Incommunicado

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This one's taken some time to seep through to the pages of motion (the subsequent album to this has already been admirably reviewed by Stephen Fruitman), but that's somehow appropriate as it's a record that gives up its pleasures gradually. The Kollektief (on this recording at least) inhabit a much darker soundworld than labelmates Tied & Ticked Trio's airy electro-jazz constructions. Guitarist Thomas Weber has written a bunch of skeletal themes around which a sextet of guitar, sax, violin, synthesizer, bass and drums improvise fairly freely. Despite the Kollektief's claim that this music is 'mutated jazz as a literally taken form of drum and bass', there's not much here that supports that statement (vague though it is to say the least), though the opening 'Nachtwach' with its insistent Cecil Mcbee style bass ostinato, Dolphyesque alto smears and occasional eruptions into Brötzmann type hysteria sets things up nicely. There's a lot of drone supplied by Weber, violinist Heike Wendelin and Anne Vortisch's synth, at times akin to anything that Tony Conrad or Arnold Dreyblatt might conjure up, but tinged with an improvisor's sensibility (ie they stop occasionally). Again, the old improv quality control test of 'can you tell who's doing what' is passed with flying colours as the violin, synth, guitar and saxophone merge into one voice. The twelve minutes of 'Gras' are pretty exquisite, a gradual comedown from a skewed, asymmetrical post rock groove through frenetic free improv into a slo-mo droneworld of hammered bass, violin harmonics and saxophone flutterings, while 'Kissen' comes across like 'Live at the Crypt' era AMM remixed by Kraftwerk. The only non Weber composed piece is Robert Wyatt's 'Venti Latir' which doesn't really go anywhere much; the band sound constricted by its repetitive though lovely chord sequence. The closing 'Holler' is marvellous; a ridiculously violent assault on (I think) a double bass which unfortunately fades out after just 43 seconds - maybe the bow caught fire or somebody called the police. It's all the more shocking as the rest of the music on the album maintains almost an air of impassivity, even at its most intense and frenetic. Whatever, it's an admirably short statement (as is the disc in total - just over half an hour) and rounds off what is an often stark, intriguing record that bears repeated listenings.