Crying Laughing's 'Talking' Is a Sweat-Soaked Masterpiece of One-Day Recording
Crying Laughing formed in 2024 around saxophonist Christian Best and drummer Jen Kirby, whose partnership in Smoke Bellow gave the project its spine. Talking, out on Hausu Mountain on tape, CD and digital, is the Baltimore quintet’s debut, and the headline fact about it is also the reason it works: the whole thing was recorded in a single day at a basement studio outside Baltimore, each take tracked live, with Chris Freeland engineering.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Marc Miller’s bass is the load-bearing wall here — Stereogum singled out the record’s balance of “rumbling bass, pounding rhythm, celestial keyboards, and honking sax,” and that order is about right. Freeland keeps the bass dry and close, so it functions as a second drummer rather than a cushion. The Spatial Dynamics: With Best and Rose Hammer Burt both on saxophone, the mix has to make two similar voices legible at once, and it does it by geography: the horns sit wide, Steve Strohmeier’s keyboards fill the vertical space above them, and Kirby’s kit stays dead center where a live take belongs. Nothing is comped into a shape it didn’t arrive in.
Standout Performance
Kirby. Aquarium Drunkard heard “percussion that channels the snap and bounce of New Orleans rhythms,” which is exactly the trick — she plays these tunes like second-line parade music that keeps wandering into post-rock, and the band follows her every time.
Why It’s Certified
“Toppled Column” and “Bass Alarm” set the terms, “Crocodopolis Theme” and closer “Geese Six” cash them in. Stereogum called the band’s mix of jazz and post-rock “intoxicating,” and Aquarium Drunkard heard “necessary and emphatic instrumental anthems.” Both are right, and both undersell the simplest pleasure on offer: five people, one day, no second-guessing. Certified great.