Alasnoaxis

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Jim Black has been (along with Joey Baron) the drummer of choice for the downtown NY jazz contingent, playing most notably with the likes of Ellery Eskelin, Tim Berne and Dave Douglas. For his first solo album he's assembled the ubiquitous Chris Speed on tenor sax and clarinet, electric bassist Skulli Sverisson and guitarist Hilmar Jensson. It's a powerful and occasionally exasperating record which sits more in the tradition of improv rock established in the early 80s by the likes of Curlew while also recalling some of Bill Frisell's rockier outings, though without the feyness that often dogs Frisell's music. Black is a fearsome yet sensitive drummer who mixes equal parts groove and audacity into an irresistible stew, as on the steroid fusion workout 'Nion' where he morphs from Tony Williams hyperdrive into Jaki Leibezeit motorik mode. His compositions (written on guitar) run from almost ECM level introspection to heavy metal post bop and fractious ambient improv, with some occasionally beautiful writing like on the immersive 'backfloatpedal' and the pensive, quietly ecstatic 'Ambacharm'. The more successful tunes seem to subvert themselves - "Melize' starts off as typical post ECM gauzy balladry and slowly flowers into a bruised, fuzzed dronescape of Sonic Youth proportions, while the genial, countrified 'Boombye' is gradually undermined by Black's Drumbo-esque falling down the stairs style fills and frantic cymbal abuses.

The group avoid grandstanding and opt for cohesion; Speed's clarinet recalls Don Byron (particularly his work with Frisell), and for the most part his playing maintains a cool, detached restraint. His tenor work has the same quality (and is reminiscent of Alfred Harth's work with likes of Gestalt et Jive) but seems more focused and rounded, and on the few occasions he lets loose the relief is palpable. Jennsen, who I've not heard before, does the usual Frisellian loopisms and chordal swells which all seem a bit old hat these days but is more interesting when getting noisy. 'Garden Frequency' features swathes of feedback and bleeding, fizzy clipped distortions while "Auk and Dromedary' features a lovely extended free dialogue of skronk 'n screech with Speed. His most interesting work is reserved for the obligatory hidden track at the end, where he lays down a network of bubbling oscillations, squeaks, chordal eruptions and industrial drones over and between Black and Sverisson's insistent groove, and in the process marks himself out as a potentially original new voice on the guitar. Not an easy thing to do these days. Sverisson is solid and restrained to the point of self effacement but on the deeply odd 'Luxuriate' he squashes his sustained chords and atonal plucks into great slabs of sub-bass (watch your speakers on this one - I 'm convinced my house suffered structural damage during my listening sessions), but he can also let rip on occasion, as on the Zorn-esque cut and thrust thrashjazz of 'Poet Staggered', his fast, rippling lines dissecting the beat into microevents. Shame its only 1.17 long. Overall though the album is too long in my estimation and as a result the slightly unforgiving nature of the music can start to irritate, but careful programming of your CD player will yield about 50 minutes of great music. Recommended, and the packaging (as one would expect from Stefan Winter's label) is beautiful.