Artist Spotlight: Cousin Fungus (Newsday – Nightbeat)

So you want ultra-tight, complex jamming?  Two words, one group: Cousin Fungus, heir apparent to LI’s improvisational throne since the Tricksters have hit the road.  Many of you knew the Port Washington quartet back when they were Stash, playing ballsy versions of Phish tunes.  Gigging weekly at Huntington’s New York Avenue, this all-original incarnate has honed a stylish, jazzy backbeat (thanks to quad-stringer Tom and the galloping percussion of Chris, two-thirds of the Stanziale brothers) loaded with heady grooves and cosmic rhythms.  Fueled by Dennis Belline’s superb keyboard antics and heated vocals, Fungus leads its listeners down an eclectic path of drunken, blue-watered-beach vibes (“Mad E. Mac is Loose”), bouncing genesis-tales (“Low Tide High”) and Henry Stanziale’s guitar-comping on the Belline-penned instrumental, “Drift.”  These psychedelic monsters are rampaging across the Isle, so catch them before they head west for some major-label blood.  — Ian D’Giff