year goes by without at least a few releases, the situation is probably the best realized scenario for a musician work in this mold.

It’d be difficult to properly describe music associated with Weasel Walter – each album and each collaboration varies greatly. Anything from the most relentless, rock based caterwauling to something approximating a jazz band falling down a few flights of stairs might be the result of a recording session.

Depending upon the company he keeps, Weasel Walter can come off as any sort of player. And that’s why he enjoys making music. Certainly, the percussionist has a solid foundation in punk, no wave and free jazz. But only the most interesting mind can find the link between each of those, determine how to render it aurally and construct a career out of doing so.

Moving from Chicago to Oakland and finally to New Yawk has exposed Weasel Walter to a huge number of people (that’s relative for underground stuff). But he hasn’t as of yet achieved the proper level of notoriety such a dispenser of culture deserves. He’s got the rest of his life, though. So we should hear about another hundred albums or so.