Albatre, Descent into the Maelstrom

Today, another volume in the adventurous Shh Puma series of avant recordings overseen and manufactured by the makers of Clean Feed. It's a good one. The trio at work on this program is Albatre. The disk is entitled A Descent into the Maelstrom (shh puma 005).

Albatre is a rather explosive grouping of Hugo Costa on alto sax and loops, Goncalo Almeida on electric bass and effects, and Philipp Ernsting, drums and electronics.

This is out, very edgy music with a pronounced electricity. It has the power of avant metal though it isn't quite that. It is highly energized avant free jazz-rock on the fringes. Hugo Costa warbles, screeches and blasts his way through walls on the alto. Goncalo Almeida hits the bass full-force and gets the power of hard and furious playing with the judicious aid of effects. Sometimes he sounds very guitar-metal like, sometimes it is a bracing set of low-frequency barrages, but it's good. And Phillip Ernsting hits the drums on all-fours, bashing, thrashing and weaving in and out of time. He also provides washes of electronics which add to the tumult.

Now I know there are some that might not appreciate this music. But hey, some of what I cover is not for the unwary, and so this fits right in with those sorts of recordings. It does it excellently, flat-out, with no attempts at commercial amelioration whatsoever. A first-rate avant blow-out! Recommended if you dig the interface between free jazz and metal thrash. Yeah!