Nine Below Zero

The cover image of three craggy icebergs ion Nine Below Zero is both apt and belies the sympathy between these three downtown NYC stalwarts. Before he pivoted to his groundbreaking conductions, Butch Morris’s cornet playing is spare and judicious, a perfect match for the restraint of Horvitz’s keys and Previtte’s drums. Such moments feel hushed and frigid. But the temperatures rise when the group turns to their DX-7 keyboards and Roland drums machines, each player providing weird dots, haywire bleeps, and squiggles to their canvas.