A Sonic Reunion: Chicago Underground Duo Returns with “Hyperglyph”

The return of the Chicago Underground Duo after an 11-year hiatus is a significant event in avant-garde music, and their new album, Hyperglyph, finds a perfect home on International Anthem. This Chicago-based label, a consistent champion of forward-thinking sound since 2014, has long been a natural ally for trumpeter Rob Mazurek and drummer Chad Taylor. Both musicians have previously contributed to the label’s innovative catalog, and International Anthem itself carries the torch lit by the jazz and post-rock fusion pioneered by Chicago icons like Tortoise—a recent labelmate—and Mazurek’s own seminal group, Isotope 217.

Hyperglyph immediately announces its presence with “Click Song.” The track builds on a foundation of rolling synth bass and pulsing, trunk-rattling drums, over which Mazurek’s fuzzed-out trumpet blares a bold declaration. From this first moment, the duo reaffirms a decades-deep creative partnership, setting a dynamic and exploratory tone for the entire album.

The title track, “Hyperglyph,” showcases Chad Taylor’s rhythmic mastery. His intricate tom work intertwines with indigenous drums, bells, and layered vocal chants, while Mazurek’s pitch-shifted trumpet echoes the spirit of New Orleans brass bands. The addition of sinuous flutes transports the listener on an immersive, jungle-tripping journey. Throughout the record, Taylor operates with polyrhythmic fury, fully in his element.

The duo’s exploration is global and genre-defying. “Rhythm Cloth” touches upon UK drum and bass, a genre itself rooted in the complex rhythms of West and Southern Africa—a direct influence Taylor cites for the album. “Contents of Your Heavenly Body” finds Taylor navigating the electro-cosmic patterns of artists like Autechre, as Mazurek alternates between horn and spoken word.

A clear guiding star for the album’s aesthetic is the groundbreaking studio experimentation of Miles Davis and producer Teo Macero. This influence is palpable on tracks like “The Gathering,” which begins with a dramatic, dirge-like digital silence before a childlike melody emerges from the decay. The duo utilized International Anthem’s Chicago headquarters as a laboratory for similar sonic collage, with Mazurek even employing the same RMI electric piano featured on Davis’s “Filles de Kilimanjaro”.

The ambitious “Egyptian Suite” forms the album’s three-part centerpiece. “The Architect” weaves North African horn lines through dizzying percussion; “Triangulation” explores darker subconscious edges with Taylor conjuring distorted cries from his cymbals; and “Architectonics” features Taylor at his most ferocious, engaged in a frenzied dialogue with Mazurek’s punctuating trumpet.

The album closes with “Succulent Amber,” a psychedelic and introspective drift that leans more toward the ambient realms of Brian Eno and Harold Budd than fiery free jazz.

With Hyperglyph, Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor have crafted a definitive blueprint. Their eighth studio album is a masterful synthesis—a seamless, potent hybrid of jazz intuition, post-rock texture, and electronic exploration that only a duo with their profound history could achieve.