Conrad, Tony & Jennifer Walshe

***In the Merry Month of May is the final studio recording of the late, great Tony Conrad, and the first duo release with Jennifer Walshe, one of Conrad’s most important collaborators in the final decade of his life. Befitting these two absurdly gifted hell-raisers, this is a wild, improvisatory flaying of song, with Walshe’s clarion voice at the heart of the enterprise. The sheer sonic force of opener “In the Merry Month of May” recalls the ecstatic charge of Conrad’s Slapping Pythagoras. Ramshackle, go-for-broke performances provide gist for your next twelve months of earworms. (Walshe’s vocalisms and mantras born of mundani- ties will dog you; “Day of the Fair” gives “99 Bottles of Beer” a run for its money.) You want comparisons? Why? Conrad’s and Walshe’s prior work are about the only relevant reference points, and even then In the Merry Month of May is a one-of-a-kind concoction whipped up by two fearless and often peerless souls. It’s a joy to hear the two of them, with such manifest mutual regard and commitment to busting a gut.