It’s a shame Roy Powell (keys), Graham Haynes (trumpet, FX), Lorenzo Feliciati (bass, FX) and Pat Mastelotto (drums, FX) are prevented from playing together more often by their respective day job bands.
When this quartet pool their individual talents, they emit a wild, tempestuous noise, a highly original mix of jazz, rock and plain old explosive musicality. Starting with a distinctive take on the ground initially broken by Miles Davis in the 70s, they decisively establish their own prog-infused identity through a sequence of (mostly) short pieces whose punchy boldness concentrates your attention. Haynes’ mercurial cornet blowing and Powell’s rapturous keyboard excursions occur within quicksilver shifts in rhythm and texture, ploughing forwards with a tumultuous roar across much of the album. However, Naked Truth have the confidence to let go of the high-octane stuff and, in the final third, explore something more poetic and impressionistic (Day Two At Bedlam, Moon At Noon). With shape-shifting amalgams of shimmering, heat-haze strings, inchoate wisps of electronica and blossoming melody, it’s an understated but intrepid climax to their most accessible release to date.
