Ava Mendoza / gabby fluke-mogul / Carolina Pérez – Mama Killa (2025; Burning Ambulance Music) – Avant Music News

Even on paper, this is such an interesting trio. Ava Mendoza is a brilliant and versatile guitarist who feels comfortable playing heavy rock, blues, jazz, improv, and experimental music. One could say the same about violinist gabby fluke-mogul, though she is centered more in the improv / experimental space. Carolina Pérez, on the other hand is a death metal drummer. Sounds good, right?

Mama Killa is the type of album that you might expect someone like John Zorn to put together. Get a bunch of accomplished musicians together in a room, and unleash them. Indeed, you cannot help but think of Zorn’s Simulacrum (Matt Hollenberg, John Medeski, and Kenny Grohowski) or unrecorded trio Bladerunner (Zorn, BIll Laswell, and Dave Lombardo) when considering what Medoza, fluke-mogul, and Pérez could be capable of.

But from the outset, Mama Killa distinguishes itself with gritty, heavily distorted playing from Mendoza and fluke-mogul, while Pérez exhibits creative restraint (if you can say that about drum lines with double bass pounding). Mendoza offers up her signature bluesy soloing on the more atmospheric passages.

The album truly kicks into high gear with on third track, We Will Be Millions, with a hyperactive opening riff of guitar / violin noise and wailing. In fact, it can take some careful listening to differentiate the playing of Mendoza and fluke-mogul at these moments. Pérez also shows her chops as a relative newcomer to improv, drumming as if she has been part of the New York creative music scene for years. Her “solo” during the first two and a half minutes of Trichocereus Pachanoi shows her ability to rock, but with a destabilized beat and textural accents.

Amazing Graces, in contrast, is almost catchy with a tuneful violin theme. Partera Party goes in a different direction as a showcase for fluke-mogul’s rough edges and grainy textures.

Mama Coca ends the album with 8 minutes of outside improv, extended techniques that slowly evolve into something else. Beginning with a deliberate pace, the trio builds into loosely-structured themes. These linger somewhere between rock and folk until breaking out into a busier and heavily finale – with a generous dose of avant goodness of course.

Mama Killa will be released on July 11 by Burning Ambulance Music. It is already at the top of my list of favorites for 2025.