Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Pérez - Mama Killa

Angry Metal Guy 70

By: Nameless_N00b_601

The more experimental a piece of music is, the harder it must work to ground its artistic expression in an emotional or compositional core. Dazzling displays of aural innovation or sonic provocation still need a conceptual throughline—something for even the most open-minded listener to latch onto. As a fan of more “challenging” styles, I find there’s a fine line between music that feels like “artistic expression for its own sake” and music that offers “engaging tunes I actually want to listen to.” Mama Killa is the debut improvisational collaborative album from a trio with an impressive musical pedigree, consisting of guitarist Ava Mendoza (Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, Unnatural Ways), violinist Gabby Fluke-Mogul (Zoh Amba, Ivo Perelman, William Parker), and drummer Carolina Pérez (Hypoxia, Castrator). Named after the Incan goddess of the moon, the album promises “eight tracks of high-volume, riff-based guitar-violin improvisation bolstered by thunderous drumming.” Can this newly formed power trio avoid the common pitfalls of experimental music and deliver over 50 minutes of compelling, instrumental free jazz?

Mama Killa by Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Pérez

Mama Killa offers a set of compositions that resist easy classification. While “free jazz” is likely the closest label, the sound here is a novel fusion of dissonant aesthetics, ambient impulses, Afro-Latin grooves, and avant-garde metal. I’d point to John Zorn’s more metal-focused offerings, or the most recent Mamaleek albums as potential antecedents, but Mama Killa truly sounds like nothing else. Each player draws from their unique background to craft performances that exist at a stylistic crossroads. Mendoza’s guitar work ranges from off-kilter psychedelic blues riffs, effects-heavy noise, and introspective drone, punctuated by ethereal, tremolo-picked leads. Her ingenuity is matched by Fluke-Mogul, whose violin playing is both versatile and unpredictable. She uses an array of techniques and effects pedals to summon everything from shrieking wails to rhythmic plucking and somber melodies. Pérez, meanwhile, brings her death metal roots to the drum kit, incorporating double bass gallops and anchoring the string players with a solid, rock-oriented foundation. While her style may lack the finesse and tight precision of a traditional jazz drummer, her command of dynamics, fluidity, and aggression elevate the string pyrotechnics of her bandmates.

The album and its track list are held together by a close attention to dynamics, allowing the listener to distinguish peaks from valleys in what might otherwise feel like formless terrain. High-intensity, riff-driven tracks like raucous opener “Puma Punku,” the black metal-tinged “We Will Be Millions” and the krautrock-inspired “Nowhere but Here” are spaced out by slower, more contemplative pieces that highlight different elements of the trio’s artistry. “Trichocereus Pachanoi” places Pérez in the spotlight with an undulating drum solo that eventually gives way to Sunn O)))-like waves of guitar drone—a motif expanded in the tense and unsettling “Mama Huaco.” Meanwhile, “Partera Party” centers Fluke-Mogul, who begins with a sparse, exhilarating violin solo before easing into an almost playful groove once the drums enter. This sense of contrast lends Mama Killa a strong pacing. Whenever the trio’s intensity hits a peak, it is soon tempered by several minutes of minimalist reflection. While some of the quieter moments occasionally linger a bit too long, the album overall offers a surprisingly well-balanced listening experience, especially for a genre so rooted in unpredictability.

It helps that Mama Killa features a raw, no-frills production style that not only highlights its careful use of dynamics but also brings sonic clarity to its adventurous performances. Legendary engineer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Swans, Boredoms) captures everything from the subtle hiss of Mendosa’s amps to the soft timbre of Pérez’s cymbal wash, placing the listener firmly in the room without relying on studio tricks that might dilute the emotion of these pieces. This allows the gorgeous violin melody of “Amazing Graces” and the slow-burn, post-rock build of the closer “Mama Coco” to truly resonate. Unfortunately, the production does highlight a somewhat weak vocal performance on 2 tracks (“Puma Punku” and “Nowhere but Here”), where improvised blackened yelps appear to distract from the stellar instrumental parts. This is ultimately a small complaint, but it does detract slightly from an otherwise impressive work.

