The Geese at Astra Zeneca
TGAAZ at AZZ
The Geese at Astra Zeneca, abbreviated as "TGAAZ" for apparent copyright reasons, is a collaboration between Rodney Carpenter (of The OT X-TET) and Henry (of Mahatma X/MADDOGG/SCRAN), as well as frequent collaborator Darian Smith. The name might seem odd, but it references a literal gaggle of geese that live, work, and play on the grounds of the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical campus situated just outside the proverbial bastion of boredom that is Wilmington, Delaware. Visible from I-95, Henry would travel weekly between the group's Sweet Chunk HQ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, looking outside his car window to see this regular cast of characters. Rain or shine, they would be there, always seeming to live without a care in the world, completely oblivious to the looming logo of corporate misery they've chosen as their home.
Their first album, "TGAAZ at AZZ," is the product of a single, 3-hour improvised session recorded with one microphone in the living area of their Philadelphia warehouse in the summer of 2022. Afterwards, MALK took this recording and isolated, reworked, and expanded it to create 13 off-kilter experiments. Sitting somewhere between free jazz, instrumental hip-hop, and perhaps some punk, "TGAAZ at AZZ" is a frantic, challenging approach to the intersection of jazz and beat tapes - yet it's spoken with a playful, familiar lexicon.
HONK HONK
