{"id":11177,"date":"2025-08-28T00:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T05:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=11177"},"modified":"2025-08-28T07:00:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T12:00:36","slug":"hyperglyph-chicago-underground-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/hyperglyph-chicago-underground-duo\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanging in the Clouds: A Conversation with Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor on Chicago Underground Duo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is a particular power in the creation that comes out of long-term artistic relationships. While there is an excitement in the novelty of working with new collaborators, often it is within the comfort of the familiar that artists are most able to expand and conquer new realms. It is within this space with a comfortable baseline that artists are generally most ready to present a group that is larger than the sum of its parts. All of that is certainly true with the Chicago Underground Duo. Formed by multi-instrumentalist Rob Mazurek and percussionist Chad Taylor in 1997, the group has spent almost thirty years honing a distinctive voice that often disguises both the group\u2019s small size and its instrumentation. However, that is only part of the story behind the duo’s great eighth duo record, Hyperglyph<\/em> (International Anthem, 2025). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor and Mazurek\u2019s creative connection actually goes back to a whole decade before the Chicago Underground Duo\u2019s formation. At the time, the former was only fifteen years old. In the years since, they have collaborated on countless ensembles of varied sizes – trios, quartets, and even full orchestras – in addition to their duo. Thus, even when there is an eleven-year gap between Chicago Underground Duo recordings – as is the case between Locus<\/em> (Northern Spy, 2014) and Hyperglyph<\/em> – the duo\u2019s communications remain fresh. The two artists continue to maintain and strengthen their quasi-telepathic ability even as their music moves into unpredictable terrain. Their projects away from one another add additional vibrancy as well. In Mazurek\u2019s case, these experiences include his own S\u00e3o Paolo Underground, collaboration with Bill Dixon, and an electric tribute to John Coltrane. For Taylor, they have included projects with jaimie branch, Peter Br\u00f6tzmann, Marc Ribot, and James Brandon Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musically, their path together as a duo remains wide indeed. The freedom of avant-garde communities both in the Windy City and beyond, African rhythms, musique concr\u00e9te, drone, electronic glitchiness, ethereal soundscapes, and hues of jazz-rock fusion hybrids all find a home on Hyperglyph<\/em>, with each flowing seamlessly into the next. Mazurek\u2019s distorted yet powerful horn melody and Taylor\u2019s hypnotic drum-circle-like groove on \u201cClick Song\u201d throw the listener straight into action. The following title track keeps the energy insanely high while diving deeper into electronic textures, chants, and unwieldy keys before becoming so hot it self-destructs. \u201cContents of Your Heavenly Body\u201d conveys a punkish edge with echoey drums and horn, a synthesized bassline, and the lyrics of a disorienting poem. The three-part \u201cEgyptian Suite\u201d is a mystical camel ride through the desert, full of both sparse terrain and rich mirages. It all leads to the closer, “Succulent Amber,\u201d a gorgeous dream-like meditation on kalimba and keyboards that invites silence to enter the room as the artists leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, Hyperglyph<\/em> is a fearless expedition through sound, the kind capable only from two artists who know they can trust each other’s creative impulses wherever they may lead. We sat down with Mazurek and Taylor to discuss their working relationship and the story of Hyperglyph<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: Where did the title Hyperglyph<\/em> come from? It is defined as something that enhances perception in a three-dimensional space. How is this concept reflected in the album? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chad Taylor: Well, we are very particular about our titles. We always have been, all the way back to the first Chicago Underground Duo record. That is true not only about record titles but also song titles. We collaborate to come up with them. Often, our titles come from literature. Or they come from art. Or science. For this particular record, we started bouncing different names and titles off each other, and finally came to hyperglyph. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Rob Mazurek: Yeah, it just came from our research. Researching different titles brought us to the term \u201chyperglyph,\u201d which is not something you will find easily online. It is a very particular thing with a glyph being a symbol. There are so many symbols, points of data, or things that you are confronted with daily. At some point, if you look and deal with this immense amount of material for a time, it becomes its own symbols; in its own thing. I thought that was very reflective of the spirit of the record. But it also represents the spirit of the way Chad and I work in combining disparate elements in our music. And once we had the idea, everything else came into focus. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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