Mama Killa is an exciting debut that manages to both chart new sonic territory and entertain while doing so. It certainly stands as a challenging work which listeners might not be keen to partake in regularly, but for those willing to embark, Mama Killa offers a unique and varied work of experimental music with a sly thematic core. It’s an album where each contributor’s artistic voice is clearly discernible, and their cohesion elevates this collection of improvised music beyond typical genre pitfalls. If the trio finds time amid their busy musical schedules to release another project, it will be exciting to see how they might further develop an already compelling formula.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: Lossless
Label: Burning Ambulance Music
Website: mendozaflukemogulperez.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: July 11th, 2025

The post Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Pérez – Mama Killa Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

The Free Jazz Collective 0

By Ferruccio Martinotti

For the love of Ava. No better way to salute the new album from Ava Mendoza than paraphrasing the immortal Jeffrey Lee Pierce and his “For the love of Ivy,” penned as homage to Poison Ivy Rorschach, the mighty Cramps’ Guitar Majesty. If you’re a wandering pilgrim on the forum’s treks, you should be pretty aware of such an irrepressible and indispensable musician Ms. Mendoza is: from Bill Orcutt to Matana Roberts, from Negativland to William Parker, from Violent Femmes to Nate Wooley and many others, her six strings accompanied and enriched a wide spectrum of sounds. An amazing hyper modern player that, at the same time, could be easily imagined in the Flesheaters line-up or jamming with Kid Congo Powers, just to stay in the early 80s Los Angeles scene. 

As it was said in the Watergate affair “Follow the money”, let’s say now “Follow the Fender Jazzmaster,” we won’t go wrong. And we were not wrong with Mama Killa, her brand new project that sees Mendoza sharing the duties, on a perfectly mutual collaboration (let’s give credit where credit is due) along with two outstanding partners: violinist gabby fluke-mogul, with whom she played as AM/FM, and drummer Carolina Perez. Gabby is a Brooklyn based composer, educator and organizer who, among others, played with Fred Frith, Luke Stewart, Tcheser Holmes, Dave Rempis, Nate Wooley, Lester St. Louis. William Parker and Pauline Oliveros; “she curates concerts and workshop, programming, fostering non-profit partnership and supporting diverse voices in the continuum of creative music,” official bio notes say. 

Musical engagement and social commitment: chapeau, Gabby, we say. Carolina, born in Columbia but New York based, brings to the project not only a peculiar South American flavor but, above all, a massive transfusion of beautifully malevolent metal blood, thanks to her attendance in a couple of death metal bands (Hypoxia and Castrator, nomen omen…) where her fast double bass skills and fast blast are a trademark. Buddy Rich, Mickey Dee and Lars Ulrich the declared influences. We became aware of Mama Killa, the name of the Andean goddess of the moon, when, at the end of May, we had the chance to listen, as a previe to “We will be millions”, dropped on the forum as Sunday morning solace (thank you, Paul). In a few seconds, a quiet, late spring pond turned into the Indian Ocean’s roaring 40s with 100 knots winds, when a mega wave of noise and feedback capsized our boat. Whaddafuck…we just left Ava playing “Irene, goodnight” some months ago and now this monster hardcore, sludge, grind blast??? Oh yesss and this was just a song, figure out the album, freshly issued by the not-enough-blessed Burning Ambulance. 

Something that, after zillions of listenings, never stops leaving us stunned and off guard is when different musicians’ backgrounds, experiences and sensibilities melt down together, keeping their own identity but at the same time able to generate something totally new: call it labour of genius. It’s exactly what happens with Mama Killa. You could surely recognize the recipe’s ingredients: Slayer and Pantera’s feral assault, Down’s swampy, sick atmosphere, drones’ twisters, blues, psychedelia, folk, free noise but as soon as you believe to be able to target one, the waves drag you elsewhere. Should you maybe think about Painkiller, you wouldn’t be totally off the tracks, we were smelling it at the very beginning but after some rotations we could affirm that here we have a sort of more tribal, even voodoo (if you allow it us) nuances, representing one of the key fascinations of the record, while Zorn’s combo is driving the listeners to urban, electro-dystopian, post apocalypse landscapes. The work of Wolf Eyes with Anthony Braxton or “Boris meets Sunn O)))” could give you a clue as well but perhaps a title like “Trichocereus Pachanoi”, scientific name of Cactus San Pedro, the one containing mescalina, used in Peru during religious ceremonies by the ancient Chavin culture, says finally all about this record: a primordial, psychotrope, sonic journey. Get a ticket!