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A>S>H>S, an acronym for Audible Stellar Hypnotic Solutions, is the brainchild of Houston percussionist Jason Williams. The music is a fusion of jazz, electronica, fusion, and funk; the ensemble at it’s core is a sextet which includes Williams, Joseph Berryman on tenor sax, Xavier Gonzalez on congas, bassist Scott Nichols, turntablist Christopher “Berserk” Karl, and Chad Hilger on Fender Rhodes and Moog. The only vocals are samples from such varied sources as National Lampoon’s VACATION to a briefing for an atomic explosion test. A>S>H>S has been around in one configuration or another since 1997, although AUDIBLE STELLAR HYPNOTIC SITUATIONS is its first proper release; the live performances of the group are apparently participatory events, with audience participation somehow integrated into the music, so that no two performances are ever close to being the same, the sound being influenced by the variability of those assembled.

What AUDIBLE STELLAR HYPNOTIC SITUATIONS is not is space age or new age music, though a couple of tracks (“Kleen,” “Corpus Raton”) have a trippy quality to them in spots. More often than not, however, a track that starts off in one place ends up in another; “Corpus Raton” and “Nova,” for example, begin in orbit around C.T.A. - 102 and wind up in the barrio. “Act Fast,” on the other hand, is firmly rooted on Planet Earth, sounding in places as if it was an outtake from Miles Davis’ under-appreciated ON THE CORNER. And “Lost” is infused with an otherworldly hip-hop sensibility is informed as much by Houston street cred as it is by its aerospace business. “Stellar,” as the title might suggest, is a bit more, well, stellar, with Berryman’s sax improvised sax riffs floating over samples of space-to-earth transmissions. “Situation 1” and “Situation 2” come the closest to free form jazz, however. Hilger’s electric keys in a frantic call and response in spots with Berryman’s lines on “1,” while “2” almost brings to mind the days of Weather Report with a more streetwise edge.

I suspect that AUDIBLE STELLAR HYPNOTIC SITUATIONS is not entirely typical of A>S>H>S live performances, but is rather a component of a larger artistic picture. Certainly, however, there is much that is interesting here, and a great deal to be gleaned from repeated listening. This is the perfect disc to slip into the player when everything else begins to sound the same.