Adam Hopkins - Crickets (Out of Your Head Records, 2018) ****

By David Menestres

Crickets is the new album from bassist and composer Adam Hopkins and features a sextet with Anna Webber, Ed Rosenberg, Josh Sinton handling various saxophone duties (and bass clarinet), Jonathan Goldberger on guitar, and Devin Gray on drums. Crickets is also the first release from Out of Your Head Records, a new label formed by Hopkins, TJ Huff, and Nick Prevas.

The music dips and dives, cruising down a long highway, taking tight turns at break neck speed. The music grooves on a deep level, congealing into a perfect late season pie, while still maintaining a noisy, thrashing, flaky upper crust. From the opening circular melody of “They Can Swim Backwards but Sometimes Choose Not To” built upon a deadly groove to the distorted madness of “Scissorhands,” the band plays with forceful conviction, shattering ear drums and taking no prisoners.

A solid album, highly recommended, well worth your time. Hopkins joked on Twitter that he named the album Crickets because that’s the response he was expecting to the album. It’s certainly difficult to sell this kind of music to a wider audience and we all know what kind of response this music usually gets in the press, but enough crickets collectively can make a deafening din, so chirp chirp.