The rule of averages dictates that instrumental albums tend to favour subtlety and finesse over sheer volume, but this threesome are having none of it. These seasoned campaigners are capable of playing at the more delicate end of the spectrum, but here they clearly revel in the primordial joy of making a right old racket. Heavy-duty rhythms are the order of the day – locking down the kind of grooves first patented by Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience – then extemporising furiously over the top.
Bill Laswell’s work in 80s prog-punk behemoths Massacre is a key text throughout, the bassist finding a worthy foil in Finnish guitar sorcerer Raoul Björkenheim. Factor in maverick Swedish drummer Morgan Ågren, and you have high-grade sonic mayhem.
Both the corrosive Black Hole and Cinque Roulettes are as forbidding but it’s the more dissonant, leftfield stuff that tends to really hit the mark. Shifting Sands Closing Hour is full of artsy intrigue, its Eastern percussive tics reminiscent of late-period Japan.
And hats in the air for Invisible One, 11-plus minutes of scatty jazz, fusionist rock and a heaving dollop of the downright weird.
