mike haggith and the din - chaotic symphony

     Recorded live on the floor of the PaperClip Productions studio on 31 July 2013, Chaotic Symphony is the second and final full-length studio album from Mike Haggith And The Din, prior to the group's hiatus and eventual restructuring. As with its predecessor Perpetual Musings, the entirety of this record was tracked live in real time, and heavily improvised. Featuring some of the group's better-known work, Chaotic Symphony is widely regarded as the stronger of the group's two studio albums.

     At the time of the album's recording, Mike Haggith And The Din were becoming increasingly well-known for their extended and largely improvised renditions of Haggith's solo material, and two such tracks became staples of Chaotic Symphony; The Ballad of K2/K3 from his 2012 record Neighborhood Watch, and Analog Palace, which had first debuted in 2009 on his Early Years-era record I Hate My Life And I Want To Die.

     Of interesting note, while the entire record features all three founding members of the group, session artist James Watterworth appears on Flow and Climbing The Vine, as he was in the studio that day practicing on his newly-purchased alto saxophone. The group invited him to join the sessions, and he can be heard sporadically in the background during the extended jam sessions. In addition to a guest musician, the record also features the odd reaction and interjection from non-band members, as the sessions were tracked with a small studio audience in attendance. Occasionally, Haggith's improvised lyrics (most prominently on The Dog) reference those in attendance.

     The order of the album's sessions are largely followed chronologically by its track list, with the band's warm-up jam encompassing the beginning portion of the album. As such, Chaotic Symphony as a whole is a relatively slow burn, meandering through its first five cuts before hitting its stride from the sixth track onward. An effort from a group known predominantly for its avoidance of structure and rehearsal, Chaotic Symphony strongly embodies the spirit of the band, while supplementing any preconceptions with a healthy dose of energetic, entertaining, and at times introspective material. While CD pressings were manufactured and sold, they have since sold out, and this record is currently not available in physical print, and continues to be available for streamed listening only.