Big In Japan functions as not just a side project or offshoot of the long-running Baltimore quintet Lake Trout, but as effectively a subset of it — all three of Big In Japan’s members also play in Lake Trout, and even the two musicians in the latter who aren’t members of the former have sat in with Big In Japan during live shows. Still, Big In Japan have now been doing their thing, with on-again off-again live residencies full of low key improvised grooves, for over a decade themselves, and have grown into a distinct entity. While Lake Trout focused more and more on song-based studio creations, Big In Japan remained exclusively a live concern, only issuing live recordings as albums.

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Live At 8×10 2009 was released for free by The Biggest Label Ever, the same website that issued Lake Trout’s recent live album. With numerous improvised pieces edited down into a handful of untitled tracks, the structure is identical to Big In Japan’s debut release, 2001’s Goodlove Sessions Vol. 1, but the formal similarities highlight the differences in content. Big In Japan may still be playing at the 8×10, the Federal Hill club that’s been their stomping grounds since the ’90s, but musically they’ve continued to develop and diversify their sound away from the jazzy flute riffs and drum’n'bass rhythms that used to be their signature.

“Untitled 05” is the record’s real gem, with a busy but restrained rim-tapping rhythm foregrounding some evil synth bass and spooky, ethereal vocals. On the flipside, though, “Untitled 06” is vintage Big In Japan, with the bass guitar thumping out relaxed whole notes over a tight, funky beat and a repetitive synth pattern. Still, Live At 8×10 2009 sometimes feels a little too edited down at only 33-minutes, and some tracks, like “Untitled 03,” which starts out with the album’s most raucous noise but quickly peters out, feel like they’ve been cut too short. They do get credit, however, for leaving you wanting more, and “Untitled 07” ends the set on an offbeat note, with what sounds like a harmonica solo, albeit one run through enough delay and distortion effects to make it all sound thoroughly Big In Japan.