Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine

Stomiidae is a family of deep-sea fish, and each of the CD’s seven tracks is named for a genus of that family. Perhaps cellist Daniel Levin, alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos and guitarist Brandon Seabrook want to assert that they go deep without being too obvious about it? With their needle teeth and trailing whiskers, Stomiidae look pretty terrifying in photographs, but since they’re usually about six inches long and they prefer to live half a mile under the surface, they pose no threat. But they can handle pressure, and there are moments when this music feels like it is busting out at the seams under the influence of some great internal force. Levin is his usual adroit self, and his confident, quicksilver responsiveness exerts a powerful influence on two other musicians whom I associate more with the delivery of knockout punches than the execution of gravity-defying footwork. But the toughness of their instrumental personalities is nonetheless boiled into their playing, as each note and flinty phrase exerts the persuasiveness of a winning argument.