The embryonic moments of this improvised set featured powerful swarming electronic reverberations. Neil Charles subjected his laconic bass-lines to penetrating distortions while tenor saxophonist, Shabaka Hutchings’ languorous meditative phrases were pierced by shards of electronic static. The emotional depth of this sequence was driven by Forbes’ post-bop double time groove which projected an audio-kinetic energy infecting Hutchings’ phrases, themselves developing into sharp refractions off the electronic effects that haunted and provoked this music.

On clarinet, Hutchings engaged in hypnotically repetitive abstract themes that melodically evoked Steve Reich while echoing mid-60’s Coltrane in their execution. Forbes’ ferociously hip rim shots punctuated a driving beat genetically coded with funk, drum and bass, be-bop and electronica. Creating a powerful intensity, this groove fused with Charles’ minimalist, rhythmically cryptic bass-line that glistened with post-bop, rock and drum and bass nuances. The depth, empathy and anticipation were comparable to the Dennis Chambers /Gary Grainger coalition of the early 1990’s, but incorporated subsequent musical developments.

Jason Yarde featured to rousing effect in the second set. Invigorated by subtly pulsating looped bass distortions and stalking mallet work, Yarde on alto saxophone and Hutchings on clarinet built an angular harmonic conceptual edifice which Yarde duly deconstructed in his pursuant solo. His insightful, muscular attack into phrases was conspicuously arresting and demonstrated a cannon of influences from Brecker to Brotzmann.
Ultimately, this is creative expression that can invalidate the ghettoised musical divides imposed by the modern mass media – a true legacy for such defiant contemporary art.             

Review: Joseph Kassman-Tod