Baczkowski and Padmanabha have been tearing up the improv music scene for a few years now, both together and apart. Baczkowski made a notable appearance on ?The Dim Bulb? with Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano. As a trio they played so heavy they shook the steel girders. But he is no slouch away from that occasional line-up. Laying down the real slop in groups such as the Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit, Hyoloza, along with gigs supporting William Parker and Eddie Gale amongst others, Baczkowski is a force, pure and simple. Padmanabha has been seen and heard in various line-ups with Baczkowski over the years, and in different groupings around NYC, but it is this duo where these two start to boil water. Here we have improvisation, seething with purity. Their date issued by Utech earlier this year starts to show the power of this ?sax and drums? duo. But here, on ?Aqua Machine?, they swing the wrecking ball. Right now they are hot off a giant appearance at Instal 06 and an equally drool-inducing set at Qbico Unite VII, but this slab of dark pink vinyl (like a hookers cheap lipstick!) takes us back a year and change. The sounds on these two sides were recorded over three days of trekking from Western to Central NY, hitting Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.

Baczkowski broadens his palette here, on record at least. Primarily known for his mean baritone playing, that horn is only featured on one of the five cuts here. Two cuts get the tenor treatment while the remaining are fleshed out by tubes like the slide bass clarinet, noseflute and homemade 8-hole clarinet. Yargh! The record opens and closes with a sax-drum duo of the most volatile variety. In between, the drumming becomes percussion and then transcends both drumming and percussion. We hear all matter of bells, skins and some dreamy tabla.

Each time I see or hear these two play together it manages to top the previous time. They truly have an extra-terrestrial level of communication, one that only seems to grow stronger. Padmanabha doesn?t just hold a beat he plays in and around Baczkowski?or Baczkowski plays in and around what Padmanabha is conjuring?Track B1 is a trip, at times sounding like much more than two people playing their insides out?often veering towards maelstrom, only to jump back and prance dreamlike through a fucking meadow?their chemistry is more like magick here. And it roars.

?Aqua Machine? is surely worth the cost and/or the search to obtain it. And the duo of Baczkowski and Padmanabha are greatly worth your attention. They burn bright and show no signs of fading. 9/10 -- Adam Richards (18 December, 2006)